Spanish general election, 1993

Spanish general election, 1993

← 1989 6 June 1993 1996 →
All 350 seats in the Congress of Deputies and 208 (of 256) seats in the Senate 176 seats needed for a majority in the Congress of Deputies
Opinion polls
Registered	31,030,511 4.8%
Turnout	23,718,816 (76.4%) 6.7 pp
First party Second party Third party   Leader Felipe González José María Aznar Julio Anguita Party PSOE PP IU Leader since 28 September 1979 4 September 1989 12 February 1989 Leader's seat Madrid Madrid Madrid Last election 177 seats, 40.1% 107 seats, 25.8% 17 seats, 9.1% Seats won 159 141 18 Seat change 18 34 1 Popular vote 9,150,083 8,201,463 2,253,722 Percentage 38.8% 34.8% 9.6% Swing 1.3 pp 9.0 pp 0.5 pp   Fourth party Fifth party Sixth party   Leader Miquel Roca Iñaki Anasagasti Luis Mardones Party CiU EAJ/PNV CC Leader since 4 July 1982 1986 18 April 1986 Leader's seat Barcelona Biscay Santa Cruz de Tenerife Last election 18 seats, 5.0% 5 seats, 1.2% 1 seats, 0.3% Seats won 17 5 4 Seat change 1 0 3 Popular vote 1,165,783 291,448 207,077 Percentage 4.9% 1.2% 0.9% Swing 0.1 pp ±0.0 pp 0.6 pp
Constituency results map for the Congress of Deputies
Prime Minister before election Felipe González PSOE Elected Prime Minister Felipe González PSOE

Felipe González
PSOE

Felipe González
PSOE

The 1993 Spanish general election was held on Sunday, 6 June 1993, to elect the 5th Cortes Generales of the Kingdom of Spain. All 350 seats in the Congress of Deputies were up for election, as well as 208 of 256 seats in the Senate.

The Spanish Socialist Workers' Party under Felipe González achieved the largest number of votes and seats for the fourth consecutive time, though it lost its absolute majority in both chambers of the Cortes. In contrast, José María Aznar's People's Party won a large share of the vote, thus increasing their seats in both the Congress and the Senate and consolidating its position as the main opposition party. For the first time since 1979, the election brought in a hung parliament, forcing the governing PSOE to pact with nationalist groups in order to renew their mandate.

In the aftermath of the election, the PSOE saw itself under increased pressure due both to political instability as a result of its low majority (relying on increasingly unstable pacts with Convergence and Union to pass its legislation) and of the uncovering of numerous cases of corruption within the government itself. The pact with CiU would end in the fall of 1995, forcing PM Felipe González to call early elections 15 months before their scheduled date, which would see the opposition right-wing People's Party of Aznar win for the first time.

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.