Spanish general election, 2016 facts for kids

The 2016 Spanish general election was held on Sunday, June 26, 2016. People voted to choose members for the Cortes Generales, which is like Spain's parliament. This election picked all 350 members for the Congress of Deputies and 208 members for the Senate.

Before the election, surveys showed that two main groups were becoming very different in their views. These were the People's Party (PP) and an alliance of other parties. The PP was trying hard to stay in first place across the country.

When the votes were counted, the alliance actually got fewer votes than expected. But the PP gained more votes and won more seats. The Spanish Socialist Workers' Party (PSOE) stayed in second place, but they lost votes and seats. This was their lowest result ever.

After the election, Mariano Rajoy became the Prime Minister again. He started his second term on October 29.

Who Ran in the Election?

Many people ran to become part of Spain's government. Here are some of the main leaders who were candidates in the election:

• 

  Mariano Rajoy
  (People's Party)
  from Madrid

• 

  Pedro Sánchez
  (PSOE)
  from Madrid

• 

  Pablo Iglesias
  (Unidos Podemos)
  from Madrid

• 

  Albert Rivera
  (Cs)
  from Madrid

• 

  Gabriel Rufián
  (ERC–CatSí)
  from Barcelona

• 

  Francesc Homs
  (CDC)
  from Barcelona

Election Results: What Happened?

The election results showed which parties won the most votes and seats. This decided who would represent the people in the Spanish parliament.

Results for the Congress of Deputies

The election results

The Congress of Deputies is the most powerful part of Spain's parliament. Here's how the main parties did:

• The PP won the most votes, getting about 33% of all votes. They also won the most seats.
• The PSOE came in second place. They received about 22.6% of the votes.
• Unidos Podemos, an alliance of left-wing parties, was third with about 21.1% of the votes.
• C's was fourth, getting about 13% of the votes.

Overall, the PP won 137 seats, the PSOE won 85 seats, Unidos Podemos won 71 seats, and C's won 32 seats. Other smaller parties won the remaining seats.

Results for the Senate

The Senate is the upper house of the Spanish parliament. Its members are also elected by the people.

• The PP also won the most seats in the Senate. They got about 56.7% of the seats.
• The PSOE was second, with about 23.6% of the seats.
• Unidos Podemos came in third in the Senate, winning about 8.6% of the seats.
• Other parties like ERC–CatSí, EAJ/PNV, and CDC also won some seats.

Images for kids

• 

  Podemos celebrating its election result on 20-D.

• 

  The 15-M fifth anniversary coincided with the pre-campaign of the general election.

See also

In Spanish: Elecciones generales de España de 2016 para niños