A general election was held in Spain on 20 December 2015 to elect the members of the 11th under the Spanish Constitution of 1978. All 350 seats in the Congress of Deputies were up for election, as well as 208 of 266 seats in the Senate. At exactly four years and one month since the previous one, this remains the longest timespan between two general elections since the Spanish transition to democracy, and the only time in the country's history that a general election has been held on the latest possible date allowed by law.

Immediately after assuming office following the 2011 election, the new government under Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy adopted a harsh austerity agenda including social spending cuts, tax hikes and a labour market reform to address the Great Recession in Spain (amid soaring unemployment, public deficit and bond yields), as well as the request of a bank bailout through the European Stability Mechanism, which were met with an anti-austerity movement and two general strikes. A number of corruption scandals affecting the ruling People's Party (PP)—most notably, the Bárcenas and Púnica affairs, and the ongoing judicial probes into the Gürtel affair—further weakened the government's position and increased social distrust in traditional parties. During this period, the Monarchy underwent a reputation crisis over King Juan Carlos's elephant-hunting trips and the Nóos affair involving Infanta Cristina and her spouse, leading to the King's abdication in favour of his son, who acceded to the throne as Felipe VI.

Public discontent with the political system showed up in the results of the 2014 European Parliament election in Spain—which saw the emergence of anti-austerity Podemos (under political commentator Pablo Iglesias) and the Albert Rivera-led liberal Citizens (C's), curtailing expectations for left-wing United Left (IU) and centrist Union, Progress and Democracy (UPyD)—while the 2015 local and regional elections resulted in a wipeout of most of the PP's territorial power in favour of left-wing administrations. The resignation of Alfredo Pérez Rubalcaba as leader of the opposition Spanish Socialist Workers' Party (PSOE) triggered a 2014 leadership contest which was won by Pedro Sánchez. In Catalonia, disgruntlement with the ruling PP served as catalyst for a pro-independence push being supported by the regional authorities under Convergence and Union (CiU), which held a non-binding self-determination referendum in 2014 defying orders from the Spanish Constitutional Court. The outcome of the 2015 Catalan election briefly boosted C's polling numbers before dwindling to a Podemos's comeback during the general election campaign.

The election saw the PP, PSOE and IU scoring historical lows, with Rajoy's party seeing the largest loss of support for a sitting Spanish government since 1982. Podemos and C's won a combined 109 seats and over eight million votes, mostly at the cost of the main traditional parties, the IU-led Popular Unity platform, UPyD and peripheral nationalists: aside of a major breakthrough by Republican Left of Catalonia and CiU's breakup after 37 years of existence, support for the abertzale left EH Bildu fell sharply, while the Basque Nationalist Party stagnated. With the most-voted party securing just 123 seats and a third party winning an unprecedented 69 seats—the previous record being 23 in 1979—the result marked the transition from an imperfect two-party system to a fully-fledged multi-party system. After months of inconclusive negotiations, neither PP or PSOE were able to garner enough votes to secure a majority, leading to a fresh election in 2016.

Background

Running on a platform promising sweeping reforms to tackle the Great Recession in Spain, the People's Party (PP) under Mariano Rajoy won the 2011 general election in a landslide. Support for the ruling Spanish Socialist Workers' Party (PSOE) collapsed amid public anger over the economy's handling by the outgoing prime minister, José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero. A subsequent PSOE leadership contest saw former deputy prime minister and 2011 candidate Alfredo Pérez Rubalcaba narrowly defeat former defence minister Carme Chacón.

Throughout 2012 and 2013, Rajoy's first government adopted a strict austerity agenda to reduce public deficit and soaring unemployment, including social spending cuts and tax hikes, a labour market reform lowering severance payments, and austere General State Budgets. The nationalization of Bankia after its May 2012 crash heightened fears that Spain could become a new focus of the European debt crisis, while liquidity shortages forced several regions—Valencia, Murcia and Catalonia—to request state financial assistance. Rising bond yields pushed Rajoy to request a bank bailout from the European Stability Mechanism in June 2012, whose terms saw reforms in taxation (including the energy sector, further hikes on VAT and environmental taxes, or the abolition of home purchase deductions), spending cuts (such as in unemployment benefits, civil servants' bonuses, or long-term care), a public administration overhaul (with reductions of local councillors and public companies), and privatizations (affecting rail, air and maritine transport services). Additional measures included health copayments and court fees, major cuts into education and healthcare spending, reductions in coal industry subsidies, a temporary tax amnesty, the creation of a bad bank (Sareb), and the decoupling of pension increases from the CPI. Amid accusations of insensitivity, plummeting ratings, and criticism for breaking election pledges, Rajoy defended his policies as necessary to stabilize the economy, while justifying his U-turns on the situation he inherited. His government also secured a three-year extension to meet EU deficit targets. Spain officially exited recession in Q3 2013, and the bank bailout programme ended in January 2014.

