2011 Spanish general election

Background

The 2008 general election resulted in a victory for the Spanish Socialist Workers' Party (PSOE) of José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero, who formed a new minority cabinet. The PSOE had been re-elected on a full employment platform, despite the Spanish economy showing signs of fatigue and economic slowdown after a decade of growth.

Following his defeat, Mariano Rajoy's continued leadership of the opposition People's Party (PP) was questioned by some party sectors and conservative media outlets. After fending off a failed challenge by Madrilenian president Esperanza Aguirre, While Rajoy was re-elected as PP leader at the congress held in July 2008, the internal crisis remained unresolved for months, as Rajoy and Aguirre continued to clash frequently. In early 2009, El País uncovered an alleged plot by the Madrid regional government to spy on Aguirre's political rivals, but the case was closed in 2010 after no criminal charges could be established. Another scandal saw the National Court opening a judicial probe into the recently uncovered "Gürtel case", implicating the PP—and particularly its branches in the Madrid and Valencia regions—in a scheme involving bribery, money laundering, and tax evasion. Investigations were delayed as a result of the examining magistrate, Baltasar Garzón, being suspended for violating lawyer-client privilege.

The impact of the Great Recession in Spain dominated Zapatero's second term, immediately facing worsening economic forecasts, a transport strike against the rapid increase in oil prices, and the Martinsa-Fadesa bankruptcy—a result of the Spanish property bubble's bursting causing a real state crisis—turning into Spain's biggest ever corporate default. Zapatero's initial refusal to publicly acknowledge the crisis came under criticism, until he was forced to do so after adopting an initial package of austerity and financial stimulus measures. By the end of 2008, Spain had entered recession for the first time in fifteen years, with unemployment reaching its highest in ten years, as the country was hit with the highest job destruction rate in the world. The "E Plan", a Spanish government-funded stimulus plan to create 300,000 jobs throughout 2009,—failed short of its goals and came under criticism over its spending unsustainability. A banking crisis forced Zapatero to bailout a number of failing savings banks—Caja Castilla-La Mancha, CajaSur, CAM, Unnim, CatalunyaCaixa, Novagalicia Banco and Banco de Valencia—with the Fund for Orderly Bank Restructuring (FROB) being established to manage the restructuring process. 2009 saw economy and finance minister Pedro Solbes being replaced by Elena Salgado, and the adoption of measures such as a "limited and temporary" tax hike worth €16 billion, the suppression of a €400 tax deduction, and a VAT hike to 18%, to tackle the ongoing revenue fall and spending increase.

Despite these efforts, unemployment kept climbing, public deficit soared to over 11% of GDP, and Spain's risk premium reached the 100 basis point-mark, forcing cuts to all public spending except for social benefits, welfare state policies and those involving a production model renewal. By May 2010, unemployment had reached 20% for the first time since the 1993 economic crisis, while the crisis in Greece—which threatened a eurozone crisis—caused the risk premium to rise dramatically and the Madrid Stock Exchange to deepen its losses. As a result, Zapatero announced a new austerity package aimed at preventing the country's default, which included cuts into public wages and dependency spending, state pension freezing and the removal of birth allowances. This was followed by a labour reform introducing suspension of collective agreements during economic downturns, a lower redundancy pay in cases of wrongful dismissal and cheaper dismissals for companies facing losses. Zapatero's U-turns caused his and PSOE's approval to plummet in opinion polls, as well as a general strike on 29 September 2010 against the proposed reforms. As the risk premium kept rising, a new austerity package in late 2010 saw the removal of a €426 allowance for long-term unemployed, the privatizations of AENA and the State Lotteries, a tax cut for SMEs, and a reform to increase the retirement age from 65 to 67 years to be applied "flexibly and progressively" until 2027.

During this period, the Spanish government had to deal with an air traffic controllers' strike over working conditions in December 2010, which led to a state of alarm being declared—the first since the country's transition to democracy—to militarize operations until the conflict was resolved. Mounting discontent led to the 15-M Movement in May 2011, with anti-austerity protests, demonstrations, and occupations sprawling in Spain during the ensuing years. Economic hardship and the weakening of the Catalan Statute of Autonomy by the Constitutional Court (a consequence of an appeal tabled by the PP in 2006) sparked protests and fueled a sovereigntist movement in Catalonia, which helped bring about the end of the "tripartite" government in the 2010 regional election and paved the ground for an increase in pro-independence sentiment in the region. Nonetheless, and while most of Zapatero's second-term pledges were either eclipsed or withdrawn as a result of the economic crisis, his government was able to pass legislation liberalizing abortion during the first 14 weeks of pregnancy, and allowing it in the following weeks when risks to a woman's life, her health or fetal impairment existed.

