A general election will be held in Spain no later than 22 August 2027 to elect the members of the 16th under the Spanish Constitution of 1978. All 350 seats in the Congress of Deputies will be up for election, as well as 209 of 267 seats in the Senate.
Following the 2023 election, Pedro Sánchez was able to get re-elected as prime minister of Spain and form a third governmentâÂÂformed by the Spanish Socialist Workers' Party (PSOE) and SumarâÂÂwith the support of Together for Catalonia (Junts), in exchange for a controversial amnesty law. Tensions with the opposition People's Party (PP) and far-right Vox dominated Sánchez's third term, as well as an unraveling international situation (with the ongoing war in Ukraine, the Gaza war, the tariff policy of the second Trump administration, and the 2026 Iran war and its economic impact), economic growth amid a rising cost of living (together with an affordable housing crisis), and a number of corruption probes affecting the government (mainly, the Koldo case). Also notable were the alleged mismanagements of a number of environmental disasters by PP-controlled administrations (particularly the 2024 Valencian floods and the summer 2025 wildfires), sexual misconduct allegations affecting various parties and institutions, and increased scrutiny on the quality and condition of public services (particularly following the 2025 Iberian Peninsula blackout and the 2026 Adamuz and Gelida railway accidents).
While Sánchez has admitted to having twice hesitated whether to resignâÂÂonce in April 2024, amid a judicial probe into his wife; and then in July 2025, after his second-in-command in the party, Santos Cerdán, resigned over the Koldo caseâÂÂhe has voiced his intention to run for a new term as prime minister in the next general election, which he has scheduled for 2027.
The 2023 general election saw Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez and his ruling coalitionâÂÂformed by the Spanish Socialist Workers' Party (PSOE) and SumarâÂÂre-elected with the support of Together for Catalonia (Junts), in exchange for a controversial amnesty law for those tried and convicted for events linked to the 2017âÂÂ2018 Catalan crisis and the 2019 protests. This deal sparked widespreadprotests, some of them violent in the days before Sánchez's investiture, seeing clashes near the PSOE's national headquarters in Madrid and the involvement of far-right groups.
SánchezâÂÂs third term was marked by a booming economy and falling unemployment, but also by rising living costs and an affordable housing crisis. During this period, a constitutional reform in 2024 introduced people-first language, and a bipartisan agreement ended the five-year blockade of the judiciary council. Political tensions with the People's Party (PP) and far-right Vox intensified, with the government accusing both of "lawfare", disinformation and harassment campaigns. These tensions peaked in April 2024, when Sánchez briefly considered resigning after a controversial judicial investigation into his wife, Begoña Gómez, over alleged influence peddling and embezzlement accusations brought by the far-right-linked group (Spanish for "Clean Hands"). Public services also came under scrutiny after a major blackout across the Iberian Peninsula in April 2025 and repeated failures in Spain's rail network, especially following the Adamuz and Gelida accidents in January 2026 which together caused 47 deaths.
On the international stage, Sánchez's government had to deal with continued EU support for Ukraine in its war against Russia, the tariff policy of the second Trump administration, and Spain's role within NATO amid a debate over the five percent defence spending hike. Its strong criticism of the Gaza genocide led Spain to recognize Palestine and worsened relations with Israel, sparking pro-Palestinian protests and calls to boycott Israeli participation in international competitions such as the 2025 Vuelta a España and Spain's RTVE joining others' bid to withdraw from the Eurovision Song Contest 2026. The 2026 Iran war saw a clash between Sánchez and U.S. President Donald Trump over the use of joint military bases at Rota and Morón, reviving the "No to war" slogan previously used during the 2003 invasion of Iraq. At the same time, the Spanish government sought to address the war's economic impact.
Several political scandals affected the PSOE government during this period, including the Koldo caseâÂÂlinked to former transport minister José Luis ÃÂbalos and party official Santos CerdánâÂÂand judicial probes involving Sánchez's brother (for alleged cronyism) and the Spanish Attorney General, ÃÂlvaro GarcÃÂa Ortiz (for an alleged data leak in a judicial investigation affecting the opposition). Other probes into alleged irregularities in public procurement affected the SEPI holding company and ADIF (Spain's railway infrastructure manager), leading to arrests and police raids. The PP was also hit by scandals, including an investigation into the partner of Madrilenian president Isabel DÃÂaz Ayuso for alleged tax fraud, forgery and organized crime; renewed attention on corruption cases from the Rajoy era such as the Montoro and Kitchen cases (alleged cash-for-favours, influence peddling, lobbying, police misconduct, espionage and deep state networks operated by the finance and interior ministries); as well as a resume padding controversy. Between 2024 and 2026, several parties and institutions were also shaken by sexual misconduct allegations that led to multiple resignations and dismissals, with the political backlash often compared to the MeToo movement.
