Restoration regime (1879–1931) addressing the workers during a 1905 demonstration in Madrid|350x350px The PSOE was founded by
Pablo Iglesias on 2 May 1879 in the
Casa Labra tavern in Tetuán Street near the
Puerta del Sol at the centre of
Madrid. Iglesias was a typesetter who had previously come in contact with the Spanish section of the
International Workingmen's Association and with
Paul Lafargue. The first program of the new political party was passed in an assembly of 40 people on 20 July of that same year. The bulk of the growth of the PSOE and its affiliated trade union, the
Unión General de Trabajadores (UGT) was chiefly restricted to the
Madrid-
Biscay-
Asturias triangle up until the 1910s. The obtaining of a seat at the Congress by Pablo Iglesias at the
1910 Spanish general election in which the PSOE candidates presented within the broad
Republican–Socialist Conjunction became a development of great symbolical transcendence and gave the party more publicity at the national level. , Daniel Anguiano, Andrés Saborit and
Francisco Largo Caballero in the prison of Cartagena in 1918|360x360px The PSOE and the UGT took a leading role in the general strike of August 1917 in the context of the events leading to the
Spanish crisis of 1917 during the conservative government of
Eduardo Dato. The strike was crushed by the army as a result of further undermining of the constitutional order. The members of the organizing committee (
Julián Besteiro,
Francisco Largo Caballero,
Daniel Anguiano and
Andrés Saborit) were accused of
sedition and sentenced to
life imprisonment. Sent to the prison of
Cartagena, they were released a year later after being elected to the
Cortes in the
1918 Spanish general election. During the 1919−1921 crisis of the socialist internationals, the party experienced tensions between the members endorsing the
Socialist International and the advocates for joining the
Communist International. Two consecutive splits of dissidents willing to join the Communist International, namely the
Spanish Communist Party in 1920 and the
Spanish Communist Workers' Party in 1921, broke away from the PSOE and soon merged to create the
Communist Party of Spain (PCE). The PSOE was a member of the
Labour and Socialist International between 1923 and 1940. After the death of Pablo Iglesias in 1925, Julián Besteiro replaced him as president of both the PSOE and the UGT. During the 1923–1930 dictatorship of
Miguel Primo de Rivera,
corporatist PSOE and UGT elements were willing to engage in limited collaboration with the regime, against the political stance defended by other socialists such as
Indalecio Prieto and
Fernando de los Ríos, who instead advocated a closer collaboration with
republican forces. The last years of the dictatorship saw a divergence emerge among the corporatist which was personified by
Francisco Largo Caballero, who began to endorse the rapport with bourgeois republicans; and Julián Besteiro, who continued to show great distrust towards them. Besteiro's refusal to participate in the Revolutionary Committee led to his resignation as president both of the party and the trade union in February 1931. He was replaced as president of the party by
Remigio Cabello.
