Part of the background to the current Parliament of Navarre includes various demonstrations of institutions which throughout history had a representative character. Precisely the Law of Furtherance, to mention regional government institutions, denominates the parliamentary institution as the "Parliament of Navarre or Assembly (Cortes) of Navarre" in reference to the Spanish Parliament (Cortes) of the Old Kingdom.
Cathedral of Pamplona. The portico Preciosa led into the cloister of the Hall of the New Library or the Preciosa, usual meeting place of the Parliament during the XVI-XIX centuries when held in Pamplona.
When Navarre was an independent Kingdom it constituted its own "Cortes" (throughout the XIII century) in which the representatives of the three branches of the structure of mediaeval society itself occupied a seat: the Clergy, the Nobility and the "Buenas Villas" (privileged middle classes). The "Cortes" of Navarre even continued after the incorporation of the Kingdom of Navarre in the Crown of Castille in 1512, and celebrated its last meetings at the beginning of the XIX century, 1828-1829. Later a consultative body of the Regional Government was created for matters of finance and municipal administration, the Administrative Regional Government Board, whose authority was adopted in 1979 by the Regional Parliament of Navarre.
Coronation and lifting of the King of Navarre over his shield.
In 1979 democratic elections were held in Navarre to elect a Regional Parliament, consisting of seventy members, whose most significant mission was to approve the bases which were later to give rise to the Organic Law of Furtherance, after the corresponding negotiations between Navarre and the Nation.
Constitutive session of the Regional Parliament. This institution destined to be the instrument of democratisation of the exclusive regime of Navarre, was the result of an agreement between the Regional Council and the Government of the Nation backed by the Royal Decree 121/79 of 26 January. The Parliament was made up of seventy parliamentarians chosen by universal suffrage in the five historical districts of Navarre and held its constitutive session on 23rd April, 1979.
The First Term of Office ran from 1983-1987, the Second between 1987 and 1991, the Third began in 1991 and ended in 1995, the Fourth Term of Office was from 1995 to 1999 and the Fifth from 1999 to 2003.
The Parliament of Navarre is now in its Eighth Term of Office (2011-2015), which was constituted on the 15th of June 2011.