Elections to the Madrid Assembly, May 2003

The May 2003 elections to the Madrid Assembly were the sixth elections to the Madrid Assembly, the unicameral regional legislature of the autonomous community of Madrid, since the Spanish transition to democracy. The elections were held on 25 May 2003 to elect the 111 members of the Assembly, an increase of eleven seats compared to the previous elections.

Voting was on the basis of universal suffrage in a secret ballot. The electoral system used was closed list proportional representation with seats allocated using the D'Hondt method. Only lists which polled at least 5% of the total votes (including votes "en blanco" i.e. for "none of the above") were eligible for seats.

The elections saw the People's Party (PP), lose their absolute majority of votes and seats. Subsequently, a major scandal rocked the Assembly, as two members of the Spanish Socialist Workers' Party (PSOE) refused to enter into a pact with the third party, United Left (IU). With no candidate able to obtain the absolute majority of votes needed to become President of Madrid, fresh elections were held in October 2003.

Background

After 12 years of PSOE rule, the PP had won an absolute majority in the 1995 elections, retaining their majority in the 1999 elections.

For the May 2003 election, the ruling PP switched leadership: incumbent President Alberto Ruiz-Gallardón aimed for the office of Mayor of Madrid, which he successfully obtained with a safe majority, while the regional list was headed by Senator and ex-Minister Esperanza Aguirre. The election was hotly contested and in the end the PP won but fell some 25,000 votes short of a majority, with 55 out of 111 seats. The other two forces in the newly-elected Assembly, the PSOE with 47 seats and IU with 9, both leaning left, started negotiations and in the end agreed to a coalition government, which included the election of a favourable President of the Assembly (i.e. Speaker) and Bureau. As part of the deal, Socialists would control the majority of the government, but a disproportionate amount of the budget would be under the responsibility of IU regional ministers. This sparked criticism from some sectors in the Socialist party, but then-leader Rafael Simancas dismissed them as moot, saying "it was time for a government of the left in Madrid".

Scandal

However, when the opening session of the new legislature began and the temporary president^[1] called for the election of the Speaker to start, concern spread through the Socialist ranks: two of their Assembly Members (AMs) were missing,^[2] leaving the left-wing coalition with 54 seats against the 55-strong People's Party.^[3] At Mr. Simancas' request, the vote was delayed for 15 minutes but finally the PP forced its commencement.^[4] The result was the election of the PP AM Concepción Dancausa as Speaker and a PP-favorable Bureau (4 members against 2 Socialists and 1 IU).

The scandal swept into the media, making the two "absent" AMs, Eduardo Tamayo and María Teresa Sáez, the most sought-after people in Madrid that day. Suddenly, they granted a TV interview in which they explained their reasons for not showing up: the coalition deal with United Left, they insisted, was not fair to the voters, who had chosen the Socialists over IU more than five to one. Tamayo argued that "90% of the PSOE programme is irreconcilable with that of IU"^[5] Furthermore, both felt their concerns were too quickly dismissed they were raised in the internal party apparatus, which they criticised as being too willing to reach power no matter what the cost. In response, party leader Rafael Simancas, who denied such concerns were actually voiced in party meetings, started the procedure to expel them from the party. He then fired a full round towards the PP, which he accused of bribing the two AMs to prevent a left-wing government in Madrid and "using paychecks to change the election results".^[6] The rival party quickly denied all accusations and sued the PSOE for calumnies.^[7] The two parties immediately engaged in a political and media dogfight for the whole summer, while the third party in dispute, IU, only mildly criticised the PP and distanced itself from the confrontation.

The situation in the Assembly was no better, as the two PSOE AMs continued not to attend: even though the conservatives held a theoretical majority with 55 seats out of 109 and could push some decisions through, neither it nor the rival coalition could command the absolute majority of 56 seats required for the election of the President of Madrid. The People's Party was rumoured to be planning an investiture vote for its candidate Esperanza Aguirre, who called for the dissolution of the Assembly and fresh elections.^[8] The proposal was not moot, since the law governing the election of the regional President requires an absolute majority in the first vote, but only a plurality in a second poll, making the left-wing coalition unable to block the election of its arch-rival. Furthermore, the PP requested the legal services of the House to determine whether the "majority" would actually be defined to be 55 seats, since the two socialist AMs had never been sworn into their seats.

In response, the two AMs notified the Speaker they would finally enter the Assembly at its next meeting,^[9] which created an even more awkward situation: there was no viable majority, since the Socialist party had expelled them, denounced them as "traitors" and refused to accept their votes in an investiture session.^[9] Then, Assembly Speaker, PP AM Concepción Dancausa announced that she would be forced to call new elections if no candidate could heed the confidence of the House. In a bid to delay the new elections until after the summer, Socialist leader Rafael Simancas, who had pushed for a parliamentary investigation of the events, requested a vote for his investiture to be scheduled.^[10] He claimed not to intend to be elected, even though Tamayo and Sáez had offered their support should the pact with IU be modified.^[10] With Tamayo and Saez abstaining, Simancas lost the vote^[11] in a session marked by accusations and counter-accusations between the different groupings.^[12]

During the summer, a parliamentary committee was formed and put to work investigating the causes of the "betrayal". The left-wing coalition was cornered in the choice of committee members, since there was no way they could have a majority: either they followed the letter of the Assembly rules and allotted at least a member to each parliamentary group (thus again leaving the majority in the hands of Tamayo and Sáez) or accepted the PP proposal by which the House denied the two AMs representation in the committee on the grounds that they were the actual object of investigation (thus giving the majority to the conservatives). The latter choice was finally implemented^[13] and, after a month of 12-hour sessions in which many prominent politicians and businessmen from both sides were summoned and vast amounts of vitriol were served by both mainstream parties, the committee passed a report concluding Tamayo and Sáez were not bribed by PP and placing full blame on the PSOE. The report, however, was defeated in the full House vote, in which the two AMs (who could not then be barred from participating) joined the left-wing coalition in their "no" vote even though they kept defending their innocence.

Fresh elections were held on October 26, 2003, with the Socialists centering its campaign on the "stolen elections". Tamayo and Sáez created a new political party called New Socialism, gathering about 6,000 votes and no seats. The new result, with a slightly reduced turnout, was a majority for the PP, which ironically gained two seats (up to 57) from the PSOE (down to 45), while IU raised its voter share and fell just short of getting one more seat (but finally repeated its previous result of 9). About a month later, PP leader Esperanza Aguirre won the investiture vote and was sworn in as the 3rd President of the Autonomous Community of Madrid.

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