A general election was held in Spain on 28 April 2019 to elect the members of the 13th Cortes Generales under the Spanish Constitution of 1978. All 350 seats in the Congress of Deputies were up for election, as well as 208 of 266 seats in the Senate. It was held concurrently with a regional election in the Valencian Community.

Following the 2016 election, the People's Party (PP) formed a minority government with confidence and supply support from Citizens (Cs) and Canarian Coalition, enabled by the opposition Spanish Socialist Workers' Party (PSOE) abstaining from Mariano Rajoy's investiture after a party crisis saw the ousting of Pedro Sánchez as leader. Rajoy's second term in office was undermined by a constitutional crisis over the Catalan independence issue and the outcome of a regional election held thereafter, coupled with corruption scandals, the 2018 Spanish women's strike and pensioners' protests over pension hikes. In May 2018, the Spanish National Court found that the PP had profited from the kickbacks-for-contracts scheme in the Gürtel affair. Sánchez, who had been re-elected as PSOE leader in a party primary in 2017, brought down Rajoy's government through a motion of no confidence on 1 June 2018. Rajoy subsequently resigned as PP leader, being succeeded by Pablo Casado after a face-off with his former deputy, Soraya Sáenz de Santamaría, in a leadership contest in July.

As new prime minister of Spain, Pedro Sánchez struggled to maintain a working majority in the Congress with the support of the parties that had backed the no-confidence motion, adopting a program of social measures (such as restoring universal health care for undocumented migrants and a minimum wage raise), gestures for left-wing parties (such as announcing the exhumation of Franco's remains) and a more conciliatory approach toward the new Catalan government under new Quim Torra. The 2018 Andalusian election, which saw a strong performance by the far-right Vox party, resulted in the PSOE losing the regional government for the first time in history to a PP–Cs–Vox alliance. After the 2019 General State Budget was voted down in the Congress as a result of Republican Left of Catalonia and Catalan European Democratic Party siding against the government, Sánchez called a snap election for 28 April, one month ahead of the "Super Sunday" of local, regional and European Parliament elections scheduled for 26 May.

On a voter turnout of 71.8%, Sánchez's PSOE secured victory—the first for the party in a nationwide election since 2008—gaining 38 seats over its previous mark, mostly came at the expense of left-wing Unidas Podemos. The PSOE also became the largest party in the Senate for the first time since 1995, winning its first absolute majority in that chamber since 1989. The PP under Casado was reduced to 66 seats and 16.7% of the vote in the worst electoral setback for a major Spanish party since the collapse of the Union of the Democratic Centre in 1982, and which was partly blamed to the party's right-wing shift during the campaign. Cs saw an increase of support which brought them within striking distance of the PP, overcoming the latter in several major regions. The far-right Vox party entered Congress for the first time, but it failed to fulfill opinion polling expectations. The three-way split in the overall right-of-centre vote not only ended any chance of an Andalusian-inspired right-wing alliance, but it also ensured that Sánchez's PSOE would be the only party that could realistically form a government. Nonetheless, the failure in subsequent government formation negotiations resulted in Sánchez's re-election bid failing and a repeat election taking place in November.

Background

The 2016 general election saw a strengthened People's Party (PP) and the left-wing Unidos Podemos alliance failing to overtake the Spanish Socialist Workers' Party (PSOE). Mariano Rajoy secured the support of Albert Rivera's Citizens (Cs) and Canarian Coalition for his investiture, but this was still not enough to guarantee his re-election as prime minister of Spain. Criticism to PSOE leader Pedro Sánchez for his opposition to Rajoy—seen as prolonging the political deadlock—intensified after poor results in the September 2016 regional elections. A party crisis followed, leading to Sánchez’s ousting and party rebels under the Andalusian president, Susana Díaz, taking control. The PSOE ultimately abstained in Rajoy's investiture, allowing a PP minority government to form and avoiding a third election. Díaz's bid to become party leader was defeated in the May 2017 primary election, with PSOE members reinstating Sánchez on an anti-Rajoy platform.

Early into its second term, Rajoy's government faced a dockworkers' strike against a European Union-mandated liberalization of port services, the Spanish Constitutional Court's overturn of the 2012 tax amnesty, the 2017 Barcelona attacks, and the unveiling of new political scandals. The Púnica and Lezo affairs—amid accusations of judicial meddling and cover-up affecting two former protégés (Ignacio González and Francisco Granados)—led to Esperanza Aguirre's downfall as PP Madrid city council leader, together with revelations of illegal funding of PP campaigns in the 2000s. The newly-appointed anti-corruption chief, Manuel Moix, resigned over a Panama Papers link and controversial attempts to interfere in corruption investigations affecting the ruling party. Rajoy became the first sitting Spanish prime minister to testify in court after being called as a witness in the Gürtel graft trial. Former Caja Madrid chairs Miguel Blesa and Rodrigo Rato (the later also a former International Monetary Fund chief and Spanish economy minister) were convicted for the misuse of corporate credit cards at the height of the financial crisis; Blesa would later commit suicide in July 2017. These developments prompted Unidos Podemos leader Pablo Iglesias (who had just overcome an internal challenge from Podemos's moderate sectors) to table a no-confidence motion against Rajoy in June 2017. This motion failed by 170–82, as the PSOE and other opposition parties abstained rather than support Iglesias as prime minister. Rajoy maintained stability by securing support from the Basque Nationalist Party (PNV) to his government's General State Budgets for 2017 and 2018. Economic growth and unemployment reduction kicked in after the 2008–2014 financial crisis.

