28 May 1995 1999 → 26 September 1993 31 July 1979 31 seats, 27.8% 45 seats, 42.8% | Registered 3,131,191 7.4% 31 July 1979 1986 | |
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Turnout 2,380,614 (76.0%)
6.8 pp Winner Eduardo Zaplana | ||
The 1995 Valencian parliamentary election was held on Sunday, 28 May 1995, to elect the 4th democratically elected Corts Valencianes, the regional legislature of the Spanish autonomous community of the Land of Valencia. All 89 seats in the Corts were up for election. The election was held simultaneously with regional elections in 12 other autonomous communities and local elections all throughout Spain.
Contents
As a result of the election, the People's Party (PP) increased its vote share by 15 percentage points relative to the 1991 Courts elections. For the first time, the PP had won a regional election, becoming the first party to poll more than 1 million votes in the area and gaining eleven seats, 3 short of an absolute majority. Most of the gains came from Spanish Socialist Workers' Party (PSOE), which lost 13 seats in the election. The regionalist Valencian Union (UV) also lost 1 seat, while United Left (IU) gained 4 seats to overtake UV as the third largest party.
A coalition agreement between the PP and UV was able to force the PSOE out from the Valencian Government after 12 years of Socialist rule. Eduardo Zaplana, the People's Party's candidate, became the second democratically elected President of the autonomous community
Electoral system
The number of seats in the Corts Valencianes was set to a fixed-number of 89. All Courts members were elected in 3 multi-member districts, corresponding to the Valencian Community's three provinces, using the D'Hondt method and a closed-list proportional representation system. Each district was entitled to an initial minimum of 20 seats, with the remaining 29 seats allocated among the three provinces in proportion to their populations, on the required condition that the number of inhabitants per seat in each district did not exceed 3 times those of any other. For the 1995 election, seats were distributed as follows: Alicante (30), Castellon (22) and Valencia (37).
Voting was on the basis of universal suffrage in a secret ballot. Only lists polling above 5% of valid votes in all of the community (which include blank ballots—for none of the above) were entitled to enter the seat distribution. This meant that in the case a list polled above 5% in one or more of the districts but below 5% in the community totals, it would remain outside of the seat apportionment.
Background
After 12 years of consecutive Socialist governments both in the Spanish national government and in the Valencian Community, the People's Party (PP) had managed to greatly increase its support from 1992–93, mostly at the cost of what remained of the Democratic and Social Centre (CDS). In the 1993 general election, the PP had already increased its vote share from 27.0% in 1989 to 40.5% and had overtaken the Spanish Socialist Workers' Party (PSOE) in the region for the first time. The party had also seen a dramatical rise in the 1994 European Parliament election, rising to 44.2% from 22.8% in 1989.
United Left (IU) had gained ground at the expense of the PSOE and in both the 1993 general and 1994 EP elections had polled more than 10% for the first time since the 1970s. After peaking in the 1991 Courts and local elections, the right-wing regional party Valencian Union (UV) had begun to lose ground in the 1993 and 1994 elections.
Population's weariness of PSOE's prolonged stay in power, economic crisis as well as the eruption of numerous corruption scandals at the national level had weakened the PSOE in the region to the point it was facing the possibility of a severe defeat for the first time in a decade. Joan Lerma's management of a wildfire crisis in the summer of 1994 came under heavy criticism, after the fire had resulted in the burning of 16% of the region's forest area.
Opinion polls
Individual poll results are listed in the table 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 with its background shaded in the leading party's colour. In the instance of a tie, the figures with the highest percentages are shaded. in the case of seat projections, they are displayed in bold and in a different font. The lead column on the right shows the percentage-point difference between the two parties with the highest figures. 45 seats were required for an absolute majority in the Corts Valencianes.