2023 Spanish general election

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All 350 seats in the Congress of Deputies and 208 (of 266) seats in the Senate 176 seats needed for a majority in the Congress of Deputies
Opinion polls
Registered	37,469,458 1.3%
Turnout	24,952,447 (66.6%) 0.4 pp
First party Second party Third party   Leader Alberto Núñez Feijóo Pedro Sánchez Santiago Abascal Party PP PSOE Vox Leader since 2 April 2022 18 June 2017 20 September 2014 Leader's seat Madrid Madrid Madrid Last election 89 seats, 20.8% 120 seats, 28.0% 52 seats, 15.1% Seats won 137 121 33 Seat change 48 1 19 Popular vote 8,160,837 7,821,718 3,057,000 Percentage 33.1% 31.7% 12.4% Swing 12.3 pp 3.7 pp 2.7 pp   Fourth party Fifth party Sixth party   Leader Yolanda Díaz Gabriel Rufián Míriam Nogueras Party Sumar ERC Junts Leader since 2 April 2023 14 October 2019 12 March 2021 Leader's seat Madrid Barcelona Barcelona Last election 38 seats, 15.3%[a] 13 seats, 3.6% 8 seats, 2.2%[b] Seats won 31 7 7 Seat change 7 6 1 Popular vote 3,044,996 466,020 395,429 Percentage 12.3% 1.9% 1.6% Swing 3.0 pp 1.7 pp 0.6 pp
Election results by Congress of Deputies constituency
Prime Minister before election Pedro Sánchez PSOE Prime Minister after election Pedro Sánchez PSOE

The 2023 Spanish general election was held on Sunday, 23 July 2023, to elect the 15th Cortes Generales of the Kingdom of Spain. All 350 seats in the Congress of Deputies were up for election, as well as 208 of 265 seats in the Senate.

The second government of Pedro Sánchez formed after the November 2019 Spanish general election consisted of a left-wing coalition between the Spanish Socialist Workers' Party (PSOE) and Unidas Podemos, the country's first such nationwide government since the times of the Second Spanish Republic. The government's tenure was quickly overshadowed by the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic in March 2020, along with its political and economic consequences. These consequences included the COVID-19 recession resulting from the extensive COVID-19 lockdowns implemented to curb the spread of the SARS-CoV-2 virus, as well as the economic impact of the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

On the right side of the political spectrum, the People's Party (PP) underwent a leadership change at the 20th National Congress of the PP in February 2022, following an internal push by Galician and Madrilenian presidents, Alberto Núñez Feijóo and Isabel Díaz Ayuso, to remove party leader Pablo Casado. Since Feijóo's accession, the PP led opinion polls and finished first in the regional and local elections of 28 May 2023.^[1] Far-right Vox has been open to support the PP in a hung parliament in exchange for government participation and programmatic concessions.^[2] The liberal Citizens party, once a leading force but having lost most of its support since 2019, decided not to run in this election, focusing its efforts on the 2024 European Parliament election instead.^[3]

Despite speculation about an early election,^[4][5] Pedro Sánchez, the incumbent prime minister of Spain, consistently expressed his intention to complete the legislature as scheduled in 2023.^[6] He had initially set a tentative election date for December 2023, near the conclusion of the Spanish presidency of the Council of the European Union. The poor results of the left-wing bloc in the May 2023 regional and local elections, with losses to the PP and Vox in all but three regions, led to a surprise early dissolution of parliament in what was described as a gamble by Sánchez to wrong-foot the opposition.^[7][8]

In the closest election since 1996, the PP saw the biggest increase in support and secured 137 seats in the Congress, but fell short of expectations which had placed it at around 150 to 160 seats. The PSOE placed second and overperformed polls by improving upon previous results, gaining over 1 million votes and scoring its best result since 2008 in terms of votes and vote share. Vox saw a decrease in its popular vote and seats, while Sumar won 31 seats in the Congress, a decrease in the popular vote and seats of its constituent parties. Neither bloc achieved a majority and, despite losses among Catalan independence parties, the balance of power was held by the Together for Catalonia (Junts) party of former Catalan president and fugitive Carles Puigdemont.^[9] Following a failed attempt by Feijóo to secure investiture, Sánchez struck a deal with Junts and most of the parliamentary regionalist and peripheral nationalist parties, going on to win re-election in the first ballot of investiture scheduled on 16 November with an absolute majority of 179 votes in favour.^[10]