Relations between the PP and Vox remained ambivalent, as the two parties competed electorally while still depending on each other to govern at all levels of administration. Vox leader Santiago Abascal forced the break up of all PPâÂÂVox regional governments in July 2024 over a dispute on the distribution of unaccompanied migrant minors. Alleged crisis mismanagement by PP-controlled administrationsâÂÂincluding environmental disasters such as the 2024 Valencian floods (which led to the resignation of the regional president, Carlos Mazón) and major wildfires in August 2025; as well as public outrage over the Andalusian Health Service's mishandling of breast cancer screeningâÂÂwas seen as contributing to VoxâÂÂs rise in opinion polls, helped by growing anti-political sentiment, denialism, conspiracist ideation and fake news. Immigration (particularly following the 2025 Torre-Pacheco unrest), and renewed attempts to restrict abortion, further pushed the PP closer to Vox's agenda and raised doubts about Alberto Núñez Feijóo's leadership. At the same time, internal conflicts in Vox led to the expulsion of several high-profile figures as the party tried to broaden its appeal among working-class voters.
Junts withdrew its support from the government in October 2025, accusing it of failing to fulfil key commitments (a move linked to political changes in Catalonia and the rise of the far-right Catalan Alliance). Despite this, Sánchez remained in office because the opposition was unable to push a no-confidence motion. At the end of 2025, the PP tried to capitalize on growing dissatisfaction with Sánchez's government by calling early regional elections in Extremadura and Aragon. Although this move produced several PSOE defeats, it was also seen as backfiring on the PP because its regional branches failed to meet expectations while Vox made the largest gains and strengthened its leverage. Vox's rise appeared to slow in the 2026 Castilian-Leonese election, where the PSOE unexpectedly performed better than predicted amid growing awareness on the Iran war.
Under the 1978 Constitution, the Spanish are conceived as an imperfect bicameral system. The Congress of Deputies holds greater legislative power than the Senate, having the ability to grant or withdraw confidence from a prime minister and to override Senate vetoes by an absolute majority. Nonetheless, the Senate retains a limited number of specific functionsâÂÂsuch as ratifying international treaties, authorizing cooperation agreements between autonomous communities, enforcing direct rule, regulating interterritorial compensation funds, and taking part in constitutional amendments and in the appointment of members to the Constitutional Court and the General Council of the JudiciaryâÂÂwhich are not subject to override by Congress.
Voting for each chamber of the is based on universal suffrage, comprising all Spanish nationals over 18 years of age with full political rights, provided that they have not been deprived of the right to vote by a final court ruling.
The Congress of Deputies has a minimum of 300 and a maximum of 400 seats, with the electoral law fixing its size at 350. Of these, 348 are elected in 50 multi-member constituencies corresponding to the provinces of SpainâÂÂeach of which is assigned an initial minimum of two seats and the remaining 248 distributed in proportion to populationâÂÂusing the D'Hondt method and closed-list proportional voting, with a three percent-threshold of valid votes (including blank ballots) in each constituency. The remaining two seats are allocated to Ceuta and Melilla as single-member districts elected by plurality voting. The use of this electoral method may result in a higher effective threshold depending on district magnitude and vote distribution.
As a result of the aforementioned allocation, each Congress multi-member constituency would be entitled the following seats (as of 11 December 2025):
209 Senate seats are elected using open-list partial block voting: in constituencies electing four seats, voters can choose up to three candidates; in those with two or three seats, up to two; and in single-member districts, one. Each of the 47 peninsular provinces is allocated four seats, while in insular provincesâÂÂsuch as the Balearic and Canary IslandsâÂÂthe districts are the islands themselves, with the larger ones (Mallorca, Gran Canaria and Tenerife) being allocated three seats each, and the smaller ones (Menorca, Ibiza, Formentera, Fuerteventura, La Gomera, El Hierro, Lanzarote and La Palma) one each. Ceuta and Melilla elect two seats each. Additionally, autonomous communities may appoint at least one senator each and are entitled to one additional senator for every million inhabitants.
The law does not provide for by-elections to fill vacant seats; instead, any vacancies arising after the proclamation of candidates and during the legislative term are filled by the next candidates on the party lists or, when required, by designated substitutes.
Spanish citizens of legal age and with the right to vote may run for election, provided that they have not been sentenced to imprisonment by a final ruling or convictedâÂÂwhether final or notâÂÂof offences that involve loss of eligibility or disqualification from public office (such as rebellion, terrorism or other crimes against the state). Additional causes of ineligibility apply to the following officials:
Other ineligibility provisions also apply to a number of territorial officials in these categories within their areas of jurisdiction, as well as to employees of foreign states and members of regional governments. Incompatibility rules further extend to a range of senior public officials and to those elected on candidacies later declared illegal, as well as prohibiting the simultaneous holding of the positions of deputy and senator or of a national and regional parliamentary seat.
