2004 European Parliament election in Spain

The 2004 European Parliament election in Spain was held on Sunday, 13 June 2004, as part of the EU-wide election to elect the 6th European Parliament. All 54 seats allocated to Spain as per the Treaty of Nice were up for election.

The election saw a close race between the centre-left Spanish Socialist Workers' Party (PSOE), which had accessed power earlier in April in the wake of the 11M train bombings leading up to the 14 March general election, and the centre-right People's Party (PP), still reeling from its election defeat. It marked the only time the PSOE emerged as the largest party in a European Parliament election in Spain between 1989 and 2019. It also saw a considerable drop in turnout down to 45.1%, the lowest up until that point—a figure that would be outmatched by the turnout in the two subsequent European Parliament elections, 2009 (44.9%) and 2014 (43.8%).

Electoral system

The 54 members of the European Parliament allocated to Spain as per the Treaty of Nice were elected using the D'Hondt method and a closed list proportional representation, with no electoral threshold being applied to be entitled to enter seat distribution. Seats were allocated to a single multi-member constituency comprising the entire national territory. Voting was on the basis of universal suffrage, which comprised all nationals and resident non-national European citizens over 18 years of age and in full enjoyment of their political rights. However, the use of the D'Hondt method might result in an effective threshold depending on the district magnitude.

Outgoing delegation

Parties and candidates

The electoral law allowed for parties and federations registered in the interior ministry, coalitions and groupings of electors to present lists of candidates. Parties and federations intending to form a coalition ahead of an election were required to inform the relevant Electoral Commission within ten days of the election call. In order to be entitled to run, parties, federations, coalitions and groupings of electors needed to secure the signature of at least 15,000 registered electors; this requirement could be lifted and replaced through the signature of at least 50 elected officials—deputies, senators, MEPs or members from the legislative assemblies of autonomous communities or from local city councils. Electors and elected officials were disallowed from signing for more than one list of candidates.

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

The abertzale left tried to run under the umbrella of the ''Herritarren Zerrenda'' list (Basque for "Citizens' List"). However, the Spanish Supreme Court annulled HZ lists and banned them from running on 22 May 2004, as it considered that the candidacy's promoters and half of its candidates had links with the outlawed Batasuna and with the ETA environment.

Opinion polls

The table below lists voting intention estimates in reverse chronological order, showing the most recent first and using the dates when the survey fieldwork was done, as opposed to the date of publication. Where the fieldwork dates are unknown, the date of publication is given instead. The highest percentage figure in each polling survey is displayed with its background shaded in the leading party's colour. If a tie ensues, this is applied to the figures with the highest percentages. The "Lead" column on the right shows the percentage-point difference between the parties with the highest percentages in a given poll. When available, seat projections are also displayed below the voting estimates in a smaller font.

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Results

Overall

Distribution by European group

Elected legislators

The following table lists the elected legislators::

Notes

References

;Opinion poll sources

;Other

External links

European elections Spain
in Europe Politique.

{{Spanish elections

Spain
2004
European Parliament