April 2019 Spanish general election

The 2016 general election resulted in a strengthened People's Party (PP), while the left-wing Unidos Podemos alliance failed to meet expectations of overtaking the Spanish Socialist Workers' Party (PSOE). Mariano Rajoy secured the support of Albert Rivera's Citizens (Cs) and Canarian Coalition for his investiture, but this was still not enough to guarantee his re-election as prime minister of Spain. Criticism of PSOE leader Pedro Sánchez for his opposition to Rajoy—seen as prolonging the political deadlock—intensified after poor results in the Basque and Galician elections in September 2016. A party crisis followed, leading to Sánchez’s ousting and the appointment of a caretaker committee led by party rebels under Andalusian president Susana Díaz. The PSOE ultimately abstained in Rajoy's investiture, allowing a PP minority government to form and avoiding a third election. Díaz's bid to become party leader was defeated in the May 2017 primary, with PSOE members reinstating Sánchez on an anti-Rajoy platform. Early in its second term, Rajoy's government faced a dockworkers' strike against an EU-mandated liberalization of port services. The PP also became entangled in a series of political scandals that led to the political downfall of PP's Madrid city council leader, Esperanza Aguirre (amid the Púnica and Lezo cases and accusations of judicial meddling and political cover-up affecting two former protégés). Rajoy himself was forced to testify as a witness in court (in the Gürtel case trial), the first sitting Spanish prime minister to do so. Former Caja Madrid chairs Miguel Blesa and Rodrigo Rato (the later also a former International Monetary Fund chief and economy minister in 1996–2004) were convicted for misusing corporate credit cards at the height of the financial crisis; Blesa would later commit suicide in July 2017. These developments prompted Unidos Podemos leader Pablo Iglesias—who had just overcome an internal challenge from Podemos's moderate sectors—to table a no-confidence motion in June 2017. The motion failed by 170–82, as the PSOE and other opposition parties abstained rather than support Iglesias as prime minister. Rajoy maintained stability by securing support from the Basque Nationalist Party (PNV) to his government's 2017 and 2018 General State Budgets. Mariano Rajoy announcing the enforcement of direct rule over Catalonia on 27 October 2017, in the wake of the constitutional crisis sparked by an attempt to declare unilateral independence. Pressure on the Spanish government intensified as a major constitutional crisis unfolded in Catalonia over the 2017 independence referendum. The Catalan parliament's initial steps to approve the referendum bill and a framework for an independent state were suspended by the Constitutional Court, while police operations against the preparations—including searches, raids, arrests of Catalan government officials and financial intervention—parked protests and accusations that the government was imposing a de facto state of emergency. The referendum went ahead amid a violent police crackdown, and the Catalan parliament later voted to unilaterally declare independence. In response, central authorities imposed direct rule over Catalonia and remove the regional authorities. Catalan president Carles Puigdemont fled to Belgium with part of his cabinet, facing charges of sedition, rebellion and embezzlement. Rajoy then dissolved the Catalan parliament and called a snap regional election for 21 December 2017, which backfired: pro-independence parties retained their majority, Cs strengthened its position in the region, and the PP was nearly wiped out. The Catalan election result boosted Cs nationally, propelling it to first place in several opinion polls. Rajoy's government was further weakened by the success of the 2018 Spanish women's strike on International Women's Day, driven by public outcry over gender-based violence, wage inequality, and high-profile cases such the La Manada gang rape; as well as by protests from pensioners over declining pensions. Another scandal involved the Madrilenian president, Cristina Cifuentes, accused of fraudulently obtaining a master's degree from King Juan Carlos University; this escalated after a cover-up involving the forgery of public instruments was uncovered. Cifuentes eventually resigned in April 2018 following the release of a 2011 video showing her involvement in a face cream shoplifting incident. (left) upon losing the no confidence vote on 1 June 2018. On 24 May 2018, the National Court found that the PP had benefited from the Gürtel kickbacks-for-contracts scheme, confirming the existence of an illegal parallel accounting structure and an extensive system of institutional corruption in public contracts