Second Republic and Civil War (1931–1939) ,
Fernando de los Ríos and Largo Caballero as ministers|300x300px After the proclamation of the
Second Spanish Republic on 14 April 1931, three PSOE members were included in the cabinet of the
provisional government, namely
Indalecio Prieto (Finance),
Fernando de los Ríos (Education) and
Francisco Largo Caballero (Labour). The socialist presence remained in the rest of cabinets of the
Social-Azañist Biennium (1931–1933). After the
November 1933 general election which marked a win for the centre-right forces in a climate of increasing polarization and growing unemployment, along with a desire to make amends for the mistake of not having sided with the republicans in the election against the united right, Largo Caballero adopted a
revolutionary rhetoric, calling for violent revolution and a transitionary
dictatorship of the proletariat. Indalecio Prieto had also participated in the increasingly aggressive rhetoric, having already condemned the heavy-hand repression of the December 1933 largely anarchist uprising by the government, that has been cheered on by the
CEDA leaders on parliament. The
Socialist Youth of Spain (JSE) also engaged into a shrilling revolutionary rhetoric while Besteiro firmly opposed the insurrectionary drift of the militancy. and
assault guards during the
1934 Asturian revolutionary strike|300x300px The formation of a new cabinet that included CEDA ministers in October 1934 was perceived among the left as a
reaction, with the CEDA party being indistinguishable from contemporary
fascism to most workers while CEDA leader
Gil-Robles had advocated the establishment of a corporative state already in the 1933 electoral campaign. The UGT called for a nationwide general strike for 5 October which developed into a full-blown insurrection (the
Revolution of 1934) in the mining region of Asturias which was vocally supported by socialists such as Largo Caballero and Prieto. After the end of the revolt, whose repression was entrusted to generals
Francisco Franco and
Manuel Goded, most PSOE and UGT leaders were jailed. A growing rift between Prieto and Largo Caballero (with disparate views of politics, albeit sharing a general pragmatist approach) formed in 1935 while Besteiro's hold on the party diminished significantly. Followers of Indalecio Prieto would ultimately become "estranged from the party left". The PSOE formed part of the broad left-wing
Popular Front electoral coalition that stood for election in the
1936 Spanish general election and achieved a victory in seats over the right. In September 1936, a few months into the
Spanish Civil War (which lasted until 1939), a cabinet presided over by Largo Caballero was formed (he also held the functions of Minister of War). In November, Largo Caballero succeeded in bringing some
CNT members into his government. The left socialist
caballeristas were revolutionary in rhetoric, although in reality they proposed moderate reformist policies while in government. The
May Days of 1937 in Barcelona destabilised the government which was replaced by a new cabinet led by
Juan Negrín, another socialist.
Clandestinity and exile (1939–1974) led the PSOE in exile for nearly three decades|300x300px With the PSOE reduced to clandestinity during the
Francoist dictatorship, its members were persecuted, with many leaders, members and supporters being imprisoned or exiled and even executed. Prime Minister Negrín fled to France in March 1939 after the final collapse of the Republican front and his fall from office. The aging and ill Julián Besteiro, who preferred to stay in Spain over exile, died in a Francoist prison in 1940.
Julián Zugazagoitia, government minister in 1937–1938, was captured in exile by the
Gestapo, handed over to Spain and executed in 1940. The party was legalised again only in 1977 during the
Spanish transition to democracy. Disputes between the followers of Indalecio Prieto (who had exiled to Mexico) and Juan Negrín over the political strategy of the
Republican government in exile soon arose. Negrín, whose 1937–1939 spell at the government in wartime was seen negatively by large elements of both
caballerista and
prietista extraction, had become vilified. The party was re-organized along new lines in 1944 in the 1st Congress in Exile that took place in
Toulouse and in which
Rodolfo Llopis became the party's new secretary-general. The PSOE congresses in exile during the post-war period were marked by strong
anti-communist positions as a reflection of how the exiles remembered the last events of the Civil War (which featured bitter strifes with the communists) and in line with the stance of other parties of the
Socialist International during the
Cold War, neglecting any kind of rapprochement with the
Communist Party of Spain (PCE). The relative void left in Spain by the PSOE, with a Toulouse-based direction lacking in dynamism and innovation, was filled by the PCE and other new clandestine organizations such as the
Agrupación Socialista Universitaria (ASU), the
Popular Liberation Front (FELIPE) or later the
Enrique Tierno Galván's
Socialist Party of the Interior. The Toulouse executive board became increasingly detached from the party in Spain in the 1960s an insurmountable chasm between the former and the party in the interior was already defined by 1972.
