2016 Spanish general election

The 2015 general election produced the most fragmented Spanish parliament since 1977, with neither of the two main alliances—the conservative People's Party (PP) with liberal Citizens (C's), or the Spanish Socialist Workers' Party (PSOE) with anti-austerity left-wing Podemos—having enough seats to form a majority without the support of peripheral nationalist parties. At the same time, the possibility of a grand coalition between PP and PSOE (unprecedented in Spain) was firmly rejected by the latter. A political deadlock followed as acting prime minister and PP leader Mariano Rajoy declined King Felipe VI's invitation to attempt an investiture because he lacked enough support, leading to PSOE leader Pedro Sánchez being nominated instead, after Podemos's Pablo Iglesias offered to join a left-wing coalition government. Mariano Rajoy turned down King Felipe VI's invitation to form a government, triggering a political deadlock. Sánchez managed to fend off an internal challenge to his leadership, while a faction within the PSOE discouraged any pact with Podemos because of the party's support for a Catalan independence referendum. The PSOE also rejected Podemos's demands for ministerial posts and its condition that C's be excluded from negotiations. In the end, Sánchez reached an agreement with Albert Rivera in an attempt to outmanoeuvre Iglesias and secure broader support Albert Rivera, in an attempt to outmaneuver Iglesias and garner cross-party support, despite the alliance controlling only 130 of the 350 seats in Congress. This PSOE–C's deal was rejected by Podemos as incompatible with its programme, leading to a breakdown in negotiations. With opposition from all other parties, Sánchez's investiture bid was defeated 219–131 on 4 March 2016. Concurrently, corruption scandals continued to affect the ruling PP. One party lawmaker was expelled over a kickbacks-for-contracts scheme, while an investigation into alleged bid rigging at the state-run water contract company Acuamed led to the resignation of the presidency undersecretary. The party's Valencia branch was also accused of widespread corruption in the so-called Taula case, involving dozens of politicians, including figures close to former mayor Rita Barberá. The Púnica case brought a police raid on the PP's headquarters in Madrid over illegal financing allegations and led to Esperanza Aguirre's resignation as regional party leader. April 2016 saw the arrest of the PP mayor of Granada in a real estate corruption probe; the resignation of industry minister José Manuel Soria after being implicated in the Panama leaks; and former prime minister José María Aznar being ordered to pay €270,000 in fines and back taxes. Rajoy's caretaker government was also taken to court for refusing parliamentary oversight, while reports that Spain had missed its 2015 deficit target forced him to acknowledge the need for further austerity measures to meet EU requirements. After Sánchez's failed investiture, the PSOE tried to secure at least Podemos's abstention. Internal divisions emerged within Podemos between supporters of Iglesias's hardline negotiating stance () and those aligned with his deputy Íñigo Errejón (), who favoured allowing a PSOE-led government; this conflict led to several resignations in the party's Madrid branch. Attempts to form a three-way agreement with C's failed because of deep mutual distrust, while Rajoy kept dismissing the possibility of forming a government himself under the existing parliamentary numbers. A last attempt by the Valencianist party Compromís to propose a left-wing coalition of independents was also rejected by Podemos, ultimately leading to a snap election being called for 26 June 2016 amid mutual accusations among the parties. ==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 20 December 2015, which meant that the chambers' terms would have expired on 20 December 2019. The election decree was required to be published in the BOE no later than 26 November 2019, setting the latest possible date for election day on 19 January 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. The were officially dissolved on 3 May 2016 with the publication of the corresponding decree in the BOE, setting election day for 26 June and scheduling for both chambers to reconvene on 19 July. 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, nor were legally incapacitated. 