Spanish general election 2008

← 2004Spanish general election 20082011 →

 %

50

40

30th

20th

10

0

43.85

39.92

3.77

3.03

1.19

1.19

1.16

0.83

5.06

PSOE

PP

IU

CiU

EAJ / PNV ^e

UPYD

ERC

BNG

Otherwise.

Gains and losses

compared to 2004

 % p

   4th

   2

   0

  -2

  -4

+1.26

+2.21

-1.19

-0.20

-0.44

+1.19

-1.36

+0.03

-1.49

PSOE

PP

IU

CiU

EAJ / PNV ^e

UPYD

ERC

BNG

Otherwise.

Remarks:

^e in Navarre separate values ​​(in alliance with EA )

Distribution of seats in the House of Representatives

          

A total of 350 seats

• IU : 2
• NaBai : 1
• BNG : 2
• ERC : 3
• PSOE : 169
• UPYD : 1
• CC : 2
• EAJ / PNV : 6
• CiU : 10
• PP : 154

Allocation of seats in the Senate

         

A total of 264 seats

• BNG : 1
• PSM : 1
• PSOE - ERC - ICV - EUiA : 123
• Independent: 1
• PAR : 1
• CC : 2
• EAJ / PNV : 4
• CiU : 7
• PP : 124

The flags of the Autonomous Communities of Spain in front of the Senate building

Leo in front of the Congress

Palacio de la Moncloa , the official seat of the Spanish Prime Minister

The 2008 Spanish parliamentary elections took place on March 9, 2008. Both chambers of the Cortes Generales were newly elected. For the second time since the 2004 elections, the incumbent Spanish Prime Minister José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero from the Spanish Socialist Workers Party (PSOE) and opposition leader Mariano Rajoy from the People's Party (PP) faced each other. A total of 108 parties applied for seats in the Congress (Congreso de los Diputados) and the Senate (Senado) . In the past eighth legislature, 14 of them were represented in parliament. 35 million Spaniards were eligible to vote.

Starting position

Before the 2004 elections, José María Aznar (Aznar II cabinet) ruled the People's Party (PP). However, Aznar had already announced when he won the election in 1996 that he would be available for a maximum of two legislative periods. Nevertheless, most of the polls indicated that the PP would win the election.

Just three days before the election, on March 11, the terrorist attacks in Madrid's Atocha train station resulted in 191 deaths. The Aznar government tried, with no evidence to suggest, to attribute the authorship to the Basque terrorist organization ETA . It quickly became clear that Islamist terrorists had carried out this attack to protest against the Spanish army's mission in Iraq, which the Spanish public never had much support. These events caused public opinion to change and are seen as the main reason for the PP's defeat.

In the elections of March 14, 2004, the Socialists (PSOE) emerged as the strongest force and won 164 of the 350 seats in the Spanish Congress. In the Senate, the PSOE was only the second largest party with 81 seats after the People's Party with 102 senators. With the votes of the United Left ( Izquierda Unida , IU), José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero was elected Prime Minister. He then formed the Zapatero I cabinet , which from the start consisted only of members of his own party.

The defining themes of the 8th legislature (2004–2008) were the withdrawal of Spanish troops from Iraq, the failed peace negotiations with the ETA, the introduction of same-sex marriage and the resulting sharp dispute with the Catholic Church, and multiple legalizations of residence status large numbers of illegal immigrants and the strengthening of the autonomous communities (including the recognition of Catalonia as a nation within the Spanish state). These projects were implemented with varying majorities. In addition, the 8th legislature was shaped by conspiracy theories regarding the authorship of the attacks of March 11, 2004, which were disseminated by media close to the PP (especially El Mundo ). Based on insignificant inconsistencies in the investigations, an attempt was made to construct an involvement of the ETA.

Like the entire previous legislature, the election campaign was characterized by an extraordinary sharpness in the political debate. In addition to polls predicting a head-to-head race between the major parties PSOE and PP, this led to media coverage of the election campaign focusing on these two forces and their top candidates, Zapatero and Rajoy, what by the small parties was criticized.

