The 2008 Spanish general election was held on Sunday, 9 March 2008, to elect the 9th Cortes Generales of the Kingdom of Spain. At stake were all 350 seats in the Congress of Deputies and 208 of 264 seats in the Senate.
Much like the previous election, this election returned a hung parliament with governing Spanish Socialist Workers' Party (PSOE) being the largest party, increasing its share of the vote but remaining short by seven seats of an overall majority in the Congress. The Socialist Party, led by incumbent Prime Minister José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero, declared victory on 9 March, and the opposition People's Party (PP) conceded defeat. The distance between both main parties remained essentially the same as in 2004, with a slight reduction in favour of the PP. Zapatero was elected Prime Minister for a second term, after which he proceeded to form a minority government.
This election is notable for several reasons: it was the second of only two times in Spanish history that a political party won more than 11 million votes in a general election. The PSOE also won the most popular votes of any political party ever, breaking its own record in 2004. The sums of both PSOE and PP's percentage shares popular votes, and seats (almost 83.8%, over 21 million votes cast and 323 seats) accounted for the largest amount of popular support for the two main parties of Spain in a general election to date. United Left (IU) obtained its worst result ever in a national election with less than 4%, 1 million votes and just 2 seats. Union, Progress and Democracy (UPyD), the first nationwide political party aside from PSOE, PP and IU gaining parliamentary presence in the Congress since the 1989 general election, won 1 seat and slightly more than 300,000 votes.
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
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.
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.
This electoral calendar 2008 lists the national/federal direct elections held in 2008 in the de jure and de facto sovereign states and their dependent territories. Referendums are included, even though they are not elections. By-elections are not included.