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. Below is a list of the main parties and alliances which contested the election: In Asturias, Asturias Forum announced its intention to continue their electoral coalition with the People's Party, due to the PP–FAC tandem obtaining 3 out of the 8 seats at stake in the December election. Meanwhile, in Navarre, both Navarrese People's Union and PP were likely to maintain their alliance ahead of the upcoming general election, aiming at keeping their status as the first political force in the region. Izquierda-Ezkerra started talks with Podemos ahead of an alliance, whereas Geroa Bai and EH Bildu were open to "exploring" coalition possibilities after failing to make headway in the Congress in the region after the 2015 election. After Podemos and I-E rejected their offer of building a common platform, both parties studied the option of running together, but ended up discarding such a possibility. Both PSOE and NCa announced their intention of continuing their alliance in the Canary Islands, whereas the PP offered to maintain its alliance with PAR in Aragon. CDC—which contested the 2015 election under the Democracy and Freedom (DL) banner—made an offer to ERC to resurrect the unitary coalition in which they both contested the 2015 Catalan regional election. Former Catalonia President Artur Mas offered himself to lead such a coalition into the election if it was eventually formed. ERC, however, rejected the offer and chose to run alone instead. Subsequently, debate arose within CDC on the opportunity to continue the DL alliance or to opt for alternative formulas to contest the election. Democrats of Catalonia and Reagrupament, CDC's allies within DL, suggested rebranding the alliance as "Together for Catalonia" (JxCat) and demanded it to be led by an independent. CDC leaders rejected this proposal and announced on 9 May that they were contesting the election on their own. On 10 May, the newly formed Podemos-IU alliance offered a nationwide alliance with PSOE to contest the Senate election, in an effort to prevent a new PP absolute majority in that chamber. Pedro Sánchez rejected such a possibility as negotiations were already underway in Aragon, Balearic Islands and the Valencian Community. However, the party's Valencian branch, which advocated for an alliance with Compromís and Podemos for the Senate under the "Valencian Accord" label (In Valencian: Acord Valencià), refused to acknowledge Sánchez's command, threatening a schism in PSOE ranks as the party's national leadership tried to override their regional counterpart. After several days of conflict, the PSPV acquiesced to Sánchez's demand on 13 May, reluctantly rejecting the alliance with Compromís-Podemos. alliance. Podemos aimed at enlarging its alliance system from December, seeking to conglomerate all forces to the left of PSOE in a single, unitary alliance for the 2016 election. Both En Comú Podem and En Marea had already announced their intention to continue their successful coalitions, while Compromís' leaders expressed their will to renew their alliance with Podemos but also seeking to include EUPV, which had been left out of the coalition for the previous election. Talks between Podemos and Més had also started in the Balearic Islands ahead of a prospective election alliance, aiming at forming a "grand coalition of the left" in the islands. Podemos tried to probe PACMA for a common nationwide list for the 2016 election, but this was rejected by the latter as it perceived that Podemos was "not clear enough on the issue of banning bullfighting". Already from 20 April, both Podemos and IU-UPeC started exploring the possibility of forming a joint list for a likely fresh election. By 30 April, as the new election was confirmed, both parties acknowledged that talks had formally started and that an agreement was expected to be reached throughout the next week. On 9 May, Pablo Iglesias (Podemos) and Alberto Garzón (IU) officially announced that a formal alliance had been reached and that their parties would be running together in the upcoming general election. Equo, which had already supported the continuation of its coalition with Podemos, announced it would also participate in the newly formed alliance. The Podemos-IU national accord paved the way for United Left to join the És el moment alliance in the Valencian Community as well. On 13 May, it was announced that the alliance name for the election would be "Unidos Podemos" (Spanish for United We Can). ==Campaign==

Timetable The key dates are listed below (all times are CET. The Canary Islands used WET (UTC+0) instead): • 3 May: The election decree is issued with the countersign of the president of the Congress of Deputies, ratified by the King; formal dissolution of parliament and start of prohibition period on the inauguration of public works, services or projects. • 6 May: Initial constitution of provincial and zone electoral commissions with judicial members. • 9 May: Division of constituencies into polling sections and stations. • 13 May: Deadline for parties and federations to report on their electoral alliances. • 16 May: Deadline for electoral register consultation for the purpose of possible corrections. • 23 May: Deadline for parties, federations, alliances, and groupings of electors to present electoral lists. • 25 May: Publication of submitted electoral lists in the Official State Gazette (BOE). • 28 May: Deadline for non-resident citizens (electors residing abroad (CERA) and citizens temporarily absent from Spain) to apply for voting. • 30 May: Official proclamation of validly submitted