Parties and coalitions of parties

Zapatero ( PSOE )

Rajoy ( PP )

Llamazares ( Izquierda Unida )

PSOE

The ruling party PSOE (Social Democrats) placed the previous Prime Minister Zapatero as the top candidate. The slogan for the 2008 campaign was "Con Z de Zapatero" ("With Z for Zapatero") and makes a self-ironic reference to the peculiar lisp of the top candidate.

Zapatero promised to lower the wealth tax because this v. a. the households with middle income benefit and the higher income groups already know ways and means of avoiding them. He also promised to raise pensions to 850 euros for people with partners and 700 euros for widowers. The minimum wage is to rise to 600 euros upon re-election and to 800 euros by the end of his second legislature (2012). He speaks out against xenophobia and homophobia .

Partido Popular

The People's Party (PP) sent Mariano Rajoy into the race as a challenger from Zapatero for the second time .

Rajoy promised to exempt the incomes of employees and pensioners with less than 16,000 euros a year from income tax . In 2008, this exemption limit in Spain was 8,000 euros (Germany: 7,664 euros per year , Austria: 10,000 euros per year , Switzerland: different cantons). He also wanted to create 2.2 million new jobs and increase the female employment rate to 68% by 2011. For this purpose, 400,000 child day-care places should be created.

Based on the French model, he wanted to create a "contract for immigrants" that should be open to migrants from non-European third countries who want to settle in Spain permanently and are ready to integrate. You should undertake to obey Spanish laws, learn Spanish if necessary, and accept Spanish customs and traditions. However, it was only vaguely described what the "Spanish customs and traditions" should be (for example, the prohibition of female circumcision and the prohibition of polygamy were mentioned). For years, Spain has been experiencing strong immigration from Africa (especially from North Africa) and Latin America , which meets the urgent need for workers due to the economic boom from 2003 to 2008, particularly in agriculture and the Spanish construction sector.

The People's Party decided before the elections to await a decision by the Supreme Court on same-sex marriage before discussing the exact circumstances of a withdrawal of this law.

In health policy, the waiting time for surgical operations should be reduced to 30 days and dental treatment should remain free.

Izquierda Unida

The Izquierda Unida (United Left) is an alliance of various left, communist and left ecological parties. The largest party in the alliance is the PCE , the Communist Party of Spain. It is the third largest political force in the country. It supported the previous minority government of the Social Democrats and is running for the election with Gaspar Llamazares as the top candidate.

The themes of her election program are anchoring secularism in education, a contribution of 0.7% of GDP to developing countries, the expansion of the welfare state and "democratic reforms".

Convergència i Unió (CiU)

The Convergència i Unió (CiU) (Convergence and Unity) is a Catalan party alliance of liberal and Christian Democratic parties. It is the only right-wing liberal force in Spain. In the VIII. CiU parliamentary faction was in power in the Congreso represented.

The CiU's top candidate is Josep Antoni Duran i Lleida.

Esquerra Republicana de Catalunya (ERC)

The Esquerra Republicana de Catalunya (ERC) (Republican Left of Catalonia) is a Catalan center-left party. She advocates the independence of Greater Catalonia (i.e. including Valencia and the Catalan territories in France). The party is part of the ruling coalition in Catalonia.

With her 8 MPs she supported the Zapatero government.

The top candidate is Joan Ridao.

Partido Nacionalista Vasco (PNV)

The Basque Nationalist Party (PNV) is a Christian-Conservative, bourgeois-nationalist Basque party that advocates greater autonomy for the Basque Country. She heads a minority government in the Basque Autonomous Community , in which Eusko Alkartasuna (EA) and the IU are also involved.

Other parties previously represented in parliament

A number of other parties won seats in parliament in 2004. These all competed regionally and, with the exception of the ICV, formed the mixed parliamentary group ( Grupo Mixto ) in the congress . The following parties or alliances take part: Coalición Canaria (CC) together with the Partido Nacionalista Canario (PNC) , Iniciativa per Catalunya Verds (ICV) together with the Esquerra Unida i Alternativa (EUiA) , Bloque Nacionalista Galego (BNG) , Chunta Aragonesista ( CHA) , Eusko Alkartasuna (EA) and Nafarroa Bai (Na-Bai)

Attack on March 7, 2008

After the failure of the peace negotiations between the Zapatero government and the Basque underground movement ETA, the latter declared the elections on March 9, 2008 to be illegal.