Return to democracy González leadership (1974–1996) during a speech in 1977|410x410px The 25th party congress was held in
Toulouse in August 1972. In 1974,
Felipe González was elected Secretary-General at the 26th party congress in
Suresnes, replacing Llopis. González was from the reform wing of the party and his victory signaled a defeat for the historic and veteran wing of the party. The direction of the PSOE shifted from the exiles to the young people in Spain who had not fought the war. Economic crisis and
state terrorism (
GAL) against the violent separatist group
ETA eroded the popularity of González. In the
1996 Spanish general election, the PSOE lost to the conservative
People's Party (PP) (PP). Between 1996 and 2001, the PSOE weathered a crisis, with Gonzalez resigning in 1997. The PSOE suffered a heavy defeat in the
2000 Spanish general election, with 34.7% of the popular vote. However, the PSOE remained as the ruling party in the
autonomous communities of
Andalusia,
Asturias,
Castilla-La Mancha and
Extremadura.
Zapatero and Rubalcaba leadership (2000–2014) In 2000,
José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero was elected as the new
Secretary-General, reforming the party. Later, the PSOE won the
2003 Spanish local elections. The PSOE strongly opposed the
Iraq War which was supported by the
Aznar government. during the 2010 Progressive Governance Conference|250x250px In the
2003 Catalan regional election, the PSOE's
Socialists' Party of Catalonia (PSC) increased its vote total, but ended up in second place after
Convergence and Union. After a period of negotiations, the party formed a pact with the
Initiative for Catalonia Greens, the
Republican Left of Catalonia and the
United and Alternative Left, governing Catalonia until 2010. In the
2004 Spanish general election, the PSOE won with almost 43% of the votes following the
11M terrorist (11 March) attacks. It was alleged by PP that the PSOE, with the help of the national newspaper
El País, did not observe the "reflection journey" which forbade political parties from trying to sway public opinion (forbidden by Spanish law), calling the opposing political party "assassins" and blaming the terrorist attack on them. The PSOE maintained their lead in the
2004 European Parliament election. In 2005, the PSOE called for a yes vote on the
European Constitution. The PSOE also favoured the negotiations between the government and the ETA during the 2006 cease-fire which had a
de facto end with the
Madrid–Barajas Airport terrorist attack. In the
2008 Spanish general election, the PSOE won again, with Zapatero remaining prime minister. The PSOE increased their share of seats in the
Congress of Deputies from 164 to 169 after the latest election. in which
Alfredo Pérez Rubalcaba (centre) was elected as Secretary-General|300x300px After waning popularity throughout their second term, mainly due to their handling of the worsening economic climate in Spain in the aftermath of the
2008 financial crisis, the PSOE was defeated in the
2011 Spanish general election by the conservative People's Party. Shortly after, an
extraordinary congress was held in which
Alfredo Pérez Rubalcaba, former Deputy to Zapatero and Minister of the Interior, was elected Secretary-General defeating
Carme Chacón, the other candidate, who stood for the Zapatero platform. This victory caused huge internal divisions and weakened the party's external image. In 2013, the PSOE held a political conference which introduced a completely new platform, widely seen as a move to the left in an attempt to regain votes from parties such as the
United Left, whose popularity rose steadily due to the general discontent with the two-party system and spending cuts. That platform was the basis for the
2014 European Parliament election manifesto, promoted as a solid alternative to the conservative plan for Europe. The expectations inside the party which chose
Elena Valenciano as their election candidate were optimistic, but the PSOE suffered another defeat due to the appearance of new parties such as
Podemos which managed to gain the support of left-wing voters, with PSOE winning 14 seats. Shortly thereafter, Rubalcaba resigned as Secretary-General and an
Extraordinary Congress was convoked.
