Spanish general election, 1989

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.

For the Congress of Deputies, 348 seats were allocated to 50 multi-member districts—each corresponding to a province—, elected using the D'Hondt method and a closed list proportional representation. Ceuta and Melilla elected one member each using plurality voting, for a total of 350 seats. Each district was entitled to an initial minimum of two seats, with the remaining 248 allocated among the 50 provinces in proportion to their populations. A threshold of 3% of valid votes—which included blank ballots—was applied in each constituency, with parties not reaching the threshold not taken into consideration for seat distribution.

For the Senate, each of the 47 peninsular constituencies was allocated four seats. For insular provinces, such as the Balearic and the 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, for a total of 208 directly elected seats, using an open list partial block voting. Instead of voting for parties, electors would vote for individual candidates. In districts 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 constituencies. Additionally, autonomous communities could appoint at least one senator each and were entitled to one additional seat per each million inhabitants.

Voting was on the basis of universal suffrage, with all nationals over eighteen and in the full enjoyment of all political rights entitled to vote. Concurrently, nationals meeting the previous criteria and not involved in any cause of ineligibility were eligible for both the Congress and the Senate. Groups of electors were required to obtain the signatures of at least 1% of registered electors in a particular district in order to be able to field candidates.

The Prime Minister had the ability to dissolve the chambers at any given time—either jointly or separately—and call a snap election; otherwise, elected deputies and senators served for four year terms, starting from election day. Additionally, both chambers were to be automatically dissolved in the event of unsuccessful investiture attempts failing to elect a Prime Minister within a two month-period from the first ballot, triggering a snap election likewise.

Background

Felipe González' second term as Prime Minister was characterized by economic growth and expansion, a result of Spain's entry into the European Economic Community. The capital from the EEC Structural Funds favored the government's investment in public works, resulting in Spain gross domestic product growing at an average rate of 5% between 1987 and 1989. Approximately 1.4 million employments were created between the end of 1986 and the end of 1989, with unemployment decreasing from 20.6% to 16.9% and inflation decreasing below the 3% mark. This period also saw improvements in the Education and especially in the Health system with the 1986 General Health Law, providing the basis for a welfare system

AP crisis and birth of the People's Party

After the 1986 election, in which People's Alliance had lost votes and seats despite running in coalition with other parties and with the PSOE losing ground, a major crisis brokered within the party, starting with its coalition partner, the PDP, breaking up with AP on June 1986 and with former party's Secretary-General Jorge Verstrynge leaving on October. As a result, Manuel Fraga announced his resignation as party leader on 1 December 1986. On the party primary held on February 1987, Antonio Hernández Mancha was elected as new party leader by a large margin, winning with 71.5% of the votes.

However, Hernández Mancha's election as party leader did not close the party crisis. He quickly found himself hampered by the fact that he could not face Felipe González in parliament, not even in the State of the Nation Debate, as he was not a member of the Congress (he was a senator). He also feared that, with Fraga's resignation, Suárez' Democratic and Social Centre could overcome his party in terms of votes. In an attempt to make himself known to the general public and to become the focus of media attention, he brought forward a motion of censure against González on March 1987, which he lost by 67 to 194 (the PSOE had an absolute majority of seats). This was perceived as a suicide move that weakened Mancha's leadership for the remainder of his tenure as AP president.

Finally, after internal pressure on him to resign, Hernández Mancha announced his intention to quit and to not concur to the party's Congress to be held between 20 and 22 January 1989. In the Congress, Fraga, elected back to the party's presidency, announced the party's refoundation into the new People's Party (PP). Fraga, in his bid to renovate the party, announced his intention to not stand himself as candidate for the October general election, a post which he finally awarded to then-President of the Junta of Castile and León José María Aznar on September 1989.