The term of each chamber of the âÂÂthe Congress and the SenateâÂÂexpires four years from the date of their previous election, unless they are dissolved earlier. The election decree shall be issued no later than the twenty-fifth day prior to the scheduled expiration date of parliament and published on the following day in the Official State Gazette (BOE), with election day taking place on the fifty-fourth day from publication. The previous election was held on 23 July 2023, which means that the chambers' terms will expire on 23 July 2027. The election decree must be published in the BOE no later than 29 June 2027, with the election taking place on the fifty-fourth day from publication, setting the latest possible date for election day on 22 August 2027.
The prime minister has the prerogative to propose the monarch to dissolve both chambers at any given timeâÂÂeither jointly or separatelyâÂÂand call a snap election, provided that no motion of no confidence is in process, no state of emergency is in force and that dissolution does not occur before one year after a previous one. Additionally, both chambers are to be dissolved and a new election called if an investiture process fails to elect a prime minister within a two-month period from the first ballot. Barring this exception, there is no constitutional requirement for simultaneous elections to the Congress and the Senate. Still, as of , there has been no precedent of separate elections taking place under the 1978 Constitution.
Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez repeatedly voiced his will for the next general election to be held when due in 2027, particularly following corruption allegations in June 2025 that led to the resignation in June 2025 of his party's organization secretary, Santos Cerdán. However, his government's political strategy, uncertainty over the 2026 General State Budget, as well as Sánchez having previously promised to exhaust legislative terms before ultimately calling snap electionsâÂÂin 2019 and 2023âÂÂled to speculation that an early election could not be ruled out. Uncertainty over Junts's support to Sánchez was commented as a possible trigger of a snap election, while the outbreak of war in Iran fueled comments of a "Super Sunday" in June 2026, together with the regularly scheduled Andalusian election.
The tables below show the composition of the parliamentary groups in both chambers at the present time.
The electoral law allows for parties and federations registered in the interior ministry, alliances and groupings of electors to present lists of candidates. Parties and federations intending to form an alliance ahead of an election are required to inform the relevant electoral commission within ten days of the election call, whereas groupings of electors need to secure the signature of at least one percent of the electorate in the constituencies for which they seek election, disallowing electors from signing for more than one list of candidates. Concurrently, parties, federations or alliances that have not obtained a mandate in either chamber of the at the preceding election are required to secure the signature of at least 0.1 percent of electors in the aforementioned constituencies. Amendments to the electoral law in 2024 increased requirements for a balanced composition of men and women in the electoral lists through the use of a zipper system.
A special, simplified process is provided for election re-runs, including a shortening of deadlines, electoral campaigning, the lifting of signature requirements if these had been already met for the immediately previous election and the possibility of maintaining lists and alliances without needing to go through pre-election procedures again.
Below is a list of the main parties and electoral alliances which will likely contest the election:
The reorganization of the political space to the left of the PSOEâÂÂwhich split in December 2023 following Podemos's breakupâÂÂwas commented as a key element in securing any prospective re-election of Sánchez's government. The component parties of the Sumar alliance looked for a recomposition of the platform under a new brand, with second deputy prime minister and labour minister, Yolanda DÃÂaz, stepping aside as the leading candidate for the next general election. Republican Left of Catalonia (ERC)'s spokesperson in Congress, Gabriel Rufián, proposed a broad front of left-wing partiesâÂÂeither directly or through coordinationâÂÂthat also included peripheral nationalists such as ERC, EH Bildu and the Galician Nationalist Bloc (BNG). The PSOE and Sumar were also commented as probing a prospective electoral alliance or cooperation agreement in over 30 of the smaller constituenciesâÂÂmostly comprising those electing between three and five seatsâÂÂwhere the latter's votes would not translate into seats but in which the former could compete for an additional seat with the PP or Vox.
The 2024 European Parliament election in Spain saw the electoral breakthrough of social media personality Luis "Alvise" Pérez who, running on a right-wing populist platform with his Se Acabó La Fiesta party (Spanish for "The Party is Over", SALF), secured 4.6% of the share. Alvise announced in July 2024 that he was considering to run in the next general election, but his public standing was damaged by an internal party crisisâÂÂwhich saw the defection of SALF's two other MEPs, amid accusations of bullying and blackmailâÂÂand several legal cases against him, including allegations of illegal financing, data leakage and harassment, which are the subject of ongoing investigations by the Supreme Court. On 12 October 2025, Alvise formally launched his candidacy to the next general election at the Palacio Vistalegre arena. By 2026, SALF was reportedly recruiting a number of former Vox members into their candidacies in several regions.
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