Pressure on the Spanish government intensified as a major constitutional crisis unfolded in Catalonia over the issue of a 2017 independence referendum. The Catalan parliament's steps to approve the referendum bill and a framework for an independent state in September 2017 were suspended by the Constitutional Court, while police operations against the preparations—including searches, raids, arrests of Catalan government officials and financial intervention—parked protests and accusations that Rajoy's government was imposing a de facto state of emergency. The referendum went ahead on 1 October 2017 amid a violent police crackdown, and the Catalan parliament later voted to unilaterally declare independence. In response, the Spanish government enforced direct rule over Catalonia and removed the regional authorities. The Catalan president, Carles Puigdemont, fled to Belgium with part of his cabinet, with European arrest warrants being issued over sedition, rebellion and embezzlement charges. Rajoy then dissolved the Catalan parliament and called a snap regional election for 21 December 2017, which backfired: pro-independence parties retained their majority, Cs strengthened its position in the region (boosting it nationally to first place in several opinion polls), and the PP was nearly wiped out.

Rajoy's government was further weakened by the success of the 2018 Spanish women's strike, driven by public outcry over gender-based violence, wage inequality, and high-profile cases such the La Manada gang rape; protests from pensioners over declining pensions; and a botched March 2018 attempt to extradite Puigdemont from Germany, which failed over the double criminality principle. Another scandal involved the Madrilenian president, Cristina Cifuentes, accused of fraudulently obtaining a master's degree from King Juan Carlos University; this escalated after the unveiling of a cover-up through the forgery of public instruments. Cifuentes eventually resigned in April 2018 following the release of a 2011 video showing her involvement in a face cream shoplifting incident.

On 24 May 2018, the Spanish National Court found that the PP had benefited from the Gürtel kickbacks-for-contracts scheme, confirming the existence of an illegal parallel accounting structure and an extensive system of institutional corruption affecting central, regional and local government contracts. This prompted the PSOE to submit a new no-confidence motion, while Cs withdrew its support from Rajoy and urged for a snap election. After a dramatic parliamentary meeting, the Congress of Deputies voted 180–169 on 1 June 2018 to remove Mariano Rajoy from office, replacing him with PSOE leader Pedro Sánchez as prime minister. Rajoy then announced his resignation as PP leader and his retirement from politics, triggering a party leadership contest in July that saw the PP's communication deputy secretary-general, Pablo Casado, defeating former deputy prime minister Soraya Sáenz de Santamaría.

For most of its term, Sánchez's first government relied on confidence and supply support from other parties, negotiating ad hoc agreements with Republican Left of Catalonia (ERC), the Catalan European Democratic Party (PDeCAT) and the PNV. Early measures included restoring universal health care for undocumented migrants (reversing a previous decision by Rajoy's cabinet); accepting the refugee ship Aquarius after the Italian government refused it entry; announcing the exhumation of late dictator Francisco Franco's remains from the Valley of the Fallen; and a minimum wage raise. Sánchez's government also adopted a more conciliatory approach toward Catalonia under new regional president Quim Torra. Efforts to distance the government from previous scandals led to the swift resignations of two ministers upon suspicions of wrongdoing: culture minister Màxim Huerta after just seven days over tax evasion issues; and health minister Carmen Montón in September 2018 over alleged irregularities in her master's degree (including plagiarism and discrepancies over her attendance and the marks awarded).

The success of the 2018 no-confidence motion reshaped Spanish politics, with the PSOE rising to first place in national opinion polls. Meanwhile, the now-opposition PP continued to decline, Cs's surge faded as Sánchez gained popularity, and voters from both parties increasingly shifted toward the resurgent far-right Vox amid growing polarization. In the 2018 Andalusian election, dissatisfaction with Susana Díaz's administration and doubts about Sánchez’s approach to Catalonia led to the PSOE losing the regional government for the first time in its history to a PP–Cs alliance supported by Vox, which also marked the first time since 1979 that the far-right gained parliamentary representation in Spain. ERC and PDeCAT later withdrew their support from Sánchez's government by voting down its 2019 budget. Combined with the perceived failure of a street protest strategy by the PP, Cs and Vox against Sánchez's Catalonia policy, this prompted the latter to dissolve parliament and call a snap election for 28 April 2019.

Overview