General strike of 1988

On 14 December 1988, a general strike was called by Spain's two main trade unions: CCOO and UGT, the latter having been historically affiliated with the ruling Spanish Socialist Workers' Party. What was initially a strike against a governmental reform of the labour market that would introduce temporary and flexible contracts for young workers, ended in a major protest against the economic policy of the PSOE government among left-wing voters, as its economic reforms were seen as too 'neoliberal' in nature and favouring the patronal (Spanish employers' organizations). The strikers even succeeded in shutting down the state broadcaster RTVE for the duration of the strike, adding up to its impact.

The strike, one of the largest and most successful in the recent story of the country, resulted in the proposed reforms being retired and in an increase of social public spending. However, despite the strike's impact, Prime Minister Felipe González remained popular.

Campaign

Despite Aznar's designation as PP candidate, the opposition remained divided and weak on the road to the 1989 election. This, coupled with a buoyant economy, made a new PSOE victory inevitable. The electoral campaign, thus, focused on whether the Socialists would be able to maintain their absolute majority on the Congress of Deputies for a third term in office. United Left had also appointed a new leader, Julio Anguita, and had high expectations to increase their parliamentary representation from the 7 seats they had won in 1986. During the campaign, Felipe González pledged that this would be the last time he would stand for the office of Prime Minister. He would eventually stand for two more elections, until 1996.

Outcome

While the Socialist victory was virtually guaranteed, the 1989 election night was one of the most dramatic in the decade because of the serious possibility of the Spanish Socialist Workers' Party losing its absolute majority in the Congress of Deputies. Actually, exit polls and data from the vote count early in the night hinted at this outcome, showing PSOE losing its majority and winning as few as 172 seats, prompting the main opposition parties to ask González' party for 'a different way of governing'. PSOE's absolute majority remained lingering in the air for the entire election night until the early morning of the next day, all votes counted, when they won their 176th seat, thus achieving an overall majority of seats. National and foreign media saw in the election results a warning to Felipe González' management of the country, advising him to ensure political stability by attending social demands and to prevent, in his third term in office, to relapse into the 'arrogant' way of acting from the two previous legislatures.

The People's Party and United Left contested the election results on several districts, where several seats had been awarded to the PSOE by small margins of votes, accusing the government of irregularities in the vote tally. On 14 November an IU appeal on the election results of Murcia was initially accepted, resulting in the award of 1 seat to IU in that district in detriment of the PSOE. The PP also appealed the election results of Melilla and Pontevedra, also on the basis of possible irregularities, saying that the government had manipulated the vote tally so that the PSOE could win the absolute majority. The legal battle between the Socialists and both opposition parties resulted in the Supreme Court annulling the award of Murcia's disputed seat to IU and maintaining the election result in Pontevedra as it was, but also calling for new elections to be held in Melilla.

The battle for PSOE's 176th seat ended with the 25 March 1990 partial election on Melilla resulting in the People's Party snatching the district's only seat and 2 senators from the Socialist Party, which definitely lost its absolute majority in the Congress. However, even if a theoretical sum of all other parties could be able to match PSOE's Congress parliamentary group size, the Socialist Party would eventually come to govern as if it had an absolute majority, with no opposition when it came to legislate on matters not requiring by law an absolute majority of all seats (such as Organic Laws). This was a result of all 4 HB deputies remaining absent throughout the entire parliamentary term until 1993. Consequently, even in an scenario where all other opposition parties voted together against the PSOE, they would still only add up 171 votes to PSOE's 175.

Investiture

On 5 December 1989, Felipe González was elected in the first round of voting as Prime Minister with an absolute majority in the Congress (167/332). This is to date the only occasion in which not all deputies were able to vote, as a result of the Supreme Court temporarily suspending 18 seats which had seen their results contested and were not yet awarded.

After all seat disputes had been solved and all 350 seats had been awarded, Prime Minister Felipe González voluntarily presented a confidence motion on himself as a sort of "new" investiture voting. The result was essentially a repeat of the December 1989 voting, with some parties previously voting 'No' choosing to abstain. González' parliamentary support remained the same as it was.