Sánchez leadership (2014–present) This party congress was the first to use a
primary election system with three candidates, namely
Pedro Sánchez,
Eduardo Madina and
José Antonio Pérez Tapias. Sánchez was elected with 49% of the vote of the affiliates and therefore became Secretary-General on 27 July 2014. In the
2015 Spanish municipal elections, the PSOE won 25% of the vote, one of its worst results since the restoration of democracy. Together with the fall of the People's Party which won 27% of votes, it meant the end of the two-party system in Spain in favor of new parties. The PSOE alone lost 943 councilors. The
2015 Spanish general election produced a
hung parliament broken into four major parties. Due to the large increase of parties such as Podemos (left) and
Citizens (centre-right), the PSOE got about 20% of the vote, its worst result since democracy was restored. The parliament was so fragmented that no government could be formed and six months later new elections were held. The
2016 Spanish general election resulted in the PSOE losing a further five seats despite gaining 0.6% of the vote (still the party's second-worst popular vote total after 2015 since the restoration of democracy), leaving the party with 85 seats in the parliament, their lowest total since the restoration of democracy and the fewest since the
1933 in
Republican Spain left the party with 59 seats in the 473-member parliament. (who led the party through its
crisis in 2016) singing
The Internationale after winning the 2017 primary election for Secretary-General|300x300px With the exception of the
2015 Andalusian regional election, elections held during the early leadership of Sánchez were losses for the PSOE. In addition, the policy of pacts conducted by Sánchez after the 2016 general election, based on Sánchez's outright refusal to facilitate a People's Party government, caused a faction within the party critical of Sánchez to gain momentum, led by President of
Andalusia Susana Díaz. On 28 September 2016, the Secretary of Federal Policy Antonio Pradas went to the party's headquarters and presented the
en bloc resignation of 17 members of the Federal Executive and the demands of those who resigned for the party to be run by an interim manager and to pressure Sánchez to resign as secretary-general. The Executive later lost two more members in the
en bloc resignation, bringing the total number of resignations to 19. Resigning executives included the president of the party
Micaela Navarro, the former Minister
Carme Chacón, the President of
Valencia Ximo Puig and the President of
Castilla–La Mancha Emiliano García-Page. This launched the
2016 PSOE crisis. On the afternoon of 1 October 2016, after holding a tense Federal Committee meeting, Sánchez resigned as party General-Secretary, forcing an
extraordinary party congress to choose a new General-Secretary. That night, it was reported that an interim manager would be chosen, later confirmed to be the President of
Asturias Javier Fernández Fernández. Sánchez announced his intention to run for General-Secretary of the party as did Susana Díaz (one of the leaders of the anti-Sánchez faction of the party) and
Patxi López, former President of the
Basque Autonomous Community. At the 39th federal congress in June 2017, Díaz received 48.3% of endorsements, outpacing both Sánchez (43.0% of endorsements) and López (8.7% of endorsements), but Sánchez won an absolute majority of the party's popular vote at 50.3% (Díaz received 39.9% and López 9.8%). Both Díaz and López withdrew before the delegate vote, returning Sánchez as the General-Secretary and ending the crisis. Sánchez won every region of Spain except for the home regions of López and Díaz. In mid-2018, the
National Court found that the conservative People's Party profited from the illegal kickbacks-for-contracts scheme of the
Gürtel case, confirming the existence of an illegal accounting and financing structure that ran in parallel with the party's official one since 1989 and that sentenced that the PP helped to establish "a genuine and effective system of institutional corruption through the manipulation of central, autonomous and local public procurement". The PSOE Parliamentary Group in the Congress of Deputies filed a
motion of no confidence against the government of Prime Minister
Mariano Rajoy, presenting Sánchez as alternative candidate. The PSOE's motion passed with the support of
Unidos Podemos (UP),
Republican Left of Catalonia (ERC),
Catalan European Democratic Party (PDeCAT),
Basque Nationalist Party (PNV),
Coalició Compromís,
EH Bildu and
New Canaries (NCa), bringing down the Rajoy government. The PP voted against the proposal, joined by
