Spanish general election, 2011

Spanish general election, 2011

2008 ← 20 November 2011 → Next

All 350 seats of 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 Turnout 68.9%   First party Second party Third party   Leader Mariano Rajoy Alfredo Pérez Rubalcaba Cayo Lara Party PP PSOE IU Leader since 2 September 2003 9 July 2011 14 December 2008 Leader's seat Madrid Madrid Madrid Last election 154 seats, 39.9% 169 seats, 43.9% 2 seats, 3.8% Seats won 186 110 11 Seat change 32 59 9 Popular vote 10,866,566 7,003,511 1,686,040 Percentage 44.6% 28.8% 6.9% Swing 4.7% 15.1% 3.1%   Fourth party Fifth party Sixth party   Leader Rosa Díez Josep Antoni Duran i Lleida Iñaki Antigüedad Party UPyD CiU Amaiur Leader since 26 September 2007 2004 11 October 2011 Leader's seat Madrid Barcelona Vizcaya Last election 1 seat, 1.2% 10 seats, 3.0% Did not contest Seats won 5 16 7 Seat change 4 6 7 Popular vote 1,143,225 1,015,691 334,498 Percentage 4.7% 4.2% 1.4% Swing 3.5% 1.2% New party

Most voted party in each province. Every province is a multi-member district for the Congress.

Prime Minister before election Jose Luis Rodríguez Zapatero PSOE Elected Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy PP

The 2011 Spanish general election was held on 20 November 2011 to elect the 10th Cortes Generales of the Kingdom of Spain. At stake were all 350 seats to the Congress of Deputies and 208 of 266 seats to the Senate.

It was a snap election, called by Prime Minister José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero four months earlier than scheduled amid the 2008–2012 Spanish financial crisis, after his government's perceived failure to cope with the worsening situation of the country's economy. The decision was announced on 28 July, with the official calling of the election and dissolution of the Cortes Generales taking place on 26 September.

The ruling Spanish Socialist Workers' Party, led by former Deputy Prime Minister Alfredo Pérez Rubalcaba after Zapatero's refusal to run for a third term, was swept from power in a landslide by the opposition People's Party under Mariano Rajoy. The PSOE scored its worst results ever in a general election since Spanish transition to democracy, with only 110 seats as well as its lowest percentage share of the vote since 1977.

Electoral system

The Congress of Deputies consists of 350 members, elected in 50 multi-member districts using the D'Hondt method, with Ceuta and Melilla electing one member each using plurality voting.

Voting is on the basis of universal suffrage in a secret ballot. The electoral system used is closed list proportional representation with seats allocated using the D'Hondt method. Only lists which poll 3% of the total vote in each district (which includes votes "en blanco", i.e., for none of the above) can be considered. Under articles 12 and 68 of the constitution, the minimum voting age is 18.

Apportionment

Spain
This article is part of the series: Politics and government of Spain
Constitution Current Constitution Constitutional Court Historic constitutions Human rights
Monarchy King Juan Carlos I Heirs apparent Prince Felipe Royal Family Royal House
Executive Prime Minister (List) Mariano Rajoy Deputy Prime Minister Soraya Sáenz de Santamaría Cabinet
Legislature Cortes Generales Congress of Deputies President Senate President Opposition Leader People's Defender Court of Accounts
Judiciary General Council of the Judiciary Supreme Court Constitutional Court Audiencia Nacional
Divisions Autonomous communities Regional governments Regional legislatures Provinces Comarcas Municipalities
Elections Political parties 2009 European Parliament election 2011 General election
Foreign policy Foreign relations European Union politics
Other countries Atlas Politics portal

Under Article 68 of the Spanish constitution, the boundaries of the electoral districts must be the same as the provinces of Spain and, under Article 141, this can only be altered with the approval of Congress.

The apportionment of seats to provinces follows the largest remainder method over the resident population ("Padrón") with a minimum of two seats (cf. Art. 162 of the Electoral Law).