Domestically, the government enforced a new Education Law (the LOMCE or so-called Wert Law), widely criticized as "ideologically driven", promoting school segregation and giving greater prominence to Spanish over regional languages. Another bill, the Citizen Security Law—dubbed the "Gag Law" by critics—was seen as restricting civil and political rights, especially freedom of assembly and expression, by imposing stricter rules and heavy fines on street protesters. An attempt to replace the existing abortion law with a much stricter regulation (limiting it to cases of rape or serious pregnancy complications) was ultimately abandoned after public outrage, leading to the resignation of the justice minister, Alberto Ruiz-Gallardón. The government also faced criticism over the 2013 Angrois derailment, the 2014 Ceuta incident (in which 15 migrants drowned as a result of police action), and an Ebola crisis in October 2014 (widely seen as poorly managed).

During this period, scandals and corruption allegations affected the ruling PP and various other parties and institutions: those involving former CEOE chair Gerardo Díaz Ferrán; the PP's Bárcenas affair (a slush fund financed through a parallel bookkeeping system for illegal donations); investigations into illegal party funding affecting both the PP and Democratic Convergence of Catalonia (CDC); several regional and local kickback-for-contract schemes (Pokémon, "three-percent", Púnica, and Gürtel, the latter forcing Ana Mato's resignation as health minister); misuse of layoff funds by the PSOE-led Andalusian government (the ERE affair, which prompted José Antonio Griñán's replacement by Susana Díaz as regional president); illicit dealings by former Catalan premier Jordi Pujol and his family; misuse of corporate credit cards affecting former Caja Madrid directors; or an investigation into a luxury penthouse owned by the Madrilenian president, Ignacio González. Scandals extended to the Royal Household with the Nóos affair (affecting the Dukes of Palma, Iñaki Urdangarín and Cristina de Borbón), and King Juan Carlos's controversial elephant-hunting trip to Botswana in 2012. The decline in the King's popularity, together with health issues, led to his abdication in June 2014 in favour of his son, Felipe VI. The scale of scandals during this period was compared by media to Italy's Tangentopoli in the 1990s.

Growing discontent with the Spanish government in Catalonia, along with the Constitutional Court's curtailment of the regional Statute of Autonomy, materialized in a massive pro-independence demonstration on 11 September 2012. Rajoy's refusal to a proposed fiscal pact from regional president Artur Mas pushed Convergence and Union (CiU) towards supporting independence, with Mas calling a snap election for November. After failing to capitalize on rising independence support, CiU relied on the Republican Left of Catalonia (ERC) in exchange for a roadmap to secession. The newly-elected parliament approved a sovereignty declaration and authorized a non-binding self-determination referendum in 2014, both of which were struck down by the Constitutional Court. This Catalan sovereignist "process" () was accompanied by large-scale mobilization, especially during the National Day of Catalonia gatherings of 2013, 2014 and 2015, while sewing divisions between the Socialists' Party of Catalonia and the PSOE. Growing tensions between CiU's constituent parties—CDC and Democratic Union of Catalonia—eventually led to the alliance's breakup in June 2015 after 37 years.

Austerity policies were widely blamed for increasing inequality and worsening social and economic rights, while a wave of evictions intensified social tensions. Discontent against Rajoy's government first became clear in the 2012 Andalusian election, and was followed by strong social mobilization: the Indignados Movement-organized mass protests and demonstrations; two general strikes in March and November 2012; the 2012 Asturian miners' strike; occupations and anti-eviction actions by the Mortgage Victims Platform; the "Surround" and "Besiege Congress" protests; or the so-called "citizen tides" and "dignity march" demonstrations. Meanwhile, the opposition PSOE—still weakened by internal strife and collective memory of its economic management—failed to capitalize on the unrest, allowing new parties such as Podemos (founded by political commentator Pablo Iglesias) to channel anti-establishment sentiment and disrupt the traditional two-party system in the 2014 European Parliament election. PSOE's poor results prompted Rubalcaba's resignation and the election of a dark horse candidate, Pedro Sánchez, as new leader. The snap 2015 Andalusian election in March saw strong results for both Podemos and the liberal and anti-Catalan independence Citizens (C's) led by Albert Rivera, their national rise confirmed in the May 2015 local and regional elections, which saw the PP being swept out from power in most regions and major cities.

Going into the general election, Rajoy promised to roll back some austerity measures (including tax cuts, pay raises for public workers, and increased social spending) owing to an improving economic outlook, with a softer 2016 budget being passed in October 2015. Concurrently, Catalonia held a new regional election in September 2015, which resulted in a joint CDC–ERC list (Together for Yes) relying on support from the pro-independence Popular Unity Candidacy; the three parties then approved the start of an 18-month independence process. A strong result by C's turned opinion polling into a three-way race with the PP and PSOE right before the election call.

Overview