electoral lists. • 31 May: Publication of proclaimed electoral lists in the BOE. • 1 June: Deadline for the selection of polling station members by sortition. • 9 June: Deadline for the appointment of non-judicial members to provincial and zone electoral commissions. • 10 June: Official start of electoral campaigning. • 16 June: Deadline to apply for postal voting. • 21 June: Start of legal ban on electoral opinion polling publication; deadline for CERA citizens to vote by mail. • 22 June: Deadline for postal and temporarily absent voting. • 24 June: Last day of electoral campaigning; • 20 August: Deadline for the publication of definitive election results in the BOE. Party slogans Events and issues As parties geared up for the upcoming election campaign, the PP faced the fresh election looking back at the corruption scandals under judicial investigation in which the party was involved. Some of such scandals, involving senior party members such as Rita Barberá, stirred up debate as to whether it was best to maintain these people within party ranks or force their withdrawal. C's, on its part, discarded its pact with the PSOE after it was announced that a new election would be held, with party leaders stating that it "won't be in force anymore" once the were dissolved. However, they wanted to use the accord as a showing of the party's "willingness to negotiate" with forces both to the left and right of the spectrum. The party's main aim was to prevent that a possible campaign polarization could cast "fearful" voters away to the PP to prevent Podemos' rise. Albert Rivera said that the PP was "controlled by its 'old guard'" and that his party would not negotiate with the PP so long as Rajoy remained as leader. The PSOE suffered from the end of the negotiations period. Carme Chacón—former Defence Minister under José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero—and Irene Lozano—an independent, formerly aligned to UPyD, personally enlisted into PSOE by Pedro Sánchez for the December election—both announced their withdrawal from PSOE lists ahead of the June election. Concurrently, PSOE leaders had tried to pressure IU into avoiding an electoral alliance with Podemos out of fear of being pushed into third place nationally, with some commenting that the party's actions had been erratic and confusing throughout negotiations. Coupled with growing pessimism within PSOE ranks, this was said to potentially be able to harm them going into the campaign. On 30 April, Sánchez tried to stir up morale among party members and asked for "unity and trust" around him ahead of the new election. Susana Díaz, Sánchez's rival for the party's leadership, warned him that she would only accept "a PSOE win". Once the hegemonic party of the Spanish left, the PSOE had been pushed out of the left and into the centre, with some fearing it could run down the path of the Greek PASOK. fifth anniversary coincided with the pre-campaign of the general election. As the newly formed Unidos Podemos alliance was announced on early May, the PSOE found itself under threat of being marginalised as both PP and UP sought to polarise the campaign between the two. Sánchez tried to remain in the spotlight and cast off the phantom of party internal division by releasing a series of key announcements throughout the first weeks of May. Margarita Robles—a judge from the Spanish Supreme Court and former Interior State Secretary under Felipe González—and Josep Borrell—former Public Works Minister—were announced to be signing up for Sánchez's campaign; concurrently, Susana Díaz accepted to officially present Sánchez's proclamation as PSOE candidate, in a move seen as an act of apparent "reconciliation" between the two leaders ahead of the election. Sánchez was also expected to announce his "shadow cabinet" on 15 May, and tried to appeal to centrist voters that a vote for him would be a "vote for change". Pablo Iglesias blamed the PSOE for the failure in negotiations and commented that Podemos' aim in the June election would be to directly face the PP as equals, in what he referred to as a "second round" of the December run. Iglesias offered to explore the possibility of an accord with PSOE after the election, expressing his will to form a "progressive" government, but condemned the way the PSOE had—in his view—treated his party up until that point. During an interview held a few days later, Iglesias took for granted that his party had already surpassed the PSOE nationally and stated he would offer Sánchez be his deputy in a Podemos-led cabinet. Once his electoral coalition with IU had been formalized, Iglesias again reiterated his wish to see the PSOE "as an ally"—despite the Socialists having rejected Podemos' offer for an alliance to the Senate—and put overtaking the PP as his target. For the first time since 2011, the anniversary of the 15-M Movement came marked by the pre-electoral campaign of a general election. UP, self-declared as the Movement's political heir, intended to use the event as a