affecting central, regional and local government contracts. This prompted the PSOE to submit a new no-confidence motion, while Cs withdrew its support from Rajoy and urged for a snap election. After a dramatic parliamentary meeting, the Congress of Deputies voted 180–169 on 1 June 2018 to remove Mariano Rajoy from office, replacing him with PSOE leader Pedro Sánchez as prime minister. Rajoy then announced his resignation as PP leader and his retirement from politics, triggering a leadership contest in July that saw the PP's communication deputy secretary-general, Pablo Casado, defeating former deputy prime minister Soraya Sáenz de Santamaría. For most of its term, Sánchez's first government relied on confidence and supply support from other parties, negotiating ad hoc agreements with Republican Left of Catalonia (ERC), the Catalan European Democratic Party (PDeCAT) and the PNV. Early measures included restoring universal health care for undocumented migrants (reversing a previous decision by Rajoy's cabinet); accepting the refugee ship Aquarius after the Italian government refused it entry; and announcing the exhumation of dictator Francisco Franco's remains from the Valley of the Fallen. His government also adopted a more conciliatory approach toward Catalonia under new regional president Quim Torra. Efforts to distance the government from previous scandals led to the swift resignations of two ministers upon suspicions of wrongdoing: culture minister Màxim Huerta after just seven days over tax evasion issues; and health minister Carmen Montón in September 2018 over alleged irregularities in her master's degree (including plagiarism and discrepancies over her attendance and the marks awarded). The success of the no-confidence motion reshaped Spanish politics, with the PSOE rising to first place in national opinion polls. Meanwhile, the now-opposition PP continued to decline, Cs's surge faded as Sánchez gained popularity, and voters from both parties increasingly shifted toward the resurgent far-right Vox amid growing polarization. In the 2018 Andalusian election, dissatisfaction with Susana Díaz's administration and doubts about Sánchez’s approach to Catalonia led to the PSOE losing the regional government for the first time in its history to a PP–Cs alliance supported by Vox, which also marked the first time since 1979 that the far-right gained parliamentary representation in Spain. ERC and PDeCAT later withdrew their support by voting down the government's 2019 budget. Combined with the perceived failure of street protests by the PP, Cs and Vox against Sánchez's Catalonia policy, this prompted the latter to dissolve parliament and call a snap election for 28 April 2019. ==Overview==

Under the 1978 Constitution, the Spanish were conceived as an imperfect bicameral system. The Congress of Deputies held greater legislative power than the Senate, having the ability to grant or withdraw confidence from a prime minister and to override Senate vetoes by an absolute majority. Nonetheless, the Senate retained a limited number of specific functions—such as ratifying international treaties, authorizing cooperation agreements between autonomous communities, enforcing direct rule, regulating interterritorial compensation funds, and taking part in constitutional amendments and in the appointment of members to the Constitutional Court and the General Council of the Judiciary—which were not subject to override by Congress. Date The term of each chamber of the —the Congress and the Senate—expired four years from the date of their previous election, unless they were dissolved earlier. The election decree was required to be issued no later than 25 days before the scheduled expiration date of parliament and published on the following day in the Official State Gazette (BOE), with election day taking place 54 days after the decree's publication. The previous election was held on 26 June 2016, which meant that the chambers' terms would have expired on 26 June 2020. The election decree was required to be published in the BOE no later than 2 June 2020, setting the latest possible date for election day on 26 July 2020. The prime minister had the prerogative to propose the monarch to dissolve both chambers at any given time—either jointly or separately—and call a snap election, provided that no motion of no confidence was in process, no state of emergency was in force and that dissolution did not occur before one year after a previous one. Additionally, both chambers were to be dissolved and a new election called if an investiture process failed to elect a prime minister within a two-month period from the first ballot. Barring this exception, there was no constitutional requirement for simultaneous elections to the Congress and the