2023 Spanish general election facts for kids

Quick facts for kids
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	37,466,432 1.3%
Turnout	24,743,612 (66.0%) 0.2 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 136 122 33 Seat change 47 2 19 Popular vote 8,091,840 7,760,970 3,033,744 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 (electoral platform) Republican Left of Catalonia Junts Leader since 2 April 2023 14 October 2019 12 March 2021 Leader's seat Madrid Barcelona Barcelona Last election 38 seats, 15.3% 13 seats, 3.6% 8 seats, 2.2% Seats won 31 7 7 Seat change 7 6 1 Popular vote 3,014,006 462,883 392,634 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 TBD

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.

On the right side of the political spectrum, the People's Party (PP) underwent a leadership change 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. Far-right Vox has been open to support the PP in a hung parliament in exchange for government participation and programatic concessions. 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.

Despite speculation about an early election, Pedro Sánchez, the incumbent prime minister of Spain, consistently expressed his intention to complete the legislature as scheduled in 2023. 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.

The election saw the PP winning 136 seats in the Congress, the biggest increase in terms of vote share and seats. The PSOE placed second and overperformed polls with an increase in terms of vote share and seats. Vox saw decrease in popular vote and seats, while Sumar won 31 seats in the Congress, a decrease on the popular vote and seats of its constituent parties. Neither bloc achieved a majority, and they must rely on regionalists and independentists to form a government.

Overview

Electoral system

The Spanish Cortes Generales is envisaged as an imperfect bicameral system. The Congress of Deputies has 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 possesses a few exclusive (yet limited in number) functions—such as its role in constitutional amendment—which are not subject to the Congress' override. Voting for the Cortes Generales is on the basis of universal suffrage, which comprises 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. 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.

For the Congress of Deputies, 348 seats are elected using the D'Hondt method and a closed list, proportional representation, with an electoral threshold of three percent of valid votes—which includes blank ballots—being applied in each constituency. Seats are 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 are allocated the two remaining seats, which are elected using plurality voting. The use of the D'Hondt method may result in a higher effective threshold, depending on the district magnitude. Due to this allocation, each Congress multi-member constituency was entitled to a different numbers of seats.

For the Senate, 208 seats were elected using an open list partial plurality block voting system, with electors voting for individual candidates instead of parties. In constituencies electing four seats, electors can 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 is allocated four seats, whereas for insular provinces, such as the Balearic Islands and the Canary Islands, districts are 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 elect two seats each. Additionally, autonomous communities can appoint at least one senator each and are entitled to one additional senator per each million inhabitants.

Aftermath

There were 37,466,432 voters in total that had the right to vote in the general election. The election results showed that PP won 33.1 percent of popular vote and 136 seats in the Congress of Deputies, while PSOE won 31.7 percent of popular vote and 122 seats in the Congress of Deputies. Vox won 33 seats, losing 19 seats that it won in the previous election, while Sumar won 31 seats. Euronews reported that PSOE performed better in the election than in opinion polls.

During the campaign period, news agencies mentioned that in case of a PP victory, it would have to rely on Vox for a parliamentary majority. Feijóo said that he would prefer a minority government instead. The election results later showed that PP and Vox would not have enough seats to form a majority, considering that they won 169 seats in total. Both PP and PSOE claimed victory. Euronews commented that a snap election could take place due to both the left-wing and right-wing blocs not receiving a majority of seats in the Congress of Deputies.

In the wake of the election results, Catalan separatist party Junts was widely seen as being the kingmaker in these elections due to the fact that since neither the left nor right-wing blocs obtained a majority of seats, both blocs would have to rely on their vote in favour or, in the case of the left bloc, their abstention, to form a government, likely coupled with further concessions on Catalan independence. As a Catalan independence party, Junts does not support either of the two major national parties in Spain, the PSOE and the PP. Míriam Nogueras, the spokeswoman for Junts in the Congress of Deputies, stated that "Junts was not born to stabilise the Spanish State, but so that Catalonia may be an independent country". She also said that her party's vote on Sánchez's investiture would not be given for free.

On 24 July, Ana Oramas, the spokeswoman of the Canarian Coalition, expressed her party's refusal to support a "ghost government" of Feijóo, stating that "there is no possibility that [Feijóo] will be prime minister". The same rejection was stated hours later by Andoni Ortuzar, the president of the Basque Nationalist Party.

See also

In Spanish: Elecciones generales de España de 2023 para niños

• 2023 Spanish local elections
• 2023 Spanish regional elections