Spanish general election, 2000

1996 ←

12 March 2000

→ 2004

All 350 seats in the Congress of Deputies and 208 (of 259) seats in the Senate 176 seats needed for a majority in the Congress of Deputies

Opinion polls
Registered	33,969,640 4.4%
Turnout	23,339,490 (68.7%) 8.7 pp
	First party	Second party	Third party

Leader	José María Aznar	Joaquín Almunia	Xavier Trias
Party	PP	PSOE–p	CiU
Leader since	4 September 1989	21 June 1997	2000
Leader's seat	Madrid	Madrid	Barcelona
Last election	156 seats, 38.8%	141 seats, 37.6%	16 seats, 4.6%
Seats won	183	125	15
Seat change	27	16	1
Popular vote	10,321,178	7,918,752	970,421
Percentage	44.5%	34.2%	4.2%
Swing	5.7 pp	3.4 pp	0.4 pp

	Fourth party	Fifth party	Sixth party

Leader	Francisco Frutos	Iñaki Anasagasti	José Carlos Mauricio
Party	IU	EAJ/PNV	CC
Leader since	7 December 1998	1986	1996
Leader's seat	Madrid	Biscay	Las Palmas
Last election	19 seats, 9.4%	5 seats, 1.3%	4 seats, 0.9%
Seats won	8	7	4
Seat change	11	2	0
Popular vote	1,263,043	353,953	248,261
Percentage	5.4%	1.5%	1.1%
Swing	3.9 pp	0.2 pp	0.2 pp

Provincial results map for the Congress of Deputies

Prime Minister before election

José María Aznar
PP

Elected Prime Minister

José María Aznar
PP

The 2000 Spanish general election was held on Sunday, 12 March 2000, to elect the 7th Cortes Generales of the Kingdom of Spain. All 350 seats in the Congress of Deputies were up for election, as well as 208 of 259 seats in the Senate.

While most opinion polls gave him a clear victory, the incumbent People's Party of Prime Minister José María Aznar was elected to a second term in office with a surprising absolute majority of 183: a 27-seat gain from the previous election: a rise from opinion polls which gave him a plurality victory only. The opposition Spanish Socialist Workers' Party saw their number of seats reduced to 125, one of its worst results ever. While neither one of its worst defeats since Spanish transition to democracy (it lost more seats in the 1986 election, losing 18; and a similar number of seats were lost in 1996, with 16) nor the party's worst electoral result ever since (winning 118 and 121 seats in 1977 and 1979, respectively) the party's result in these elections quickly became known as Almunia's defeat, a psychological barrier for the PSOE in future elections; a result which would be vastly exceeded 11 years later.

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Wikipedia