On March 7, 2008, just two days before the election, the ETA shot and killed Isaías Carrasco, a former PSOE councilor, in front of his wife and daughter in Mondragón, in the Basque province of Gipuzkoa .

All parties then declared the election campaign over. On the evening of March 7th, during a solidarity visit to Mondragón, the opposition leader Rajoy promised to do away with ETA once and for all. Zapatero called on those responsible for the attack at a media conference in Madrid to take responsibility for their actions and to face justice.

At noon on March 8, 2008, a solidarity rally took place in the town hall square of Mondragón in the presence of the 19-year-old daughter of the murdered man. She made a moving statement here. She referred to the murderers as "cowards" and " sons of whores ". She further said: “Anyone who wants to show solidarity with our pain should vote on Sunday. [...] We won't take a step backwards. "

Results

voter turnout

The two top candidates Zapatero and Rajoy cast their votes on the morning of March 9th at around 10:30 am in Madrid. With regard to the terrorist attack on Friday, Zapatero said: “Democracy will be strengthened if all citizens go to the elections.” Rajoy urged the Spaniards to vote, and “to think of themselves and the future of their country, which one Spain is. "

United Left candidate Llamazares, who also cast his vote in Madrid that morning, said he was convinced that by choosing ETA, the citizens of Spain would “teach a lesson”.

A total of 75.33% of Spaniards eligible to vote cast their votes. The turnout was 0.33 percentage points lower than four years ago.

Congreso de los Diputados

The Spanish Congress ( Congreso de los Diputados ) is the lower house ( Cámara Baja ) of the Spanish Parliament (similar to the German Bundestag and the Austrian and Swiss National Council ). It is the representative body and is elected every four years in free and secret elections by Spanish citizens inside and outside Spain, using a form of proportional representation that favors large parties and regional parties (see Spanish electoral system ). The Congress elects the Prime Minister with an absolute majority in the first ballot or with a simple majority in the second ballot.

Constituencies and distribution of seats

• 

  2004 constituencies

• 

  2008 constituencies

• 

  Distribution of seats in 2004

• 

  Distribution of seats in 2008

Change 2004–2008

	VIII. 2004 legislature			IX. 2008 legislature			change
Political party	be right	%	Seats	be right	%	Seats	%-Points	Seats
Partido Socialista Obrero Español (PSOE)	11,026,163	42.59	164	11,288,698	43.85	169	+1.26	+5
Partido Popular (PP)	9,763,144	37.71	148	10,277,809	39.92	154	+2.21	+6
Convergència i Unió (CiU)	835.471	3.23	10	779.425	3.03	10	-0.20	unv.
Esquerra Republicana de Catalunya (ERC)	652.196	2.52	8th	298.139	1.16	3	-1.36	-5
Partido Nacionalista Vasco (EAJ / PNV)	420,980	1.63	7th	306.128	1.19	6th	-0.44	-1
Izquierda Unida (IU)	1,284,081	4.96	5	969.871	3.77	2	-1.19	-3
Coalición Canaria - Partido Nacionalista Canario	235.221	0.91	3	174,629	0.68	2	-0.23	-1
Bloque Nacionalista Gallego (BNG)	208,688	0.81	2	212,543	0.83	2	+0.02	unv.
Chunta Aragonesista (CHA)	94,252	0.36	1	38.202	0.15	0	-0.21	-1
Eusko Alkartasuna (EA)	80.905	0.31	1	50,371	0.20	0	-0.11	-1
Nafarroa Bai (Na-Bai)	61,045	0.24	1	62,398	0.24	1	unv.	unv.
Unión Progreso y Democracia (UPyD)				306.078	1.19	1	New	New
other nominations	821.358	3.17	0	693,390	2.69	0
blank ballot papers	407.795	1.58		286.182	1.11
invalid	264,137			165,576
Voters	26.155.436		350	25,900,439		350

Results by provinces

Parties in detail

The highly polarizing election campaign brought the expected result: the two large pan-Spanish parties PSOE and PP recorded growth (PSOE slightly in relative figures, PP strong). In terms of the distribution of seats, however, the PSOE's lead did not change.

