1996 Spanish general election

Background

Following the victory of the ruling Spanish Socialist Workers' Party (PSOE) at the 1993 general election, Felipe González was able to be re-elected as prime minister for a fourth term in office through an confidence and supply alliance with the Catalan nationalist Convergence and Union (CiU) and the support of the Basque Nationalist Party (PNV).

The international economic crisis of 1992–1993 continued, with the newly-elected cabinet having to face the impact of unemployment growth, a large public deficit and recession. In an attempt to curb rising joblessness, the government passed a labour reform (legalizing temporary work agencies, introducing "junk contracts", easening employers' ability to modify working condition, reducing overtime and severance pays and making regulations on hiring and collective bargaining more flexible), which was met with a general strike on 27 January 1994. Economic recovery started that year with a slow decrease of unemployment rates and a GDP growth of 2%, but the deficit in the social security system led to the Toledo Pact: a multi-party agreement to transfer all obligations arising from the health care system and social assistance benefits—which would henceforth be financed entirely by general taxes—to the General State Budget, while social security contributions would be maintained to fund pensions.

The Basque separatist group ETA maintained its activity during this period, including the López de Hoyos bombing in Madrid which killed seven amid the 1993 government negotiations, the killing of PP local councillor in San Sebastián Gregorio Ordóñez, an unsuccessful attempt to kill opposition leader José María Aznar in April 1995 with a car bomb detonated at the passing of his official car, an attempted assassination plot of King Juan Carlos I in the summer of 1995, a car bombing in Puente de Vallecas in December 1995 which killed six, and the kidnapping of prison officer José Antonio Ortega Lara in January 1996, among others.

The 1993–1996 period was marked by the uncovering of numerous corruption scandals affecting the ruling party. In November 1993, Spanish daily Diario 16 unveiled that the Civil Guard director general, Luis Roldán, had amassed a large fortune since assuming office in 1986, which he proved unable to legally justify. In March 1994, El Mundo revealed that officers from the interior ministry had used money from the "reserved funds"—government slush funds originally intended to finance operations against terrorism and drug trafficking and not subject to publicity, justification or external oversight—to make bonus payments to high-ranking officers from the ministry, with Roldán's name appearing among the beneficiaries. In April that year, both media revealed that former Navarrese president Gabriel Urralburu had collected millions in kickbacks through the awarding of public works during his tenure, with Roldán having also benefitted from it. Roldán fled the country to escape legal prosecution, forcing interior minister Antoni Asunción's resignation for failing to monitor him. During his time on the run, Roldán admitted to having been paid bonuses from the reserved funds together with other high-ranking Interior ministry (including former minister José Luis Corcuera) and that he was told that prime minister González was "aware of everything". Roldán was captured on 27 February 1995 in Laos amidst claims that he had reached an agreement with the PSOE government (in what would be coined as the "Laos papers") to charge the former with just two crimes—bribery and embezzlement—in exchange for his voluntary surrender, a claim rejected by the Spanish government. Roldán would later be convicted for these crimes as well as fraud, forgery and tax evasion.

Concurrently, it was revealed in April 1994 that former governor of the Bank of Spain Mariano Rubio had 130 million Ptas of undeclared money in a secret bank account in the Ibercorp investment bank, which had been intervened by the Bank of Spain during Rubio's tenure in 1992. The new revelations in the "Ibercorp case" forced the resignations of Carlos Solchaga (former economy minister and then PSOE spokesperson in Congress, who had backed Rubio in 1992) and Vicente Albero (agriculture minister, who in May 1994 was discovered to own a secret account with undeclared money related to the scandal). This scandal would serve as a symbol of the connections between the PSOE government and the so-called "beautiful people": businessmen and nouveau riche who had emerged during the Socialist era.

In December 1994, two policemen convicted in 1991 for participating in the Liberation Antiterrorist Groups (GAL)—death squads involved in a "dirty war" against ETA—confessed to judge Baltasar Garzón that a number of former police and Interior ministry officers were involved and that the GAL had been financed through the reserved funds. Among those were former interior minister José Barrionuevo, former state security directors Julián Sancristóbal and Rafael Vera, former Biscay PSOE secretary-general Ricardo García Damborenea and a number of police officers. Throughout early 1995, those accused except for Barrionuevo were arrested and court-questioned, leading to the "GAL case" being re-opened by the Spanish National Court on 20 February. Barrionuevo argued that Garzón, who had contested the 1993 general election in the PSOE's electoral lists, was acting out of personal revenge against the party after political differences leading to his resignation as deputy in May 1994. Some defendants accused Felipe González of "knowing and allowing such activities", even pointing out that he could have been the person establishing and financing the GAL (the "Mr. X" person who was attributed leadership over the GAL network). Barrionuevo, Vera and Sancristóbal were convicted for the scandal, but the Spanish Supreme Court concluded in 1996 that there was not proof of González's involvement and that the accusations were based on mere suspicions. Declassified CIA files in 2020 pointed to González having "agreed to the formation of a group of mercenaries, controlled by the Army, to combat the terrorists outside the law".