The Basque separatist group ETA maintained its activity during the 2008–2010 period—seeing the Burgos and Palma Nova bombings in 2009, among others—but police operations inflicted severe blows on the band's operational capacity. A judicial probe into the "Faisán case" unveiled a tip-off amid the 2006 ceasefire that prevented the collapse of an ETA extortion ring centered on the Faisán bar in Irun; the PP attempted to blame the case on interior minister Alfredo Pérez Rubalcaba, but no implication was ever proven and only two police officers were convicted for these events. ETA's last killing took place in March 2010, and on 5 September that year the group announced a ceasefire, which was declared as "permanent" in January 2011. Concurrently, the Supreme Court and the Constitutional Court banned several parties with reported ties to ETA and the outlawed Batasuna: the Communist Party of the Basque Homelands (PCTV/EHAK); Basque Nationalist Action (ANV); several groupings created to contest the 2009 Basque regional election (such as Demokrazia Hiru Milioi and Askatasuna); and Sortu in March 2011. However, the Constitutional Court overturned a ruling by the Supreme Court that blocked the abertzale left from contesting the 2011 local elections under the Bildu banner, with the new alliance achieving a major electoral breakthrough.

Zapatero announced on 2 April 2011 that he would not seek a third term as prime minister, but his initial plans to hold a party primary to elect a successor were scrapped following the PSOE's heavy defeats in the local and regional elections of 22 May 2011. defence minister and likely candidate Carme Chacón withdrew from the race in favour of Rubalcaba, now the first deputy prime minister , who became new prime ministerial candidate unopposed. The final months of Zapatero's term were dominated by his decision to bring forward the general election to November 2011 in the face of mounting political and economic pressure, as well as by a constitutional reform in the summer of 2011 that introduced a cap on future deficits, the principle of budgetary stability, and the prioritization of public debt payments over all other state expenditures.

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. Amendments to the electoral law in 2011 introduced a requirement for Spaniards abroad to apply for voting before being permitted to vote, a system known as "begged" or expat vote ().

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, terrorism or other crimes against the state. 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 and sub-delegates in the autonomous communities; the chair 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 National Commission on Competition; 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; deputies and senators elected on candidacies subsequently declared illegal by a final court ruling; 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. Concurrently, parties, federations or alliances that had not obtained a mandate in either chamber of the Cortes at the preceding election were required to secure the signature of at least 0.1 percent of electors in the aforementioned constituencies. Additionally, a balanced composition of men and women was required in the lists of candidates, so that candidates of either sex made up at least 40 percent of the total composition.

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 9 March 2008, which meant that the chambers' terms would have expired on 9 March 2012. The election decree was required to be published in the BOE no later than 14 February 2012, with the election taking place on the fifty-fourth day from publication, setting the latest possible date for election day on Sunday, 8 April 2012.

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.

As the Great Recession took its hold in Spain, prime minister José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero rejected several demands from the opposition PP to call a snap election in 2009 and 2010, as well as following the PSOE's heavy defeat in the May 2011 local and regional elections, assuring that it would be held when due in March 2012. However, on 29 July 2011, Zapatero announced that he had opted for the next general election to be held on 20 November of that same year, justifying this in order to allow the elected government to "face the economic year and the responsibilities of the country as of January 1", provide "certainty" and "stability" and "work on economic recovery, deficit reduction and ensure the consolidation of the recovery". Behind the scenes, it was said that the decision was the result of PSOE candidate Alfredo Pérez Rubalcaba's desire to avoid further political erosion due to the worsening economic indicators.

The Cortes Generales were officially dissolved on 27 September 2011 with the publication of the dissolution decree in the BOE, setting election day for 20 November and scheduling for both chambers to reconvene on 13 December.

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:

The Socialists' Party of Catalonia (PSC), Initiative for Catalonia Greens (ICV) and United and Alternative Left (EUiA) continued their Catalan Senate alliance without ERC, under the Agreement for Catalonia Progress name. Concurrently, the new green Equo party allied itself with PSM–Nationalist Agreement (PSM–EN), Initiative Greens (IV) and Agreement for Majorca (ExM) in the Balearic Islands and with Sí Se Puede (SSP) and Socialists for Tenerife (SxTf) in the Santa Cruz de Tenerife constituency.