launching point for its campaign. Various nods to 15-M were made: the announcement of the Podemos–IU alliance was staged on 9 May at Puerta del Sol, long-regarded as a symbol and focal point for 15-M. Concurrently, Podemos launched an "accountability" campaign under the'' 'Congress in your square' ''label "to regain the connection with the streets". On 15 May, thousands gathered at Puerta del Sol to commemorate the 15-M anniversary; the crowd shouting some of the Movement's most featured slogans, such as the "Yes we can!" warcry—which had also served as Podemos' party slogan ever since its inception. As UP struggled to gain momentum, PP, PSOE and C's turned their attacks on the newborn alliance, trying to corner it to the far-left side of the spectrum. Andalusian President Susana Díaz said of it that it was "the reunion of the Communist Youth"; the PP described it as "the old-fashioned communists but with another name". C's leader Albert Rivera commented that his party offered itself "without sickles, hammers nor corruption", in reference both to UP and the PP. Following the result of the Brexit vote three days before the election in Spain, the PP issued a statement saying the country needed "stability" in the face of "radicalism" and "populism." It was also read as an attack on the Unidos Podemos coalition that vowed to fight for the least well-off. Iglesias said that Europe had to "change course. No-one would want to leave Europe if it were fair and united." Debates After the success of election debates in the 2015 election, the organizing of new debates for the incoming campaign started after the 's dissolution. As in the previous election, the first debate was organised by the Demos Association, to be held in the Charles III University of Madrid on 6 June. The leaders of the four main parties were invited, with Pablo Iglesias and Albert Rivera confirming their presence but making it conditional on Rajoy and Sánchez attending as well. Atresmedia also announced the group's intention to have a four-way debate, scheduled for 16 June, similar to the one held on 7 December. This time, Mariano Rajoy was willing to attend a four-way leaders' debate—unlike the previous election campaign, in which his party sent Soraya Sáenz de Santamaría instead. The PP was, however, unconvinced of holding another two-way debate with Pedro Sánchez, with Rajoy displeased with the format of 14 December debate—allegedly after a harsh confrontation with Sánchez following the latter referring to Rajoy as "indecent". The PSOE announced that Sánchez would not attend a debate with Iglesias and Rivera if Rajoy was not present as well. C's made Rivera's presence conditional on either Rajoy attending or having an empty lectern put in his place, but would not accept the PP sending another person instead. Podemos did not take a firm stance on the issue but Íñigo Errejón stated that his party would "go to all debates, always sending spokespeople at the same level as those sent by other political forces", thus opening the door for Iglesias not attending debates if other parties did not send their prime ministerial candidates. As neither Rajoy nor Sánchez confirmed their presence at the Charles III debate, the Demos Association announced its cancellation on 30 May. A four-way debate was announced to be held on 13 June to be organised by the TV Academy. All four main parties confirmed their presence, with the novelty that Rajoy accepted an invitation to attend as well. Unlike the previous campaign, the PP rejected a two-way debate between Rajoy and Sánchez, on grounds that, according to opinion polls, if a two-way debate was held "it was doubtful which party was to face Rajoy"—in reference to Unidos Podemos having overtaken the PSOE in opinion polling ahead of the election. Pablo Iglesias and Albert Rivera staged a two-on-two debate in the Salvados news show hosted by Jordi Évole. The debate was not broadcast live, but rather recorded on 28 May and intentionally delayed until 5 June. Évole had stated that the debate had been "specially harsh" between both candidates in comparison to previous similar events, and that C's had put a series of conditions in order to accept bringing Rivera to the debate. ;Opinion polls Cost One of the main themes going into the June election was the economic cost that a new campaign would mean for the budget. During the final round of talks, King Felipe VI—anticipating a fresh election—had asked parties to run austere campaigns. The PP proposed that the party avoid large scale rallies, aiming at running a "simpler" campaign—with smaller events in medium-sized cities and towns—while also suggesting reducing the campaign's length to 10 days and removing external advertising—namely that involving advertising through billboards and flags. The PSOE suggested reducing campaign spending by 30%, cutting mailing spending and removing external advertising. Podemos and C's proposed unifying party mailing, with C's being favourable to cutting party spending by 50%. Podemos went further and suggested limiting parties' spending to 3 million each. All three PSOE, Podemos and C's were against PP's proposal of making a shorter campaign or for cuts to affect election debates.