In June 1995, El Mundo revealed that the Superior Center of Defense Information (CESID), the main Spanish intelligence agency at the time, had been recording and keeping the taped telephone conversations of dozens of prominent public figures for years, including politicians, businessmen, journalists and King Juan Carlos I himself, apparently without the cabinet's knowledge. This illegal espionage scandal led to the resignations of defence minister Julián García Vargas, under whose authority the CESID was responsible to, and deputy prime minister Narcís Serra, who had been Vargas's predecessor in the office between 1982 and 1991.

The mounting scandals and the impact of the economic crisis took their toll on González's party: it suffered its first-ever nationwide defeat to the opposition People's Party (PP) in the 1994 European Parliament election, and the 1995 local and regional elections brought about the loss of many Socialist governments throughout Spain and a decline in Catalonia for PSOE's parliamentary partner, CiU, which withdrew its confidence and supply support in July 1995. This materialized in the 1996 General State Budget being voted down by the Congress of Deputies on 25 October 1995. As a result, González was forced to call a snap election for early 1996, fifteen months ahead of schedule.

Overview

Under the 1978 Constitution, 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 limited number of functions—such as ratification of international treaties, authorization of collaboration agreements between autonomous communities, enforcement of direct rule, regulation of interterritorial compensation funds, and its role in constitutional amendment and in the appointment of members to the Constitutional Court and the General Council of the Judiciary—which were not subject to the Congress's override.

Electoral system

Voting for each chamber of 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, provided that they were not sentenced—by a final court ruling—to deprivation of the right to vote, nor being legally incapacitated.

The Congress of Deputies was entitled to a minimum of 300 and a maximum of 400 seats, with the electoral law setting its size at 350. 348 members were elected in 50 multi-member 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—using the D'Hondt method and a closed list proportional voting system, with an electoral threshold of three percent of valid votes (which included blank ballots) being applied in each constituency. The two remaining seats were allocated to Ceuta and Melilla as single-member districts and elected using plurality voting. The use of the electoral method resulted in a higher effective threshold based on the district magnitude and the distribution of votes among candidacies.

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

208 seats in the Senate were elected using an open list partial block voting system: 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 (Mallorca, 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.

The law did not provide for by-elections to fill vacated seats; instead, any vacancies that occurred after the proclamation of candidates and into the legislative term were to be covered by the successive candidates in the list and, when required, by the designated substitutes.

Eligibility

Spanish citizens of age and with the legal capacity to vote could run for election, provided that they were not sentenced to imprisonment by a final court ruling nor convicted, even if by a non-final ruling, to forfeiture of eligibility or to specific disqualification or suspension from public office under particular offences: rebellion and terrorism when involving crimes against life, physical integrity or freedom of the person. Other causes of ineligibility were imposed on the following officials:

• Members of the Spanish royal family and their spouses;
• The holders of a number of positions: the president and members of the Constitutional Court, the General Council of the Judiciary, the Supreme Court, the Council of State, the Court of Auditors and the Economic and Social Council; the Ombudsman; the State's Attorney General; high-ranking members—undersecretaries, secretaries-general, directors-general and chiefs of staff—of Spanish government departments, the Office of the Prime Minister, the Social Security and other government agencies; government delegates in the autonomous communities, and civil governors and sub-governors; the director-general of RTVE; the director of the Electoral Register Office; the governor and deputy governor of the Bank of Spain; the chairs of the Official Credit Institute and other official credit institutions; and members of electoral commissions and of the Nuclear Safety Council;
• Heads of diplomatic missions in foreign states or international organizations (ambassadors and plenipotentiaries);
• Judges and public prosecutors in active service;
• Personnel of the Armed Forces (Army, Navy and Air Force) and law enforcement corps in active service.

Other causes of ineligibility for both chambers were imposed on a number of territorial-level officers in the aforementioned categories—during their tenure of office—in constituencies within the whole or part of their respective area of jurisdiction, as well as employees of foreign states and members of regional governments. Incompatibility provisions extended to the president of the Competition Defence Court; members of RTVE's board and of the offices of the prime minister, the ministers and the secretaries of state; government delegates in port authorities, hydrographic confederations and toll highway concessionary companies; presidents and other high-ranking members of public entities, state monopolies, companies with majority public participation and public saving banks; as well as the impossibility of simultaneously holding the positions of deputy and senator or regional legislator.