Eligibility

Article 67.3 of the Spanish Constitution prohibits dual membership of both chambers of the Cortes or of the Cortes and regional assemblies, meaning that candidates must resign from regional assemblies if elected. Article 70 also makes active judges, magistrates, public defenders, serving military personnel, active police officers and members of constitutional and electoral tribunals ineligible. Additionally, under Article 11 of the Political Parties Law, June 2002 (Ley Orgánica 6/2002, de 27 de junio, de Partidos Políticos), parties and individual candidates may be prevented from standing by the Spanish Supreme Court (Tribunal Supremo), if they are judged to have violated Article 9 of that law which prohibits parties which are perceived to discriminate against people on the basis of ideology, religion, beliefs, nationality, race, gender or sexual orientation (Article 9a), foment or organise violence as a means of achieving political objectives (Article 9b) or support or compliment the actions of "terrorist organisations" (Article 9c). Article 55, Section 2 of the 1985 electoral law also disqualifies director generals or equivalent leaders of state monopolies and public bodies such as the Spanish state broadcaster RTVE. Lastly, following changes to the electoral law which took effect for the 2007 municipal elections, candidates' lists must be composed of at least 40% of candidates of either gender and each group of five candidates must contain at least two males and two females.

Presenting candidates

Parties and coalitions of different parties which have registered with the Electoral Commission can present lists of candidates (Article 44, 1985 electoral law). Groups of electors which have not registered with the commission can also present lists, provided that they obtain the signatures of 1% of registered electors in a particular district (Article 169).

Criticism

Apportionment displays some incoherence since the population count includes non-voting foreigners but excludes voting citizens living abroad. Another oddity is that apportionment and the election itself use different rules. Lastly, as in most countries (Scandinavia being an exception), the minimum seat requirement generates malapportionment i.e., the fact that a Soria voter weights 4 times more than a Madrid voter (using official 2010 population data).

General election

Background

The outgoing Spanish government was led by Prime Minister José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero from the Spanish Socialist Workers' Party, who had announced on 2 April 2011 in a Federal Committee of his party that he would be stepping down as prime ministerial candidate for the next election. Zapatero's decision not to seek a third term in office can be explained, partly, due to internal pressures within his party as both the party's performance in opinion polls and Zapatero's approval ratings had begun to plummet after Zapatero's radical change of policy on May 2010, when his government began to apply a series of unpopular austerity packages and budget cuts in order to try to curb the country's high public deficit during the ongoing Spanish financial crisis. However, Zapatero's own disaffection with the policies he had been instructed to apply from Europe, as well as the quick deterioration of Spain's economic situation (with a 20% unemployment rate), are also though to have helped influence his final decision.

Interior Minister and Deputy Prime Minister Alfredo Pérez Rubalcaba was chosen as the party's candidate for Prime Minister, as he remained the only candidate in the leadership election in his party after the withdrawal of the other major candidate, Carme Chacón, from the race to the 2011 general election. The other major national party, the People's Party, was led by Mariano Rajoy for the third successive time after two defeats in the 2004 and 2008 elections and fresh from its landslide victory in the May 2011 regional elections.

The end of the legislature presided over by PM José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero was initially scheduled for March 2012, but on 28 July 2011 Zapatero announced his intention to call an early election for 20 November. "I want a new government to take control of the economy from 1 January next year," said Zapatero to justify his decision. "It is convenient to hold elections this fall so a new government can take charge of the economy in 2012, fresh from the balloting." This decision made this election the 7th early election since Spain's transition to democracy.

As a result of President of Andalusia José Antonio Griñán's decision not to call a snap election in Andalusia, this was the first time since 1996 that a general election was not held concurrently with an Andalusian regional election. Andalusia held its election separately in 25 March 2012.

Political parties

Spain has more than 50 registered national parties, but fewer than 10 are considered significant. Since 1982, only 2 political parties have won in Spanish national elections:

• Spanish Socialist Workers' Party (PSOE), a social-democratic party;
• People's Party (PP), a conservative party.

At the 2008 general election the only two other nationally represented parties which won seats were United Left and Union, Progress and Democracy. A number of other regional parties also won seats (Convergence and Union and Republican Left in Catalonia, the Basque Nationalist Party in the Basque Country, the Galician Nationalist Bloc in Galicia, the Canarian Coalition in the Canary Islands and the Navarrese People's Union and Nafarroa Bai in Navarre).

