2011 Spanish general election

A general election was held in Spain on Sunday, 20 November 2011, to elect the members of the 10th . All 350 seats in the Congress of Deputies were up for election, as well as 208 of 266 seats in the Senate. An election had not been due until early 2012, but a call by Prime Minister José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero for a snap election five months ahead of schedule was announced on 29 July 2011. Zapatero did not be seek a third term in office, and with political pressure mounting, worsening economic conditions, and his political project exhausted, an early election was perceived as the only way out.

The election campaign was dominated by the impact of the Great Recession in Spain: high unemployment, a large public deficit and a soaring risk premium. Opinion polls had shown consistent leads for the opposition People's Party (PP) over the ruling Spanish Socialist Workers' Party (PSOE), whose popularity had plummeted after Zapatero's U-turns in economic policy had forced him to adopt tough spending cuts and austerity measures. Massive anti-austerity protests had taken place in May 2011 under the form of the 15-M Movement, and in the local and regional elections held a few days later popular support for the PSOE fell dramatically. On 21 October, the armed organization ETA announced a permanent cessation of armed activity, turning the 2011 election into the first since the Spanish transition to democracy without ETA attacks.

The election resulted in the PSOE being swept out from power in the worst defeat for a sitting government in Spain up until that time since 1982, losing 4.3 million votes and scoring its worst result in a general election ever since the first democratic election in 1977. In contrast, PP's Mariano Rajoy won a record absolute majority in a landslide, being his party's best historic result as well as the second largest and, to date, last majority in Spanish democracy. Also for the first time in a general election, the PSOE failed to come out on top in both Andalusia and Catalonia, with the nationalist Convergence and Union (CiU) emerging victorious in the later, whereas the abertzale left Amaiur achieved a major breakthrough in both the Basque Country and Navarre. United Left (IU) experienced a turnaround of its electoral fortunes and saw its first remarkable increase in 15 years, whereas centrist Union, Progress and Democracy (UPyD) exceeded all expectations with over one million votes, 5 seats and just 0.3% short of the 5% threshold required for being recognized a party parliamentary group in Congress.

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'' unconvered 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 bursting—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 15 years, with unemployment reaching its highest in 10 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 measures such as a "limited and temporary" tax hike worth €16 billion, the suppression of a €400 tax deduction, and a VAT raise, 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 €15 billion 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 helped fuel a sovereigntist movement in Catalonia which brought about the end of the "tripartite" government in the 2010 regional election and paved the ground for the independence movement. 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.

Zapatero announced on 2 April 2011 that he would not run for a third term in the next general election, 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 deputy prime minister Alfredo Pérez Rubalcaba, 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

Electoral system

The Spanish 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 few exclusive (yet limited in number) functions—such as its role in constitutional amendment—which were not subject to the Congress' override. Voting for the was on the basis of universal suffrage, which comprised all nationals over 18 years of age and in full enjoyment of their political rights. Amendments to the electoral law in 2011 required for Spaniards abroad to apply for voting before being permitted to vote, a system known as "begged" or expat vote ().

For the Congress of Deputies, 348 seats were elected using the D'Hondt method and a closed list proportional representation, with an electoral threshold of three percent of valid votes—which included blank ballots—being applied in each constituency. Seats were 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 were allocated the two remaining seats, which were elected using plurality voting. The use of the electoral method resulted in an 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:

For the Senate, 208 seats were elected using an open list partial block voting system, with electors voting for individual candidates instead of parties. 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—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 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 legislature's term were to be covered by the successive candidates in the list and, when needed, by the designated substitutes, of which the list could include up to ten.

Election date

The term of each chamber of the —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 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 legislature's term would expire 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 election date for the 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. Barred 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 were officially dissolved on 27 September 2011 after the publication of the dissolution decree in the BOE, setting the election date for 20 November and scheduling for both chambers to reconvene on 13 December.

Parliamentary composition

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

Parties and candidates

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's decision nor convicted by a judgement, even if not yet final, which imposed a penalty of forfeiture of eligibility or of specific disqualification or suspension from public office under specific offences: rebellion, terrorism or other crimes against the state. Other general causes of ineligibility were imposed on members of the Spanish royal family; 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 Prime Minister's Office, government delegations, the Social Security and other government agencies; heads of diplomatic missions in foreign states or international organizations; judges and public prosecutors in active service; Armed Forces and police corps personnel in active service; members of electoral commissions; 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 the Nuclear Safety Council; as well as a number of territorial-level officers in the aforementioned government bodies and institutions being barred from running, during their tenure of office, in constituencies within the whole or part of their respective area of jurisdiction. Disqualification provisions for the Cortes Generales extended to any employee of a foreign state and to members of regional governments, as well as the impossibility of running simultaneously as candidate for both the Congress and Senate.

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, 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 coalitions 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.

Main candidacies

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 the and official start of ban period for the organization of events for the inauguration of public works, services or projects.
*30 September: Initial constitution of provincial and zone electoral commissions.
*7 October: Deadline for parties and federations intending to enter in coalition to inform the relevant electoral commission.
*17 October: Deadline for parties, federations, coalitions and groupings of electors to present lists of candidates to the relevant electoral commission.
*19 October: Submitted lists of candidates are provisionally published in the Official State Gazette (BOE).
*22 October: Deadline for citizens entered in the Register of Absent Electors Residing Abroad (CERA) and for citizens temporarily absent from Spain to apply for voting.
*23 October: Deadline for parties, federations, coalitions and groupings of electors to rectify irregularities in their lists.
*24 October: Official proclamation of valid submitted lists of candidates.
*25 October: Proclaimed lists are published in the BOE.
*4 November: Official start of electoral campaigning.
*10 November: Deadline to apply for postal voting.
*15 November: Official start of legal ban on electoral opinion polling publication, dissemination or reproduction and deadline for CERA citizens to vote by mail.
*16 November: Deadline for postal and temporarily absent voters to issue their votes.
*18 November: Last day of official electoral campaigning and deadline for CERA citizens to vote in a ballot box in the relevant consular office or division.
*19 November: Official 24-hour ban on political campaigning prior to the general election ( reflection day).
*20 November: Polling 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). Counting of votes starts immediately.
*23 November: General counting of votes, including the counting of CERA votes.
*26 November: Deadline for the general counting of votes to be carried out by the relevant electoral commission.
*5 December: Deadline for elected members to be proclaimed by the relevant electoral commission.
*15 December: Deadline for both chambers of the to be re-assembled (the election decree determines this date, which for the 2011 election was set for 13 December).
*14 January: Maximum deadline for definitive results to be published in the BOE.

Campaign

Party slogans

Election debates

;Opinion polls

Opinion polls

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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External links

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{{DEFAULTSORT:General election in Spain, 2011
2011 elections in Spain
2011
November 2011 in Spain