The electoral law allowed for parties and federations registered in the interior ministry, alliances and groupings of electors to present lists of candidates. Parties and federations intending to form an alliance ahead of an election were required to inform the relevant electoral commission within ten days of the election call, whereas groupings of electors needed to secure the signature of at least one percent of the electorate in the constituencies for which they sought election, disallowing electors from signing for more than one list of candidates.

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 scheduled 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 6 June 1993, which meant that the chambers' terms would have expired on 6 June 1997. The election decree was required to be published in the BOE no later than 13 May 1997, with the election taking place on the fifty-fourth day from publication, setting the latest possible date for election day on Sunday, 6 July 1997.

The prime minister had the prerogative to propose the monarch 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. Barring this exception, there was no constitutional requirement for simultaneous elections to the Congress and the Senate. Still, as of , there has been no precedent of separate elections taking place under the 1978 Constitution.

Felipe González's government had been intent on ending the legislative term in 1997, but the opposition PP had insisted on a snap election being held as soon as possible. CiU leader and Catalan president, Jordi Pujol, sought to secure a balance between his party's preference for the next Catalan regional election—initially scheduled for March or April 1996—being held ahead of the general election, and the belief that González could not politically survive the mounting scandals. Following the local and regional elections on 28 May 1995, Pujol opted to hold the Catalan election in the autumn and force a general election for February or March 1996. While González resisted, he did no longer rule out an early electoral call in 1996. On 14 July, González and Pujol agreed for the Catalan election to be held in November and the general election in March, certifying the end of CiU's support to the government.

In September, CiU U-turned and announced that it would reject the 1996 General State Budget to trigger an earlier general election, but González's refusal to alter the agreed electoral calendar forced Pujol to advance the Catalan election to November. The State Budget was voted down by the Congress of Deputies on 25 October, Pujol and his party lost their absolute majority in Catalonia in the 19 November regional election, and González announced the parliament's dissolution—and the end of the 5th Cortes Generales—on 28 December.

The Cortes Generales were officially dissolved on 9 January 1996 with the publication of the dissolution decree in the BOE, setting election day for 3 March and scheduling for both chambers to reconvene on 27 March.

Outgoing parliament

The tables below show the composition of the parliamentary groups in both chambers at the time of dissolution.

Parties and candidates

Below is a list of the main parties and electoral alliances which contested the election:

There was speculation on whether prime minister Felipe González would run as PSOE's candidate for a fifth term in office, which he initially confirmed "if his party asked him to", being re-elected as PSOE leader in the party's 1994 congress. However, the judicial probe into the GAL case and political weariness made him reconsider, and by the second half of 1995 he was said to have taken the decision not to continue. The election of Foreign Affairs minister Javier Solana—widely seen as González's most likely successor—as NATO secretary-general in December 1995 thwarted González's plans to retire, with him confirming a new run following overwhelming support from his party.

The PSOE, United Left (IU), The Greens (LV), Nationalist and Ecologist Agreement (ENE) and Republican Left of Catalonia (ERC) formed the Ibiza and Formentera in the Senate alliance for the Senate election.

Campaign

Party slogans

Opinion polls

Main article: Opinion polling for the 1996 Spanish general election

Results

Congress of Deputies

Senate

Maps

File:1996 Spanish general election map.svg|Election results by constituency (Congress). File:1996 Spanish election - Results.svg|Vote winner strength by constituency (Congress). File:1996 Spanish election - AC results.svg|Vote winner strength by autonomous community (Congress).

Aftermath

Government formation

Notes

References

Bibliography

References

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123. (27 March 1996). "Acuerdo de 25 de marzo de 1996, de la Junta Electoral Central, por el que se ordena la publicación del resumen de los resultados de las elecciones para el Congreso de los Diputados y el Senado, convocadas por Real Decreto 1/1996, de 8 de enero, y celebradas el 3 de marzo de 1996, conforme a las actas de escrutinio general remitidas por las distintas Juntas Electorales Provinciales y las Juntas Electorales de Ceuta y Melilla". [[Official State Gazette]].
124. (11 May 1996). "Acuerdo de 30 de abril de 1996, de la Junta Electoral Central, de publicación de corrección de errores del resumen de los resultados de las elecciones para el Congreso de los Diputados convocadas por Real Decreto 1/1996 de 8 de enero, y celebradas el 3 de marzo de 1996, según los datos que figuran en las actas de escrutinio general remitidas por cada una de las Juntas Electorales Provinciales". [[Official State Gazette]].
125. Lozano, Carles. "Elecciones al Senado 1996".
126. Lozano, Carles. "Congreso de los Diputados: Votaciones más importantes".