—parties called for reaching a gentlemen's agreement; in Albert Rivera's words, "a political pact through which changing the law wouldn't be necessary". However, negotiations held to discuss the reduction of electoral spending failed to produce an agreement, with parties expected to cut their spending at will. ==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:2016 Spanish general election map.svg|Election results by Congress of Deputies constituency. File:2016 Spanish election - Results.svg|Vote winner strength by constituency. File:2016 Spanish election - AC results.svg|Vote winner strength by autonomous community. ==Aftermath==

Outcome The People's Party (PP) emerged as the largest party, securing the most seats—137—but just as in the previous election, failed to obtain an overall majority. The Spanish Socialist Workers' Party (PSOE) clung on to second place but fell to a new record low of 85, whereas Unidos Podemos, the alliance between Podemos and United Left (IU) remained at third place with 71 seats. The PP increased its seat count by a surprising 14, capitalising on losses by both PSOE and liberal Citizens (C's). Unidos Podemos' second placed projection failed to materialise at the polls, although they maintained the same number of seats as in the previous election. Overall, the parliamentary deadlock remained, as neither bloc could gather an absolute majority of seats. However, the PP–C's bloc gained strength, climbing from 163 to 169, whereas the PSOE–Podemos–IU bloc was reduced from 161 to 156. The attempted PSOE–C's pact was reduced to 117 seats, now outnumbered by the PP alone. Regionally, the PP swept all the autonomous communities except for Catalonia and the Basque Country, where Unidos Podemos retained first place. The PSOE, which had narrowly won in its strongholds of Andalusia and Extremadura in the 2015 election, was pushed to second place in both of them, being unable to retain first place in any region only for the second time in democracy (the first being in 2011). Nonetheless, it recovered slightly on some of the regions where it performed the worst in December 2015, with notable advances in Madrid, Valencian Community, Navarre, Asturias, Galicia and the Canary Islands. However, this contrasted with setbacks in the party's own strongholds of Andalusia, Extremadura and Castile-La Mancha. The Unidos Podemos alliance only managed to improve on the 2015 combined results of Podemos and IU in the Basque Country and Navarre, suffering losses everywhere else. In Catalonia, the Republican Left–Catalonia Yes coalition (ERC–CatSí) saw gains at the expense of Democratic Convergence of Catalonia (CDC), which lost both Girona and Lleida which the Democracy and Freedom coalition had won in 2015. This marked the first time in democracy that ERC managed to come out on top in any province in a general election. The Basque Nationalist Party (PNV) lost in Biscay only for the second time since the return of democracy, which cost them the loss of the province's 3rd seat to Unidos Podemos. Failure in opinion polling was largely attributed to the sudden abstention of roughly 1 million Podemos' voters from December 2015, unsure of their party's chances of ruling after the election and partially disenchanted with politics at large after the failed negotiations in forming a government throughout the previous six months. At the same time, the PP result was attributed to a last-hour surge motivated by centre-right tactical voting against Pablo Iglesias, influenced by Unidos Podemos' strong showing in opinion polls. Voter turnout was a record low 66.5%, exceeding the previous lowest ever recorded turnout of 68.0% at the 1979 election. Of the four main parties, all except for the PP attracted fewer total votes than in 2015. The PSOE lost about 100,000 votes, the Unidos Podemos alliance 1,080,000 and C's 370,000. The PP received about 700,000 more votes. Government formation On 29 October, Mariano Rajoy succeeded in his investiture attempt with the support of 170 MPs to 111 against and 68 abstentions. 2017 motion of no confidence On 14 June 2017, a motion of no confidence in the government of Mariano Rajoy tabled by Unidos Podemos after a string of corruption scandals involving the ruling People's Party was defeated 170 to 82, with the main opposition Spanish Socialist Workers' Party abstaining. 2018 motion of no confidence A motion of no confidence in the Spanish government of Mariano Rajoy was held between 31 May and 1 June 2018. The motion was registered by the Spanish Socialist Workers' Party (PSOE) on 25 May after the ruling People's Party (PP) was found to have profited from the illegal kickbacks-for-contracts scheme of the Gürtel case. The motion was successful and resulted in Mariano Rajoy being replaced by PSOE leader Pedro Sánchez as prime minister. ==Notes==