Spanish general election, 2008

Spanish general election, 2008

9 March 2008
All 350 seats in the Congress of Deputies and 208 (of 264) seats in the Senate 176 seats needed for a majority in the Congress of Deputies
Opinion polls
Registered	35,073,179 1.5%
Turnout	25,900,439 (73.8%) 1.9 pp
First party Second party Third party   Leader José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero Mariano Rajoy Josep Antoni Duran i Lleida Party PSOE PP CiU Leader since 22 July 2000 2 September 2003 24 January 2004 Leader's seat Madrid Madrid Barcelona Last election 164 seats, 42.6% 148 seats, 37.7% 10 seats, 3.2% Seats won 169 154 10 Seat change 5 6 0 Popular vote 11,289,335 10,278,010 779,425 Percentage 43.9% 39.9% 3.0% Swing 1.3 pp 2.2 pp 0.2 pp   Fourth party Fifth party Sixth party   Leader Josu Erkoreka Joan Ridao Gaspar Llamazares Party EAJ/PNV esquerra IU Leader since 2004 2007 29 October 2000 Leader's seat Biscay Barcelona Madrid Last election 7 seats, 1.6% 8 seats, 2.5% 5 seats, 5.0% Seats won 6 3 2 Seat change 1 5 3 Popular vote 306,128 298,139 969,946 Percentage 1.2% 1.2% 3.8% Swing 0.4 pp 1.3 pp 1.2 pp
Constituency results map for the Congress of Deputies
Prime Minister before election José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero PSOE Elected Prime Minister José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero PSOE

The 2008 Spanish general election was held on Sunday, 9 March 2008, to elect the 9th Cortes Generales of the Kingdom of Spain. All 350 seats in the Congress of Deputies were up for election, as well as 208 of 264 seats in the Senate.

After four years of growing bipolarisation of Spanish politics, the election saw a record result for both ruling Spanish Socialist Workers' Party (PSOE) and opposition People's Party (PP), together obtaining more than 83% of the vote share—over 21 million votes—and 92% of the Congress seats. The PSOE under José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero benefitted from tactical voting against the PP and emerged as the most-voted party just 7 seats short of an overall majority. On the other hand, Mariano Rajoy's PP saw an increate in its vote share and seat count but remained unable to overtake the Socialists.

United Left (IU) had its worst general election performance ever with less than 4% and 2 seats. Regional nationalist parties Convergence and Union (CiU), Republican Left of Catalonia (ERC), Basque Nationalist Party (PNV) or Aragonese Union (CHA) were also hurt by the massive tactical voting towards the PSOE, falling to historical lows of popular support. Union, Progress and Democracy (UPyD), with 1 seat and slightly more than 300,000 votes, became the first nationwide party aside from PSOE, PP and IU entering in parliament in over two decades.

Zapatero was sworn in as Prime Minister of Spain for a second term in office in April 2008, just as the Spanish economy began showing signs of fatigue and economic slowdown after a decade of growth.

Electoral system

The Spanish Cortes Generales were regarded as an imperfect bicameral system. The Congress of Deputies had greater legislative power than the Senate, having the ability to grant or revoke confidence 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.^[1][2] Voting for the Cortes Generales was on the basis of universal suffrage, with all nationals over eighteen and in full enjoyment of all political rights entitled to vote.

For the Congress of Deputies, 348 seats were elected using the D'Hondt method and a closed list proportional representation, with a threshold of 3 per 100 of valid votes—which included blank ballots—being applied in each constituency. Parties not reaching the threshold were not taken into consideration for seat distribution. Additionally, the use of the D'Hondt method might result in an effective threshold over three percent, dependant on the district magnitude.^[3] Seats were allocated to constituencies, corresponding to the provinces of Spain. Each constituency was entitled to an initial minimum of two seats, with the remaining 248 allocated among the constituencies in proportion to their populations. Ceuta and Melilla were allocated the two remaining seats, which were elected using plurality voting.^[1][4][5][6]

For the Senate, 208 seats were elected using an open list partial block voting, 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.^[1][4][5][6]

The electoral law provided that parties, federations, coalitions and groupings of electors were allowed to present lists of candidates. However, groupings of electors were required to secure at least the signature of 1 per 100 of the electors entered in electoral register of the constituency for which they were seeking election. Electors were barred from signing for more than one list of candidates. Concurrently, parties and federations intending to enter in coalition to take part jointly at an election were required to inform the relevant Electoral Commission within ten days from the election call.^[4][6]

Election date

Articles 68 and 69 of the Spanish Constitution of 1978 established that the term of each House of the Cortes Generales—the Congress and the Senate—expired four years from the date of their previous election, unless they were dissolved earlier. Article 42 of the General Electoral System Law of 1985 required for the election Decree to be issued no later than the twenty-fifth day prior to the date of expiry of the Cortes in the event that the Prime Minister did not make use of his prerogative of early dissolution. The Decree was to be published on the following day in the Official State Gazette, with election day taking place on the fifty-fourth day from publication. The previous election was held on 14 March 2004, which meant that the legislature's term would expire on 14 March 2008. The election Decree was required to be published no later than 19 February 2008, with the election taking place on the fifty-fourth day from publication, setting the latest possible election date for the Cortes Generales at Sunday, 13 April 2008.^[4][6]

Article 115 of the Constitution granted the Prime Minister the prerogative to dissolve both Houses 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 under Article 116 was in force and that dissolution did not occur before one year had elapsed since the previous one. Additionally, under Article 99 both Houses 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.^[1][5] While there was no constitutional requirement—aside from Article 99—for simultaneous elections for the Congress and the Senate, there were no precedents for separate elections, with governments having long preferred that elections for the two Houses take place simultaneously.