Senate. Still, as of , there has been no precedent of separate elections taking place under the 1978 Constitution. Speculation about the election date began immediately after the 2016 election over the high probability that government negotiations could fail, to the point that both PP and PSOE began pushing for a legal reform that would prevent a hypothetical third election from being held on Christmas Day. While the government formation process was ultimately successful, the electoral law was amended to provide for a shorter campaign period, among other simplification measures. for 28 April 2019. In November 2016, a mere two weeks after Rajoy's re-election as prime minister, Spanish newspaper El Mundo hinted at him planning to call a snap election if he could not approve the state budget for the next year, but this claim was quickly dismissed by the government, and was ultimately superseded by the budget being approved in June 2017. Following Pedro Sánchez's re-election as PSOE leader in May 2017, Rajoy rejected that this changed his government's situation and again ruled out an early election. The tabling of a no-confidence motion in May 2018 was said to have moved Rajoy into considering a snap election to be called either for early 2019 or concurrently with the local, regional and European Parliament elections in a "Super Sunday" on 26 May 2019, but his ousting from office thwarted any such plan. During the events leading up to the 2018 no confidence vote, an early election was proposed by both PSOE's Sánchez—not before establishing a "transitional government" that would ensure the country's "governance" and recover "democratic normality"—and Cs's Rivera. Following his appointment, Sánchez changed his plans and stated that his will to finalize the legislative term and call the election when due, in 2020. However, after the 2019 budget was voted down in the Congress on 13 February 2019, a snap election was hinted for either 14 or 28 April, avoiding both the Holy Week holidays and a "Super Sunday" that PSOE regional leaders rejected. Sánchez confirmed 28 April as the election date following a Council of Ministers meeting on 15 February. The were officially dissolved on 5 March 2019 with the publication of the corresponding decree in the BOE, setting election day for 28 April and scheduling for both chambers to reconvene on 21 May. Electoral system Voting for each chamber of the was based on universal suffrage, comprising all Spanish nationals over 18 years of age with full political rights, provided that they had not been deprived of the right to vote by a final sentence. Additionally, non-resident citizens were required to apply for voting, a system known as "begged" voting (). The Congress of Deputies had a minimum of 300 and a maximum of 400 seats, with electoral provisions fixing its size at 350. Of these, 348 were elected in 50 multi-member constituencies corresponding to the provinces of Spain—each of which was assigned an initial minimum of two seats and the remaining 248 distributed in proportion to population—using the D'Hondt method and closed-list proportional voting, with a three percent-threshold of valid votes (including blank ballots) in each constituency. The remaining two seats were allocated to Ceuta and Melilla as single-member districts elected by plurality voting. The use of this electoral method resulted in a higher effective threshold depending on district magnitude and vote distribution. As a result of the aforementioned allocation, each Congress multi-member constituency was entitled the following seats: 208 Senate seats were elected using open-list partial block voting: voters in constituencies electing four seats could choose up to three candidates; in those with two or three seats, up to two; and in single-member districts, one. Each of the 47 peninsular provinces was allocated four seats, while in insular provinces—such as the Balearic and Canary Islands—the districts were the islands themselves, with the larger ones (Mallorca, Gran Canaria and Tenerife) being allocated three seats each, and the smaller ones (Menorca, Ibiza–Formentera, Fuerteventura, La Gomera, El Hierro, Lanzarote and La Palma) one each. Ceuta and Melilla elected two seats each. Additionally, autonomous communities could appoint at least one senator each and were entitled to one additional seat per million inhabitants. The law did not provide for by-elections to fill vacant seats; instead, any vacancies arising after the proclamation of candidates and during the legislative term were filled by the next candidates on the party lists or, when required, by designated substitutes. Outgoing parliament The tables below show the composition of the parliamentary groups in both chambers at the time of dissolution. ==Candidates==