The bourgeois regional party CiU, which only competed in the four provinces of Barcelona , Girona , Lleida and Tarragona of the Autonomous Community of Catalonia , achieved 20.98% there and was able to improve its result slightly from 2004. It came in second after the Partit dels Socialistes de Catalunya (PSC) (45.33%, +5.86 percentage points), the Catalan branch of the socialists.

The Esquerra Republicana de Catalunya , a center-left separatist party, only competed in the two autonomous communities of Catalonia and Valencia . Valencia is considered part of Greater Catalonia by the supporters of Catalan left-wing nationalism. She suffered losses in both communities. In Catalonia - where she was still part of a coalition at the time of the election - she fell from 15.89% to 7.86% and lost 5 of its 8 seats. In Valencia it fell from an already insignificant 0.50% to 0.24%.

The two small all-Spanish parties, namely the left-wing alliance Izquierda Unida (IU) and the newly founded Unión Progreso y Democracia (UPD), felt the structures of the Spanish electoral system negatively. It is true that according to proportional representation chosen, but are the constituencies that correspond to the provinces, very small. The D'Hondt process worsens the chances of the third or fourth party in a constituency. Without regional power, it is difficult for them to win mandates. The IU's congress mandates were more than halved. As a consequence of the election results, their chairman (" Coordinador General ") Gaspar Llamazares announced on the evening of the election that he would not run again for party chairmanship. The UPD, which stood for the first time and sees itself as a liberal alternative from the center to the PP on the right and the PSOE on the left, nevertheless achieved a respectable success with one mandate (Madrid constituency, 3.76%). Due to the size of the constituency of Madrid with 35 seats, it is correspondingly easier to get a seat, as 1/35 of the vote is enough for a seat. In small provinces with only four seats, however, a party needs 25% of the vote.

The Basque nationalists (EAJ-PNV) and the left-wing nationalist Basque party Eusko Alkartasuna were punished by the electorate. To what extent this was a reaction to the March 7th attack, or whether the result only reflects the general trend against Basque parties, is not clear. However, voter turnout in the Basque Country was very low.

senate

The Spanish Senate ( Senado ) is the upper house of the Spanish Parliament and the territorial representation similar to the German and Austrian Federal Council and the Swiss Council of States . 208 senators were directly elected by the people on March 9, 2008. There are also other members sent to the Senate by the parliaments of the Spanish Autonomous Communities (one senator for every million inhabitants). These are in the IX. Legislature 56.

Direct elections take place in constituencies that correspond to the provinces (except for the Balearic and Canary Islands, where constituencies are the individual islands). In each of the provincial constituencies - regardless of the size of the population - four senators are elected, with each voter giving three votes and each party nominating three candidates. The supporter of a party will usually give his votes to the three candidates of "his" party. This usually results in the three candidates in the strongest party in the province getting more votes than the top-ranked candidate in the second strongest party. In the vast majority of cases, therefore, the strongest party will provide three senators and the second strongest party one for the province. In the 2008 elections, this was the case in all provinces except Ciudad Real . There is therefore a form of majority voting.

The composition of the senators sent by the regional parliaments can change during the legislature (if new regional parliaments are elected during the legislative period), therefore only the composition of the senate at the beginning of the legislature in March 2008 is given below:

• 

  2004 constituencies

• 

  2008 constituencies

• 

  Distribution of seats in 2004

• 

  Distribution of seats in 2008

← Composition Senate, March 2008 →
fraction	Senators total	Political party	Senators direct election	Political party	Senators indirectly
Partido Popular (PP)	124		101		23
Partido Socialista Obrero Español (PSOE)	105		86		19th
Entesa Catalana de Progrés	16		12		4th
Convergència i Unió (CiU)	7th		4th		3
Partido Nacionalista Vasco (EAJ-PNV)	4th		2		2
Collective group (Grupo Mixto)	8th	CC	1	CC	1
		PSOE	1	PSM-EN	1
		Independent	1	Independent	1
				BNG	1
				PAR	1

Government formation

On April 11, 2008, Rodríguez Zapatero was elected Prime Minister by the House of Representatives in the second ballot, in which a simple majority was sufficient.

