A general election was held in Spain on 10 November 2019 to elect the members of the 14th under the Spanish Constitution of 1978. All 350 seats in the Congress of Deputies were up for election, as well as 208 of 265 seats in the Senate. It was a repeat election under the provisions of Article 99.5 of the Constitution,. as a result of the failure in government formation negotiations following the previous general election.
The April 2019 election had seen the Spanish Socialist Workers' Party (PSOE) becoming the only party that could realistically form a government. Overconfidence after the local, regional and European Parliament elections in May, political differences, and disagreements over ministerial posts with Pablo Iglesias's Unidas Podemos, thwarted Pedro Sánchez's re-election bid as prime minister of Spain in July. With no further negotiations during the summer and into September, King Felipe VI declined to nominate any candidate for investiture, leading to a fresh election on 10 November. The failure in negotiations prompted former Podemos's founder Íñigo Errejón to turn his regional Más Madrid party—which had debuted in the Madrid regional election—into a national alliance (Más País), comprising a number of regional parties and former Podemos and United Left allies, such as Coalició Compromís, Equo or Chunta Aragonesista, while also being joined by a number of Podemos officials.
The election campaign was overshadowed by the Spanish Supreme Court's verdict in the trial of Catalonia independence leaders, convicted of crimes of sedition and embezzlement for events related to the 2017 Catalan independence referendum and the 2017–2018 Catalan crisis. This prompted protests and riots in Catalonia, including an assault on the Barcelona–El Prat Airport by the Democratic Tsunami and Committees for the Defense of the Republic groups, while the Catalan government under Quim Torra rejected violence but called for peaceful rallies in support of the convicted leaders. Later into October, Sánchez's government enforced the exhumation of late dictator Francisco Franco's remains from the Valley of the Fallen mausoleum and their reburial at Mingorrubio Cemetery.
At 66.2%, voter turnout was the lowest since the Spanish transition to democracy, beating the previous negative record set at the 2016 repeat election. Results saw a partial recovery for the opposition People's Party (PP) under Pablo Casado and large gains for the far-right Vox party, both at the expense of Citizens (Cs), which prompted party leader Albert Rivera to quit politics. Both PSOE and Unidas Podemos saw slight decreases in support, but were still able to outperform the combined strength of PP, Vox and Cs; consequently, both parties agreed to set aside their political feuds and successfully negotiated a government in the days following the election, to become the first governing coalition in Spain since the Second Spanish Republic. The tenure of the newly formed government would be quickly overshadowed by the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic in March 2020 and its political and economic consequences.
Background
The April 2019 general election resulted in a clear victory for the ruling Spanish Socialist Workers' Party (PSOE) under the acting prime minister of Spain, Pedro Sánchez, but also in a highly fragmented parliament, with the right divided between the People's Party (PP), Citizens (Cs) and the far-right Vox. With both a grand coalition with the PP and a 180 seat-agreement with Cs ruled out because of mutual vetoes, a deal between the PSOE and Pablo Iglesias's left-wing Unidas Podemos—backed by smaller parties—appeared as the most viable outcome.
Talks were delayed until after the May 2019 local, regional and European Parliament elections, whose results largely confirmed the PSOE's general election gains. However, Podemos's poor performance allowed right-wing alliances between the PP, Cs and Vox to take or retain control of several key institutions, particularly the Madrid city council and the regional governments of Castile and León, Madrid and Murcia. This encouraged the PSOE to push for a single-party government with confidence and supply support rather than the coalition demanded by Podemos. At the same time, Cs was weakened by internal divisions over Albert Rivera's decision to prioritize the PP—including Vox—and veto any PSOE-led government; this led to the departure of critics such as Manuel Valls (former French prime minister and party leader in Barcelona, who gave support to Ada Colau's election as local mayor to prevent a pro-Catalan independence administration) and Toni Roldán (the party's economics spokesman). Meanwhile, Podemos also faced a party crisis marked by growing ideological and personal tensions, seeing the split of co-founder Íñigo Errejón into the Más Madrid platform and followed by further resignations among leading members.
After receiving King Felipe VI's nomination to attempt investiture, a political deadlock ensued as Sánchez and Iglesias clashed over the government's composition. Podemos demanded ministerial posts, while the PSOE offered only secondary positions. Both parties exchanged proposals in an attempt to pressure the other, until Iglesias eventually withdrew his demand to personally join the cabinet as it became clear that his presence—and disagreements over issues such as the Catalan crisis—was a major obstacle for Sánchez. Even so, deep mistrust between the two parties, negotiation leaks, continuous accusations, and disagreements over portfolios (especially equality and labour), prevented an agreement and led to a breakdown in talks. Sánchez's investiture bid was defeated 155–124 on 25 July 2019, with PP and Cs voting against (neither willing to abstain), Podemos abstaining, and smaller parties refusing to commit without a clear deal.
The summer recess ended without progress, as Sánchez postponed further negotiations until September while the PSOE hardened its position and withdrew its previous offer to include Podemos in the government without Iglesias. Final proposals saw the PSOE offering a programme of 370 policy measures and key responsibilities in state institutions outside the cabinet, while Podemos proposed a one-year trial coalition. A last-minute move by Rivera—who U-turned on his previous stance—offered Cs's abstention if it was joined by the PP and linked to certain conditions on taxation, Catalonia and government formation in Navarre, but the proposal failed to gain support. After further consultations by King Felipe VI produced no agreement, a snap election was called for 10 November 2019 amid mutual accusations among the parties.
Overview Under the 1978 Constitution, the Spanish were conceived as an imperfect bicameral system.. summarizing . 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 28 April 2019, which meant that the chambers' terms would have expired on 28 April 2023. The election decree was required to be published in the BOE no later than 4 April 2023, setting the latest possible date for election day on 28 May 2023.
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. summarizing . Still, as of , there has been no precedent of separate elections taking place under the 1978 Constitution.
The were officially dissolved on 24 September 2019 with the publication of the corresponding decree in the BOE, setting election day for 10 November and scheduling for both chambers to reconvene on 3 December..
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:.
Seats Constituencies 37 Madrid 32 Barcelona 15 Valencia 12 Alicante, Seville 11 Málaga 10 Murcia 9 Cádiz 8 A Coruña, Balearic Islands, Biscay, Las Palmas 7 Asturias, Granada, Pontevedra, Santa Cruz de Tenerife, Zaragoza 6 Almería, Badajoz, Córdoba, Gipuzkoa, Girona, Tarragona, Toledo 5 Cantabria, Castellón, Ciudad Real, Huelva, Jaén, Navarre, Valladolid 4 Álava, Albacete, Burgos, Cáceres, La Rioja, León, Lleida, Lugo, Ourense, Salamanca 3 Ávila, Cuenca, Guadalajara, Huesca, Palencia, Segovia, Teruel, Zamora 2 Soria
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