Overview

Electoral system

The Spanish Cortes Generales were envisaged as an imperfect bicameral system. The Congress of Deputies had greater legislative power than the Senate, having the ability to vote confidence in or withdraw it from a prime minister and to override Senate vetoes by an absolute majority of votes. Nonetheless, the Senate possessed a few exclusive (yet limited in number) functions—such as its role in constitutional amendment—which were not subject to the Congress' override.^[11][12] Voting for the Cortes Generales was on the basis of universal suffrage, which comprised all nationals over 18 years of age and in full enjoyment of their political rights. Amendments to the electoral law in 2022 abolished the "begged" or expat vote system (Spanish: voto rogado), under which Spaniards abroad were required to apply for voter registration before being permitted to vote.^[13] The expat vote system was attributed responsibility for a major decrease in the turnout of Spaniards abroad during the years it had been in force.^[14]

For the Congress of Deputies, 348 seats were elected using the D'Hondt method and a closed list, proportional representation, with an electoral threshold of three percent of valid votes—which included blank ballots—being applied in each constituency. Seats were allocated to constituencies, corresponding to the provinces of Spain, with each being allocated an initial minimum of two seats and the remaining 248 being distributed in proportion to their populations. Ceuta and Melilla were allocated the two remaining seats, which were elected using plurality voting.^[11][15] The use of the D'Hondt method might result in a higher effective threshold, depending on the district magnitude.^[16]

As a result of the aforementioned allocation, each Congress multi-member constituency was entitled the following seats:^[17]

For the Senate, 208 seats were elected using an open list partial block voting system, with electors voting for individual candidates instead of parties. In constituencies electing four seats, electors could vote for up to three candidates; in those with two or three seats, for up to two candidates; and for one candidate in single-member districts. Each of the 47 peninsular provinces was allocated four seats, whereas for insular provinces, such as the Balearic and Canary Islands, districts were the islands themselves, with the larger—Majorca, Gran Canaria and Tenerife—being allocated three seats each, and the smaller—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 senator per each million inhabitants.^[11][15]

Election date

The term of each chamber of the Cortes Generales—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 the twenty-fifth day prior to the date of expiry of parliament and published on the following day in the Official State Gazette (BOE), with election day taking place on the fifty-fourth day from publication. The previous election was held on 10 November 2019, which meant that the legislature's term would have expired on 10 November 2023. The election decree was required to be published in the BOE no later than 17 October 2023, with the election taking place on the fifty-fourth day from publication, setting the latest possible election date for the Cortes Generales on Sunday, 10 December 2023.^[15][18]

The prime minister had the prerogative 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 had elapsed since the 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.^[11] Barred this exception, there was no constitutional requirement for simultaneous elections for the Congress and the Senate. Still, as of 2024 there has been no precedent of separate elections taking place under the 1978 Constitution.

Following his party's defeat in the 2021 Madrilenian regional election, Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez commented that there were still "32 months to go" ahead of the next general election, which meant that the election date was implied to be tentatively scheduled for January 2024.^[19] This opened questions on the maximum timetable for holding a new election, with legal interpretations up until that point considering that the Cortes Generales expiry date was set four years from the previous election;^[20][21] however, an interpretation that considered that the four-year timetable started counting from the chamber's first assembly or from the prime minister's investiture could push the election date into January or February 2024.^[22][23] On 2 August 2022, Sánchez himself dispelled any doubts on this issue by announcing that the election would be held in December 2023,^[24] a position reiterated on 27 March 2023 when he said that there were still "nine months left" in the current parliamentary term.^[25]

After the 28 May 2023 regional and local elections, Sánchez announced the following day that the general election would be held on 23 July, with the election decree being published in the BOE the day after.^[26] With only Sánchez's inner circle having prior knowledge of the announcement before it was made,^[27] political parties from across the spectrum were caught by surprise,^[28] with PP leaders in particular reportedly feeling upset over the election call as it prevented them from capitalising on their gains in the previous day's elections.^[29] The IBEX 35 stock index also reacted negatively to the surprise election call.^[30] The Cortes Generales were officially dissolved on 30 May 2023 after the publication of the dissolution decree in the BOE, setting the election date for 23 July and scheduling for both chambers to reconvene on 17 August.^[17] This was the first time such an election was held in July since the 1839 Spanish general election.^[31]

Parliamentary composition

The tables below show the composition of the parliamentary groups in both chambers at the time of dissolution.^[32][33]