Spanish general election, 1993

The 1993 Spanish general election was held on Sunday, 6 June 1993, to elect the 5th Cortes Generales of the Kingdom of Spain. At stake were all 350 seats in the Congress of Deputies and 208 of 256 seats in the Senate. This was a snap election, since new elections were not due until October 1993.

The Spanish Socialist Workers' Party under Felipe González achieved the largest number of votes and seats for the fourth consecutive time, though it lost its absolute majority in both chambers of the Cortes. In contrast, José María Aznar's People's Party won a large share of the vote, thus increasing their seats in both the Congress and the Senate and consolidating its position as the main opposition party. For the first time since 1979, the election brought in a hung parliament, forcing the governing PSOE to pact with nationalist groups in order to renew their mandate.

In the aftermath of the election, the PSOE saw itself under increased pressure due both to political instability as a result of its low majority (relying on increasingly unstable pacts with Convergence and Union to pass its legislation) and of the uncovering of numerous cases of corruption within the government itself. The pact with CiU would end in the fall of 1995, forcing PM Felipe González to call early elections 15 months before their scheduled date, which would see the opposition right-wing People's Party of Aznar win for the first time.

Elections in Spain

There are four types of elections in Spain: general elections, elections to the legislatures of the autonomous communities, local elections and elections to the European Parliament. General elections and elections to the legislatures of the autonomous communities are called after the mandate of the national or regional legislature expires, usually four years after the last election, although early elections may occur. Elections to local councils (municipal, insular or provincial) and to the European Parliament are held on fixed dates. For most elections party list PR is used, but the plurality system is used for the Senate.

General elections

General elections are elections held for the national legislature, which is called in Spain Cortes Generales (literally "General Courts") and consists of two chambers, the Congress of Deputies (Congreso de los Diputados) and the Senate (Senado). The Congress and Senate serve concurrent terms that run for a maximum of four years.

Congress of Deputies

Spanish general election, 2011

The 2011 Spanish general election was held on Sunday, 20 November 2011, to elect the 10th Cortes Generales of the Kingdom of Spain. At stake were all 350 seats in the Congress of Deputies and 208 of 266 seats in the Senate. This was a snap election, since new elections were not due until March 2012.

The election was held amid the ongoing Spanish financial crisis, and José Zapatero's government's perceived failure to cope with the worsening situation of the country's economy resulted in the ruling Spanish Socialist Workers' Party (PSOE) being swept from power in the worst defeat for a sitting government since 1982. The PSOE lost roughly 38% of its 2008 vote (4.3 out of 11.3 million) and garnered only 110 seats and 28.8% of the share – its worst result ever in a general election since the Spanish transition to democracy. In contrast, the opposition People's Party (PP) won a record 186 seats and 44.6% of the share and winning for the first time ever in the Andalusia region – which up until then had been won by the PSOE in every single general election.

Spanish general election, 1989

The 1989 Spanish general election was held on Sunday, 29 October 1989, to elect the 4th Cortes Generales of the Kingdom of Spain. At stake were all 350 seats in the Congress of Deputies and 208 of 254 seats in the Senate. This was a snap election, since new elections were not due until June 1990.

The incumbent Socialists once again emerged as the largest party, but fell just one seat short of an absolute majority in the Congress. With an hypothetical sum of all other parties being theoretically able to match the PSOE parliamentary strength, in practice the Socialist Party was able to govern as if it had an overall majority, as HB deputies remained absent throughout the entire parliamentary term until 1993. As such, Felipe González was able to be re-elected for a third consecutive term in office without much trouble.

The opposition People's Party, AP new electoral brand, remained about the same size as it had been in both 1982 and 1986, with around 26% of the vote and slightly below 110 seats. However, the election showing was way above both party and polls' expectations, even winning 2 seats from 1986, after it had obtained a mere 21% in the European Parliament election held earlier in 1989. As a result, PP candidate José María Aznar was able to consolidate his leadership within the party, assuming full control over the PP from Manuel Fraga on April next year.