Nomination rules Spanish citizens with the right to vote could run for election, provided that they had not been criminally imprisoned by a final sentence or convicted—whether final or not—of offences that involved loss of eligibility or disqualification from public office (such as rebellion, terrorism or other crimes against the state). Additional causes of ineligibility applied to the following officials: • Members of the Spanish royal family and their spouses; • Holders of a number of senior public or institutional posts, including the heads and members of higher courts and state institutions; the Ombudsman; the State's Attorney General; high-ranking officials of government departments, the Office of the Prime Minister and other state agencies; government delegates in the autonomous communities; the chair of RTVE; the director of the Electoral Register Office; the governor and deputy governor of the Bank of Spain; the heads of official credit institutions; and members of electoral commissions and of the Nuclear Safety Council; • Heads of diplomatic missions abroad; • Judges and public prosecutors in active service; • Members of the Armed Forces and law enforcement bodies in active service. Other ineligibility provisions also applied to a number of territorial officials in these categories within their areas of jurisdiction, as well as to employees of foreign states and members of regional governments. • A number of senior public or institutional posts, including the presidency of the National Commission on Markets and Competition; and leadership positions in RTVE, government offices, public authorities (such as port authorities, hydrographic confederations, or highway concessionary companies), public entities and state-owned or publicly funded companies; • Any other paid public or private position, except university teaching. Parties and lists The electoral law allowed for parties and federations registered in the interior ministry, alliances and groupings of electors to present lists of candidates. Parties and federations intending to form an alliance were required to inform the relevant electoral commission within 10 days of the election call, whereas groupings of electors needed to secure the signature of at least one percent of the electorate in the constituencies for which they sought election, disallowing electors from signing for more than one list. Concurrently, parties, federations or alliances that had not obtained a mandate in either chamber of the at the preceding election were required to secure the signature of at least 0.1 percent of electors in the aforementioned constituencies. Additionally, a balanced composition of men and women was required in the electoral lists, so that candidates of either sex made up at least 40 percent of the total composition. After the experience of the 2015–2016 political deadlock leading to the June 2016 election and the possibility of a third election being needed, the electoral law was amended in order to introduce a special, simplified process for election re-runs, including a shortening of deadlines, electoral campaigning, the lifting of signature requirements if these had been already met for the immediately previous election and the possibility of maintaining lists and alliances without needing to go through pre-election procedures again. Below is a list of the main parties and electoral alliances which contested the election: Two opposing coalitions were formed in Navarre at different levels: for the Senate, Geroa Bai, EH Bildu, Podemos and Izquierda-Ezkerra re-created the Cambio/Aldaketa alliance under which they had already contested the 2015 general election. Podemos, EU and Equo in Galicia formed a regional branch for the Unidas Podemos alliance branded En Común–Unidas Podemos whereas Anova chose to step out from the election race. In the Balearic Islands, an alliance was formed for the Congress election by More for Majorca (Més), More for Menorca (MpM), Now Eivissa (Ara Eivissa) and Republican Left of Catalonia (ERC), named Veus Progressistes; for the Senate election, the alliance was styled as Unidas Podemos Veus Progressistes and included Podemos and IU. ==Campaign==