Election of the Prime Minister IX. Legislature

candidate	date												Result
José Luís Rodríguez Zapatero	April 9, 2008 necessary: absolute majority (176/350)	Yes	168										168/350
		No		154				1	3				158/350
		abstention			2	10	6th			2	2	1	23/350
		Absent	1										1/350
	April 11, 2008 necessary: simple majority	Yes	169										169/350
		No		154				1	3				158/350
		abstention			2	10	6th			2	2	1	23/350

Elections in the autonomous community of Andalusia

In the Autonomous Community of Andalusia , 6,234,104 citizens (144,007 of them abroad) elected the regional parliament on March 9, 2008. The president of Andalusia Manuel Chaves gained an absolute majority with his PSOE despite losses and can continue to govern after 18 years in office. The PSOE reached 56 (-5) of the 109 seats, the PP reached 47 (+10). The list connection Izquierda Unida-Los Verdes-Convocatoria por Andalucía reached 6 seats. The regionalist Coalicíon Andalusista lost all of its 5 seats and is no longer represented in the regional parliament.

See also

• Political parties in Spain
• Electoral system (Spain)

Web links

• www.electionguide.org Elections March 9, 2008 in Spain (English)
• www.senado.es Website of the Spanish Senate
• www.congreso.es Website of the Spanish Congress
• www.mir.es Website of the Spanish Ministry of the Interior
• www.generales2008.mir.es Results website of the Spanish Ministry of the Interior

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Ministrio Interior: Las elecciones en cifras . (“The election in numbers”; Spanish). Retrieved March 9, 2008
2. ↑ (José Manuel Romero): 10 claves para entender el 9-M . El País, March 9, 2008
3. ↑ cf. this also includes the IU's share of the vote with the share of IU's deputies. The party considers this underweighting to be undemocratic.
4. ↑ Terror alert in Spain - In the sights of Eta and al-Qaida . Spiegel Online , March 6, 2008
5. ↑ Los que lo han matado son unos cobardes . El País , March 8, 2008
6. ↑ Telemadrid : Zapatero: "La democracia será más fuerte si todos los ciudadanos acuden a votar"
7. ↑ Telemadrid: El candidato del Partido Popular a la Presidencia del Gobierno, Mariano Rajoy, ha pedido hoy a los españoles que acudan a votar y que lo hagan “pensando en sí mismos y en el futuro de su país, que es España”.
8. ↑ Telemadrid: "El coordinador general de Izquierda Unida, Gaspar Llamazares, dijo hoy estar convencido de que la jornada electoral servirá para que los ciudadanos the" una leccióna ETA "con su voto, como reacción democrática al asesinato del ex de concejal socialista ( Guipúzcoa), Isaías Carrasco. "
9. ↑ Result without the Spaniards abroad
10. ↑ ^{a b c d} Boletín Oficial del Estado (BOE), Año CCCXLVIII, Número 93, April 17, 2008, pp. 20322 ff. (PDF)
11. ↑ in Catalonia: Partit dels Socialiste de Catalunya (PSC-PSOE)
12. ↑ in Navarre: Unión del Pueblo Navarro (UPN-PP)
13. ↑ in Valencia: Esquerra Republicana dels País Valencià
14. ↑ ^{a b c} 2004 Coalición Canaria without the Partido Nacionalista Canario
15. ↑ This newly founded, all-Spanish liberal party entered for the first time.
16. ↑ " Votos en Blanco " are valid according to Spanish electoral law (Art. 96.5 LOREG)
17. ↑ The constituency boundaries are congruent with the provincial boundaries.
18. ^ Electoral alliance made up of PSC (Catalan branch of the PSOE , 10 members of the parliamentary group), ERC (4 members of the parliamentary group) and IC-V (Catalan branch of the IU , 2 members of the parliamentary group)
19. ↑ Arturo Bagur Mercadal, member of the PSOE, stood in Menorca for the joint candidacy from PSOE, IU, PSM-EN (Partit Socialista de Menorca-Entesa Nacionalista) and Verds (Greens)
20. ↑ Pedro Torres i Torres, independent, stood in Ibiza-Formentera for the joint candidacy "Eivissa i Formentera al Senat" from PSOE and Eivissa pel Canvi, a left-wing civic movement
21. ^ Francisco Javier Tuñón San Martín, non-party, elected by the regional parliament of Navarre
22. ↑ Número total de electores .  ( Page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Junta de Andalucía; Retrieved March 10, 2008