Spanish legislative election, 2004

Spanish general election, 2004

← 2000 14 March 2004 2008 →
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	34,571,831 1.8%
Turnout	26,155,436 (75.7%) 7.0 pp
First party Second party Third party   Leader José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero Mariano Rajoy Josep Antoni Duran i Lleida Party PSOE PP CiU Leader since 22 July 2000 2 September 2003 24 January 2004 Leader's seat Madrid Madrid Barcelona Last election 125 seats, 34.2% 183 seats, 44.5% 15 seats, 4.2% Seats won 164 148 10 Seat change 39 35 5 Popular vote 11,026,163 9,763,144 835,471 Percentage 42.6% 37.7% 3.2% Swing 8.4 pp 6.8 pp 1.0 pp   Fourth party Fifth party Sixth party   Leader Josep-Lluís Carod-Rovira Josu Erkoreka Gaspar Llamazares Party ERC EAJ/PNV IU Leader since 31 January 2004 2004 29 October 2000 Leader's seat Barcelona Biscay Madrid Last election 1 seat, 0.8% 7 seats, 1.5% 9 seats, 5.9% Seats won 8 7 5 Seat change 7 0 4 Popular vote 652,196 420,980 1,284,081 Percentage 2.5% 1.6% 5.0% Swing 1.7 pp 0.1 pp 0.9 pp
Constituency results map for the Congress of Deputies
Prime Minister before election José María Aznar PP Elected Prime Minister José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero PSOE

José María Aznar
PP

José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero
PSOE

The 2004 Spanish general election was held on Sunday, 14 March 2004, to elect the 8th 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.

For the first time since the Spanish transition to democracy, none of the three main party leaders had previously led a general election campaign. The governing People's Party (PP) was led into the campaign by Mariano Rajoy, after outgoing Prime Minister José María Aznar had announced his intention not to seek a third term in office. The opposition Spanish Socialist Workers' Party (PSOE) was led by José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero, while Gaspar Llamazares stood as United Left (IU) candidate.

The electoral outcome was heavily influenced by the aftermath of the 11 March 2004 Madrid train bombings. For the remaining days before the election, the PP government kept claiming evidence that the terrorist organization ETA was responsible for the bombings. However, it soon became evident that the bombings had not been authored according to ETA's modus operandi, and new evidence pointed out to an Islamist attack with possible links to al-Qaeda. The government was accused of hiding information so as to prevent linking the attack to Islamist groups, as it would have been seen by the Spanish public as a consequence of the PP government taking Spain into the unpopular Iraq War, weakening its chances to being re-elected in the incoming election. Large demonstrations were held across Spain and protests were organized in front of several PP party headquarters the day previous to the election.