Parties and leaders

Campaigns

Although the official electoral campaign period in Spain only lasts for the 15 days before the election, (with the exception of the day just before the election), many parties, especially the PP and PSOE, start their "pre-campaigns" months in advance, often before having finalised their electoral lists.

PSOE

The first phase campaign was done under the slogan "Con Z de Zapatero" (With Z of Zapatero), a joke based on the Prime Minister and socialist candidate's habit of tending to pronounce words ending with D as if they ended with Z. The campaign was linked to terms like equality (Igualdad-Igualdaz) or solidarity (Solidaridad-Solidaridaz), emphasizing the policies carried out by the current government. The second phase was done under the slogan "La Mirada Positiva" (The Positive outlook), emphasising the future government platform, and "Vota con todas tus fuerzas" (Vote with all of your strength), aiming to mobilize the indecisive or potentially abstaining voters. Another common slogan through all the campaign was "Motivos para creer" (Reasons to believe in).

PP

For the pre-campaign the PP used the slogan "Con Rajoy es Posible" (With Rajoy it's Possible). Usually emphasizing PP's campaign proposals, such as "Llegar a fin de mes, Con Rajoy es Posible" (Making ends meet, With Rajoy it's Possible). IU accused PP of copying its slogan from the last municipal elections^[7]

IU

IU chose the pre-campaign slogan "LlamazarES + Más Izquierda" (LlamazarES (is) More Left), calling attention to their position as the third national party.

Campaign issues

The economy

The economy became a major campaign issue due to a number of factors:

• A slowing down in the housing market, with prices even beginning to fall in some areas.
• Sharp increases in prices of some basic commodities.
• Global instability as a result of market uncertainty.
• A rise in unemployment.

The sudden emergence of the economy as a political issue came after several years of steady economic growth, and led some observers to suggest that maybe the government would have benefitted from calling an earlier election.^[8] In addition to those factors both the PP and the PSOE made competing proposals on taxation.

Opinion polls

Results

Congress of Deputies

← Summary of the 9 March 2008 Congress of Deputies election results →

Parties and coalitions		Popular vote			Seats
		Votes	%	±pp	Won	+/−
	Spanish Socialist Workers' Party (PSOE)	11,289,335	43.87	+1.28	169	+5
	People's Party (PP)	10,278,010	39.94	+2.23	154	+6
	United Left (IU)	969,946	3.77	–1.19	2	–3
	Convergence and Union (CiU)	779,425	3.03	–0.20	10	±0
	Basque Nationalist Party (EAJ/PNV)	306,128	1.19	–0.44	6	–1
	Union, Progress and Democracy (UPyD)	306,079	1.19	New	1	+1
	Republican Left of Catalonia (esquerra)	298,139	1.16	–1.36	3	–5
	Galician Nationalist Bloc (BNG)	212,543	0.83	+0.02	2	±0
	Canarian Coalition–Canarian Nationalist Party (CC–PNC)1	174,629	0.68	–0.25	2	–1
	Andalusian Coalition (CA)2	68,679	0.27	–0.52	0	±0
	Navarre Yes (NaBai)3	62,398	0.24	±0.00	1	±0
	Basque Solidarity (EA)	50,371	0.20	–0.11	0	–1

Senate

← Summary of the 9 March 2008 Senate of Spain election results →

Parties and coalitions		Seats
		Won	+/−	Not up	Total seats
	People's Party (PP)	101	–1	23	124
	Spanish Socialist Workers' Party (PSOE)	88	+7	19	107
	Catalan Agreement of Progress (PSC–ERC–ICV–EUiA)[lower-alpha 1]	12	±0	4	16
	Convergence and Union (CiU)	4	±0	3	7
	Basque Nationalist Party (EAJ/PNV)	2	–4	2	4
	Galician Nationalist Bloc (BNG)	0	±0	1	1
	Canarian Coalition–Canarian Nationalist Party (CC–PNC)	1	–2	1	2
	Aragonese Party (PAR)	0	±0	1	1
	Socialist Party of Majorca (PSM)	0	±0	1	1
	Independents	0	±0	1	1
Total		208	±0	56	264
Source(s): Ministry of the Interior, historiaelectoral.com
↑ Alliance of PSC (8 elected seats), ERC (3 elected seats) and ICV–EUiA (1 elected seat).

Aftermath

Investiture

Notes

References

External links

• Election Guide- Spain Profile
• NSD: European Election Database - Spain publishes regional level election data; allows for comparisons of election results, 1993–2008

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