Timetable The key dates are listed below (all times are CET. The Canary Islands used WET (UTC+0) instead): • 4 March: The election decree is issued with the countersign of the prime minister, after deliberation in the Council of Ministers, ratified by the King. • 5 March: Formal dissolution of parliament and start of prohibition period on the inauguration of public works, services or projects. • 8 March: Initial constitution of provincial and zone electoral commissions with judicial members. • 11 March: Division of constituencies into polling sections and stations. • 15 March: Deadline for parties and federations to report on their electoral alliances. • 18 March: Deadline for electoral register consultation for the purpose of possible corrections. • 25 March: Deadline for parties, federations, alliances, and groupings of electors to present electoral lists. • 27 March: Publication of submitted electoral lists in the Official State Gazette (BOE). • 30 March: Deadline for non-resident citizens (electors residing abroad (CERA) and citizens temporarily absent from Spain) to apply for voting . • 1 April: Official proclamation of validly submitted electoral lists. • 2 April: Publication of proclaimed electoral lists in the BOE. • 3 April: Deadline for the selection of polling station members by sortition. • 11 April: Deadline for the appointment of non-judicial members to provincial and zone electoral commissions. • 12 April: Official start of electoral campaigning. • 18 April: Deadline to apply for postal voting. • 23 April: Start of legal ban on electoral opinion polling publication; deadline for CERA citizens to vote by mail. • 24 April: Deadline for postal and temporarily absent voting . • 26 April: Last day of electoral campaigning; • 22 June: Deadline for the publication of definitive election results in the BOE. Party slogans Debates ;Opinion polls ==Opinion polls==

The table below shows registered voter turnout during the election. Figures for election day do not include non-resident citizens, while final figures do. ==Results==

Congress of Deputies Senate Maps File:April 2019 Spanish general election map.svg|Election results by constituency (Congress). File:April 2019 Spanish election - Results.svg|Vote winner strength by constituency (Congress). File:April 2019 Spanish election - AC results.svg|Vote winner strength by autonomous community (Congress). ==Aftermath==

Outcome The election resulted in a victory for Pedro Sánchez's Spanish Socialist Workers' Party (PSOE)—its first since the 2008 general election—which swept the country and won in most constituencies and regions. The right-wing bloc of PP–Cs–Vox was only able to garner 42.9% of the vote and 147 Congress seats (149 including the Navarra Suma alliance in Navarre) to the 165 seats and 43.0% vote share garnered by the two major left-wing parties, PSOE and Unidas Podemos. Even though the left-wing bloc was still 11 seats short of a majority, the three-way split on the centre-right ensured Sánchez's PSOE would be the only party that could realistically garner enough support from third parties to command a majority in the lower house. The PSOE also obtained an absolute majority of seats in the Senate for the first time since 1989 as the PP vote collapsed. Having initially been allocated 121 senators, it was awarded two additional senators from PP after the counting of CERA votes, the Census of Absent-Residents, namely one for Zamora and one for Segovia. Support for the People's Party (PP) plummeted and scored the worst result of its history as well as the worst support for any of the party's incarnations since the People's Alliance results in the 1977 and 1979 elections. The PP was only able to remain the most voted party in five constituencies: Ávila, Lugo, Melilla, Ourense and Salamanca; and it was not able to remain the largest party in any region, including Galicia, where it lost to the PSOE for the first time ever in any kind of election. Overall, the party lost 3.6 million votes from 2016, with post-election analysis determining that 1.4 million had been lost to Albert Rivera's Citizens party, 1.6 million to far-right Vox, 400,000 to abstentions and a further 300,000 to PSOE. Scoring below previous expectations throughout the campaign, Vox's result signalled the first time since Blas Piñar's election as a deputy for the National Union coalition in 1979 that a far-right party had won seats in the Spanish Parliament after the country's return to democracy as well as the first time that a far-right party would be able to form a parliamentary group of its own in the Congress of Deputies. After losing more than a half of their seats, the PP sacked Javier Maroto as their campaign manager. Maroto had also failed to hold his seat from Álava in the election, losing it to EH Bildu and signalling the first time since 1979 that the party had not won a seat in the province. Pablo Casado, the PP leader whose right-wing stance and controversial leadership had been labelled by commentators as a "suicide" in light of election results, refused to resign and instead proposed a sudden U-turn of the party back into the centre under pressure from party regional leaders one month ahead of the regional and local elections, while also raising a hostile profile to both Cs and Vox, attacking them for dividing the vote to the right-of-centre. Government formation ==Notes==