20 October 1981 1985 → Turnout 1,006,222 (46.3%) 9 June 1979 1980 | Registered 2,174,246 1981 9 June 1979 26 24 | |
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The 1981 Galician parliamentary election was held on Tuesday, 20 October 1981, to elect the 1st Parliament of Galicia, the regional legislature of the Spanish autonomous community of Galicia. All 71 seats in the Parliament were up for election
Contents
Despite predictions pointing that the Union of the Democratic Centre (UCD), the then-ruling party in Spain, would maintain the hegemony it had obtained in the general elections of 1977 and 1979, the party came a close second after Manuel Fraga's People's Alliance (AP), which won the election with slightly over 30% of the vote and 26 seats. The Spanish Socialist Workers' Party (PSOE) fared better that in the general elections, but did not obtain the expected gains, with just below 20% of the vote and 16 seats.
After the election, an agreement between the two most-voted parties allowed Xerardo Fernández Albor from AP to be elected President of the Xunta, as head of a minority cabined with the external support of the UCD.
The Galician election of 1981 marked the beginning of the end for the Union of the Democratic Centre as a relevant political force in Spanish politics, confirming its ever more dwindling support among voters and AP's growth at its expense. The 1982 Andalusian election held seven months later would suppose another blow to UCD, accelerating the internal decomposition of the party into the next general election.
Electoral system
The 71 members of the Parliament of Galicia were elected in 4 multi-member districts, corresponding to Galicia's four provinces, using the D'Hondt method and a closed-list proportional representation system. As the community had not passed an electoral law of its own at the time, the electoral system came regulated under Royal Decree 1826/1981, which distributed the Parliament seats as follows: Corunna (22), Lugo (15), Ourense (15) and Pontevedra (19).
Voting was on the basis of universal suffrage in a secret ballot. Only lists polling above 3% of valid votes in each district (which include blank ballots—for none of the above) were entitled to enter the seat distribution.
Background
With the approval of the Spanish Constitution of 1978 and the celebration in Spain of the first ordinary general election after the Spanish transition to democracy, the process for the establishment of the "State of the Autonomies" started with the rebirth of the "historical communities" of Catalonia, the Basque Country and Galicia, in application of article 151 of the Spanish Constitution.
For Galicia, an Assembly of Galician Parliamentarians was constituted on 25 July 1979 composed by 16 political representatives both with and without parliamentary representation (8 from UCD, 2 from PSOE and AP and 1 each for the PCE and other leftist and nationalist parties), in order to elaborate a draft for the regional Statute of Autonomy. The resulting text, known as the "Statute of UCD", was considered by left-wing nationalist parties as unambitious and of second order when compared to the Catalan and Basque projects. Massive political demonstrations were held throughout the main Galician cities on 4 December 1979 in order to protest against the proposed draft, leading Spanish Prime Minister Adolfo Suárez to acknowledge that he had been wrong in the handling of the development of the Galician statute. Subsequently, new negotiations ensued until a new project was approved in 1981, having been previously ratified in a referendum held on 21 December 1980 with a very low turnout of 28.27%.
As a result of the Statute's approval, legislative and executive procedures were put in place to establish the new autonomous community and hold the first regional parliamentary election, which was finally set for 20 October 1981.
Election campaign
The governing Union of the Democratic Centre (UCD) ran its campaign with the "Defend what is yours" slogan, emphasizing the defense of values such as personal freedom and regional culture, the modernization of key economic sectors such as fishing and agriculture, the identity of the Spanish nation and an efficient autonomy for Galicia. The party's aim was to remain the community's hegemonic force after the 1977 and 1979 landslides in the region. Before the electoral campaign, the different factions within the Galician branch of the UCD had reached a compromise to put off internal quarrelling, resulting from the nomination of Xosé Quiroga Suárez as presidential candidate without the approval of some sectors within the party, until after the election, to prevent giving voters an image of disunity.
On the other hand, the Spanish Socialist Workers' Party (PSOE), the main opposition party in Spain, used the slogan "Galicia wants to live", advocating for an improvement of the Statute and for the excitement of voters into the newly-found autonomic perspective. Socialist aims were not directed towards winning the election, as Galicia was considered a very conservative region, but rather, to consolidate the gains foreseen by opinion polls with prospects for incoming elections in the remainder of the country. One of the aims for both parties was also to reduce the exceptionally high abstention rates that had plagued all elections held in Galicia since the Transition.
Aside from both main parties, the right-wing People's Alliance (AP), on the rise in opinion polls, made an election campaign centered on the image of its leader, Manuel Fraga, of Galician descent; a move which received criticism from other political groups as Fraga did not stand as candidate in the election. AP also tried to highlight the party's alleged "Galician personality" ("Galician, as you" was the party slogan for the election), aiming for securing strong gains in the region at the expense of the UCD, which was seen as a declining force at the time.
Party vote
Poll results are listed in the tables below in reverse chronological order, showing the most recent first, and using the date the survey's fieldwork was done, as opposed to the date of publication. If such date is unknown, the date of publication is given instead. The highest percentage figure in each polling survey is displayed in bold, and the background shaded in the leading party's colour. In the instance that there is a tie, then no figure is shaded. The lead column on the right shows the percentage-point difference between the two parties with the highest figures. When a specific poll does not show a data figure for a party, the party's cell corresponding to that poll is shown empty.
Seat projections
Opinion polls showing seat projections are displayed in the table below. The highest seat figures in each polling survey have their background shaded in the leading party's colour. In the instance that there is a tie, then no figure is shaded. 36 seats were required for an absolute majority in the Parliament of Galicia.
Aftermath
AP victory over UCD caught many by surprise. The then-ruling party of Spain had not been able to win in one its most-favorable regions, finishing third in the most populous province of Galicia, Corunna, with 19.5%, behind PSOE's 24.0% and AP's 32.7%. It also narrowly failed to win in the other Atlantic province of Pontevedra, and while it maintained its primacy in the provinces of Lugo and Ourense, it did so with much reduced majorities when compared to the previous general election results in the region. AP went on to win much of the urban vote, with the UCD confined to the rural areas.
The UCD debacle was seen as a consequence of the party's action of government at the national level, first under PM Adolfo Suárez, then under Leopoldo Calvo-Sotelo. Economic crisis, the party's perceived poor management of the autonomic process and internal party infighting had seen its popularity plummet in opinion polls. This had been already made evident with the party's poor performance in the different elections held throughout 1980 (Catalonia and the Basque Country), but Galicia had been considered a safe UCD stronghold, and while it was expected that the party would lose ground, an electoral defeat had not been foreseen. The election outcome only helped hasten the internal crisis between the different party factions, with voices claiming for an extraordinary congress to be held so as to renew the party's leadership, with pressure mounting over Calvo-Sotelo in order for him to prevent further electoral disasters.
The results of Galicia were the confirmation of the quickly deteriorating state of the UCD vote since the general election of 1979, when the party came in first place both nationally and in Galicia. By late 1981 it had become the second political force in opinion polls at the national level well behind the Spanish Socialist Workers' Party, and after the Galician election the centre-right electorate started to migrate to AP. In the Andalusian May 1982 election the UCD further collapsed to third place behind both PSOE and AP, with a mere 13% to the 31% of 1979. By the time of the October 1982 general election it would become a minoritary force slightly below 7% nationally, leading to the party's dissolution in early 1983.