A change in the electoral law, passed in January 2011, requires parties without representation in the Courts to obtain the signatures of 0.1% of registered electors per district they are running in. For an updated list please see the following link.

Campaign

The electoral campaign started at 12:00 AM on 4 November with the traditional pasting of party's posters.

Party slogans

• Spanish Socialist Workers' Party (PSOE): "Fight for what you want (Pelea por lo que quieres)"
• People's Party (PP): "Join the change (Súmate al cambio)"
• United Left (IU): "Rebel! (¡Rebélate!)"
• Union, Progress and Democracy (UPyD): "Every vote counts (Cada voto vale)"

Opinion polls

Main article: Opinion polling for the Spanish general election, 2011

Results

• 

  Spanish Congress of Deputies, after the election

• 

  Spanish Senate, after the election

 Summary of the 20 November 2011 Spanish General Courts election results

Parties and coalitions			Votes			Congress		Senate
			#	%	Swing	Seats	+/−	Elect.	App.	Seats	+/−
	People's Party	PP	10,866,566	44.63	+4.69	186	+32	136	30	166	+42
	Spanish Socialist Workers' Party	PSOE	7,003,511	28.76	−15.11	110	−59	54	20	74	−43
	United Left-The Greens	IU-LV	1,686,040	6.92	+3.15	11	+9	1	1	2	±0
	Union, Progress and Democracy	UPyD	1,143,225	4.70	+3.51	5	+4	0	0	0	±0
	Convergence and Union	CiU	1,015,691	4.17	+1.14	16	+6	9	4	13	+6
	Amaiur	Amaiur	334,498	1.37	New	7	+7	3	0	3	+3
	Basque Nationalist Party	PNV	324,317	1.33	+0.14	5	−1	4	1	5	+1
	Republican Left of Catalonia	ERC	256,985	1.06	−0.10	3	±0	0	0	0	−4
	Galician Nationalist Bloc	BNG	184,037	0.76	−0.07	2	±0	0	0	0	−1
	Canarian Coalition-New Canarias	CC-NC	143,881	0.59	−0.09	2	±0	1	1	2	±0
	Coalició Compromís	C-Q	125,306	0.51	+0.39	1	+1	0	0	0	±0
	Asturian Forum	FAC	99,473	0.41	New	1	+1	0	1	1	+1
	Geroa Bai	GBAI	42,415	0.17	−0.07	1	±0	0	0	0	±0
	Others		789,480	3.24		0	±0	0	0	0	−2
	Blank ballots		333,461	1.37	+0.26
Total			24,348,886	100.00		350	±0	208	58	266	+2
Valid votes			24,348,886	98.71	−0.65
Invalid votes			317,555	1.29	+0.65
Votes cast / turnout			24,666,441	68.94	−4.91
Abstentions			11,113,050	31.06	+4.91
Registered voters			35,779,491
Source: Ministry of the Interior

Investiture voting

On 20 December, the investiture voting was held in the Congress of Deputies. Rajoy was elected Prime Minister of Spain by 187 votes to 149 with 14 abstentions. Only Rajoy's party and the Asturian Forum party voted Yes. Eight political forces (outgoing Prime Minister's PSOE, CiU, IU, UPyD, ERC, BNG, Coalició Compromís and Geroa Bai) voted No, with the PNV, Amaiur and CC abstentions, for a total of 350 votes. Rajoy obtained the absolute majority by a lead of 11 votes, allowing him to form a government. Amaiur's abstention came as a surprise, since it was expected that they would vote No. This, they argued, was due to their belief that "It was not their competence to decide who is the Prime Minister of Spain".

20 December 2011 Investiture voting for Mariano Rajoy Brey (PP) Absolute majority: 176/350
Vote	Parties	Votes
Y Yes	PP (185), UPN (1), FAC (1)	187
No	PSOE (110), CiU (16), IU-LV (11), UPyD (5), Esquerra (3), BNG (2), Compromís-Q (1), GBai (1)	149
Abstentions	Amaiur (7), EAJ-PNV (5), CC-NC-PNC (2)	14