Timetable

The key dates are listed below (all times are CET. The Canary Islands used WET (UTC+0) instead):

• 26 September: The election decree is issued with the countersign of the prime minister, after deliberation in the Council of Ministers, ratified by the King.
• 27 September: Formal dissolution of parliament and start of prohibition period on the inauguration of public works, services or projects.
• 30 September: Initial constitution of provincial and zone electoral commissions with judicial members.
• 3 October: Division of constituencies into polling sections and stations.
• 7 October: Deadline for parties and federations to report on their electoral alliances.
• 10 October: Deadline for electoral register consultation for the purpose of possible corrections.
• 17 October: Deadline for parties, federations, alliances, and groupings of electors to present electoral lists.
• 19 October: Publication of submitted electoral lists in the Official State Gazette (BOE).
• 22 October: Deadline for non-resident citizens (electors residing abroad (CERA) and citizens temporarily absent from Spain) to apply for voting.
• 24 October: Official proclamation of validly submitted electoral lists.
• 25 October: Publication of proclaimed electoral lists in the BOE.
• 26 October: Deadline for the selection of polling station members by sortition.
• 3 November: Deadline for the appointment of non-judicial members to provincial and zone electoral commissions.
• 4 November: Official start of electoral campaigning.
• 10 November: Deadline to apply for postal voting.
• 15 November: Start of legal ban on electoral opinion polling publication; deadline for CERA citizens to vote by mail.
• 16 November: Deadline for postal and temporarily absent voting.
• 18 November: Last day of electoral campaigning; deadline for CERA voting.
• 19 November: Official election silence ("reflection day").
• 20 November: Election day (polling stations open at 9 am and close at 8 pm or once voters present in a queue at/outside the polling station at 8 pm have cast their vote); provisional vote counting.
• 23 November: Start of general vote counting, including CERA votes.
• 26 November: Deadline for the general vote counting.
• 5 December: Deadline for the proclamation of elected members.
• 15 December: Deadline for the reconvening of parliament (date determined by the election decree, which for the 2011 election was set for 13 December).
• 14 January: Deadline for the publication of definitive election results in the BOE.

Campaign

Party slogans

Election debates

;Opinion polls

Opinion polls

Main article: Opinion polling for the 2011 Spanish general election

Voter turnout

The table below shows registered voter turnout on election day, without including non-resident citizens.

Results

Congress of Deputies

Senate

Maps

File:2011 Spanish general election map.svg|Election results by constituency (Congress). File:2011 Spanish election - Results.svg|Vote winner strength by constituency (Congress). File:2011 Spanish election - AC results.svg|Vote winner strength by autonomous community (Congress).

Aftermath

Outcome

With an overall voter turnout of 68.9%—the lowest in a decade—the Spanish Socialist Workers' Party (PSOE) suffered its worst ever defeat in a general election, while also scoring one of the worst electoral performances for a ruling party in Spain since the UCD collapse in the 1982 election. The People's Party (PP) was able to win an historic absolute majority with 186 out of 350 seats—the largest obtained by a party since 1982—after almost eight years in opposition. The PSOE went on to finish below first place in all but two provinces—Barcelona and Seville—while also losing both Andalusia and Catalonia, which up to that point had been carried by the PSOE in every general election. The 2011 Spanish election marked the continuation of a string of severe government election losses across European countries since the start of the 2008 financial crisis, including Iceland, Greece, Hungary, the United Kingdom, Ireland or Portugal.

Minoritary national parties, such as United Left (IU) and Union, Progress and Democracy (UPyD), benefitted greatly from the PSOE collapse, winning 11 and 5 seats respectively—2 and 1 in the previous parliament. This was the first time since the 1989 election than more than one of the smaller nationwide-contesting parties obtained more than 1 million votes in a general election, as well as enough seats to form parliamentary groups on their own right. The PSOE collapse also resulted in nearly all parties winning parliamentary presence in the Congress of Deputies increasing their vote shares—only Republican Left of Catalonia (ERC) and Geroa Bai (GBai) lost votes compared to 2008. The Basque Nationalist Party (PNV) lost 1 seat despite scoring higher than in 2008, but this came as a result of Amaiur's irruption, with 6 out of its 7 seats being elected in the Basque Country.

Convergence and Union (CiU), the party federation formed by Democratic Convergence of Catalonia (CDC) and Democratic Union of Catalonia (UDC), was elected to an historic general election victory in the region of Catalonia. The Socialists' Party of Catalonia (PSC), PSOE's sister party in the region—which had, up until that point, been the first Catalan political force in every general election held since 1977—scored a poor showing by finishing in second place with 27% of the vote. The 2011 election would be the last time both parties would dominate the Catalan political landscape in a general election; the next election, held on 20 December 2015, would see the alliance between CDC and UDC broken and the PSC being crushed to third place regionally by both the En Comú Podem alliance and ERC.

In terms of vote share, PSOE's electoral result, with 28.76%, would remain the worst electoral performance for a sitting Spanish government in a nationwide-held election since 1982 until the 2014 European Parliament election held two and a half years later, when the PP obtained 26.09% of the share, and in a general election until 2015—the PP obtaining 28.71%.

Government formation

Notes

References

Bibliography

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