1979 Spanish general election

1979 Spanish general election

← 1977 1 March 1979 1982 →
All 350 seats in the Congress of Deputies and all 208 seats in the Senate 176 seats needed for a majority in the Congress of Deputies
Opinion polls
Registered	26,836,490 13.8%
Turnout	18,259,192 (68.0%) 10.8 pp
First party Second party Third party   Leader Adolfo Suárez Felipe González Santiago Carrillo Party UCD PSOE PCE Leader since 3 May 1977 13 October 1974 3 July 1960 Leader's seat Madrid Madrid Madrid Last election 165 seats, 34.4% 124 seats, 33.8%[b] 20 seats, 9.3% Seats won 168 121 23 Seat change 3 3 3 Popular vote 6,268,593 5,469,813 1,938,487 Percentage 34.8% 30.4% 10.8% Swing 0.4 pp 3.4 pp 1.5 pp   Fourth party Fifth party Sixth party   Leader Manuel Fraga Jordi Pujol Xabier Arzalluz Party CD CiU EAJ/PNV Leader since 9 October 1976 17 November 1974 1977 Leader's seat Madrid Barcelona Guipúzcoa Last election 16 seats, 8.4%[c] 13 seats, 3.8%[d] 8 seats, 1.6% Seats won 9 8 7 Seat change 7 5 1 Popular vote 1,094,438 483,353 296,597 Percentage 6.1% 2.7% 1.6% Swing 2.3 pp 1.1 pp 0.0 pp
Vote winner strength by constituency (Congress) Vote winner strength by autonomous community (Congress)[a] Election results by constituency (Congress)
Prime Minister before election Adolfo Suárez UCD Prime Minister after election Adolfo Suárez UCD

A general election was held in Spain on Thursday, 1 March 1979, to elect the members of the 1st Cortes Generales. All 350 seats in the Congress of Deputies were up for election, as well as all 208 seats in the Senate. This was the first election held under the Spanish Constitution of 1978, which had been approved in a referendum on 6 December and which had lowered the voting age from 21 to 18, resulting in an increase of the electoral roll by three million people.

The Union of the Democratic Centre (UCD) remained the largest party, winning 168 of the 350 seats in the Congress of Deputies and 119 of the 208 seats in the Senate. The Spanish Socialist Workers' Party (PSOE), which had merged with the People's Socialist Party (PSP) and was widely expected to make large gains—with some opinion polls predicting a narrow win—fell short of expectations and lost ground when compared to the combined totals for the PSOE–PSP alliance in the 1977 election. The Communist Party of Spain (PCE) obtained the best result in its history, whereas Manuel Fraga's Democratic Coalition (CD)—an electoral bloc formed by the People's Alliance (AP), the Liberal Citizens Action (ACL) and the Progressive Democratic Party (PDP)—lost nearly half of its seats. The election would also see the best showing of the far-right in Spain until the April 2019 election, as Blas Piñar-led National Union (UN) would secure one seat with 2.1% of the vote share.

As a result of the election, Prime Minister Adolfo Suárez went on to form a minority government, depending on support from the CD and other minor parties such as the Socialist Party of Andalusia–Andalusian Party (PSA–PA), the Regionalist Aragonese Party (PAR) and the Navarrese People's Union (UPN).
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