Citizens (C's), the
Navarrese People's Union (UPN) and the
Asturias Forum (FAC). The
Canarian Coalition (CC) abstained. Following the successful motion of no confidence, Sánchez became prime minister on 2 June 2018 in a minority government. In December 2018, the PSOE's
branch in Andalusia was defeated in the
2018 Andalusian regional election for the first time since the restoration of democracy, with a centre-right coalition of PP, C's and the resurgent
right-wing nationalists Vox taking power in the region. For most of his first term as prime minister, Sánchez relied on support from the UP and the NC to get his agenda passed, occasionally being forced into negotiating with the Catalan separatist parties the ERC and the PDeCAT and the PNV on individual issues. In February 2019, the ERC, the PDeCAT and
En Marea withdrew their support of Sánchez's government by voting against and helping defeat the 2019
General State Budget and Sánchez called an early election for 28 April 2019. The
April 2019 Spanish general election resulted in victory for the PSOE, with the party winning 123 seats on 28.7% of the vote in the Cortes and an absolute majority of 139 in the Senate, gains of 38 and 79 seats respectively. The PSOE also finished eight percentage points ahead of the PP which finished second in both seats and in the popular vote. At election night, party supporters demanded Sánchez to reject any coalition with Cs. On the same day as the April 2019 general election, the
2019 Valencian regional election resulted in the
Valencian branch of the PSOE being re-elected in coalition with the
Valencianist party
Compromís and UP. On 26 May 2019, the PSOE became the largest Spanish party in the
European Parliament following the
2019 European Parliament election. The PSOE gained six seats to bring their total to 20 and won all but eight provinces in the country. 26 May also saw
regional elections for every region in the country except Valencia, Catalonia, Andalusia, the Basque Country and Galicia. In every region, the PSOE gained seats and votes from the 2015 regional elections. The PSOE finished first in terms of votes and seats in every region except for
Cantabria, where the
Regionalist Party of Cantabria (PRC) finished first and the PSOE third behind the PP; and
Navarra, where the conservative regionalist
NA+ finished first and the
Socialist Party of Navarre finished second. PSOE governments were re-elected in
Castilla-La Mancha and
Extremadura, with the party receiving an absolute majority of seats in both regions. The party took over the Presidency of the
Canary Islands with the support of
New Canaries and
Podemos, ending 26 years of
Canarian Coalition government. On the same date, the PSOE became the largest party in the
municipalities following the
local elections. Following months of political deadlock, Sánchez called a second general election in seven months. In the
November 2019 Spanish general election, the PSOE lost only three members of parliament and 0.7% of the popular vote in the election, but the PP and VOX gained 23 and 28 seats respectively, further worsening the deadlock. As of 23 December, there was still no government in place, although members of PSOE, PSC and UP have voted overwhelmingly to join in a coalition government, agreed to by Sánchez and UP Secretary-General
Pablo Iglesias Turrión. On 5 January 2020, the PSOE–UP government failed its first investiture vote, with 166 votes in favor and 165 opposed with 18 abstentions and one UP parliamentarian absent, therefore the government fell short of an absolute majority. On 7 January, the investiture motion, this time requiring only a
simple majority, passed with 167 votes in favour and 165 against. PSOE, UP,
En Comú Podem,
Grupo Común da Esquerda, PNV,
Más País, Compromís, NCa, the
Galician Nationalist Bloc (BNG) and
Teruel Existe (TE) voted in favor of the government, with PP, Vox, Cs,
Together for Catalonia (JxCat), the
Popular Unity Candidacy (CUP), NA+, CC, PRC and FAC voting against while ERC and EH Bildu both abstained. ,
María Jesús Montero and
Pedro Sánchez in March 2020 In 2021, PSOE started a
podcast called
Donde hay partido. As of 2026, two former party's organization secretaries,
José Luis Ábalos and
Santos Cerdán, are currently the subject of a corruption probe on the
Koldo case. Throughout 2025, the party was rocked by
allegations of sexual harassment by some members—with political backlash expanding to the party's handling of the cases, seeing internal outcry being compared to the
MeToo movement—that prompted the resignation or dismissal of a number of officials at the local and regional level, as well as in the
prime minister's office. == Ideology ==