Spanish general election 1979
On March 1, 1979 found Spain elections to the Spanish Parliament, the Cortes Generales , which of the two chambers Congreso de los Diputados (House of Representatives) and Senado (Senate) consists instead. The congreso is politically much more important of the two chambers. The first legislative period after the end of the Franco dictatorship began with the elections .
Starting position
The Cortes Generales, elected in 1977, passed the new democratic constitution on October 31, 1978, which was confirmed in a referendum on December 6, 1978. The constitution then came into force on December 29, 1978. On the same day, Prime Minister Adolfo Suárez ( UCD ) dissolved the Constituent Cortes Generales and put the election of the new parliament on March 1, 1979.
Result
The election did not lead to any significant change in the political balance of power. Prime Minister Suárez's UCD was again the strongest force with a lead of four percentage points over the social democratic PSOE .
Congreso (House of Representatives)
- Eligible voters: 26,836,490
- Turnout: 68.04% (-10.79% compared to 1977)
| ← Spanish parliamentary elections, March 1, 1979 → | ||||||
| Political party | be right | % Be right | Diff. | Seats | % Seats | Diff. |
| Unión de Centro Democrático (UCD) | 6,268,593 | 34.84 | +0.40 | 168 | 3.14 | +3 |
| Partido Socialista Obrero Español (PSOE) | 5,469,813 | 30.40 | +1.08 | 121 | 57.71 | +3 |
| Partido Comunista de España (PCE) | 1,938,487 | 10.77 | +1.44 | 23 | 1.14 | +3 |
| Coalición Democrática (CD) | 1,060,330 | 5.89 | −2.32 (1) | 9 | 30.57 | -7 (1) |
| Convergència i Unió (CiU) (2) | 483.353 | 2.69 | −1.06 (2) | 8th | 3.43 | -5 (2) |
| Unión Nacional (UN) (3) | 378.964 | 2.11 | +1.57 (3) | 1 | 0.00 | +1 3) |
| Partido Socialista de Andalucía-Partido Andaluz (PSA-PA) | 325,842 | 1.81 | New | 5 | 0.00 | +5 |
| Partido Nacionalista Vasco (EAJ-PNV) | 296,597 | 1.65 | +0.03 | 7th | 2.29 | −1 |
| Herri Batasuna (HB) | 172.110 | 0.96 | +0.92 (4) | 3 | 0.57 | +3 (4) |
| Esquerra Repúblicana de Catalunya (ERC) | 123.452 | 0.69 | −0.10 | 1 | 0.29 | = |
| Euskadiko Ezkerra (EE) | 85,677 | 0.48 | +0.14 | 1 | 0.29 | = |
| Unión del Pueblo Canario (UPC) (5) | 58,953 | 0.33 | +0.21 (5) | 1 | 0.00 | +1 (5) |
| Partido Aragonés Regionalista (PAR) | 38,042 | 0.21 | +0.01 (6) | 1 | 0.00 | = (6) |
| Unión del Pueblo Navarro (UPN) | 28,248 | 0.16 | New | 1 | 0.57 | +1 |
| Partido Socialista Popular-Unidad Socialista (PSP-US) | n / a (7) | n / a (7) | −4.46 | 0 | 0.00 | −6 |
| Candidatura Independiente de Centro | n / A | n / A | −0.16 | 0 | 0.00 | −1 |
Senado (Senate)
According to the constitution, which came into force in 1978, the Senate is composed of 208 members directly elected by the people and further senators who are determined by the parliaments of the individual regions (Spanish: Comunidades Autónomas ). The direct election takes place at the same time as the elections for the members of the Congress. The number of indirectly elected senators depends on the population of the respective region (one plus another for every 1 million inhabitants).
At the beginning of the first legislature, none of the later 17 autonomous communities (regions) had been constituted, so that the Senate was initially only composed of the directly elected senators. In the course of the first legislature, only the two autonomous communities of Catalonia and Basque Country were constituted, the ten indirectly elected senators of which were only added in 1980 and 1981 respectively.
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.
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 1979 (i.e. only with the directly elected senators) reproduced:
| ← Composition Senate, March 1979 → | ||
| Political party |
Senators direct election |
|
| Unión de Centro Democrático (UCD) | 119 | |
| Partido Socialista Obrero Español (PSOE) | 70 | |
| Partido Nacionalista Vasco (EAJ-PNV) | 8th | |
| Coalición Democrática (CD) | 3 | |
| Partit Socialista Unificat de Catalunya-Partido del Trabajo de España (L'Entesa) | 1 | |
| Convergència i Unió (CiU) | 1 | |
| Herri Batasuna (HB) | 1 | |
| Candidatura Progresista Menorquina (CPM) (1) | 1 | |
| Non-party | 4th | |
Government formation
According to the Spanish constitution, only the congreso is relevant for the formation of a government: it elects the prime minister (Art. 99), the government is responsible only to him (Art. 108).
Adolfo Suárez was elected Prime Minister on March 30, 1979.
| candidate | date |
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Result | ||
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March 30, 1979 required: absolute majority (176/350) |
Yes | 168 | 8th | 5 | 1 | 1 |
183/350 |
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| No | 116 | 23 | 1 | 6th | 1 | 1 | 1 |
149/350 |
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| abstention | 8th |
8/350 |
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| Not
took part |
5 | 1 | 1 | 3 |
10/350 |
See also
Web links
- Results of Spanish elections since 1977 Spanish Ministry of the Interior (Spanish)
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