2019 European Parliament election in Spain

An election was held in Spain on Sunday, 26 May 2019, as part of the EU-wide election to elect the 9th European Parliament. All 54 seats allocated to the Spanish constituency as per the Treaty of Lisbon—59 after Brexit was formalized on 31 January 2020—were up for election. It was held concurrently with regional elections in twelve autonomous communities and local elections all throughout Spain.

2019 European Parliament election in Spain

← 2014
26 May 2019
2024 →
← outgoing members
elected members →

All 59 Spanish seats in the European Parliament
Opinion polls
Registered37,248,888 2.0%
Turnout22,619,984 (60.7%)
16.9 pp
  First party Second party Third party
 
Leader Josep Borrell Dolors Montserrat Luis Garicano
Party PSOE PP Cs
Alliance S&D EPP ALDE (RE)
Leader since 26 February 2019 1 April 2019 29 December 2018
Last election 14 seats, 23.0% 16 seats, 26.1% 6 seats, 9.7%
Seats won 21 13 8
Seat change 7 3 2
Popular vote 7,369,789 4,519,205 2,731,825
Percentage 32.9% 20.2% 12.2%
Swing 9.9 pp 5.9 pp 2.5 pp

  Fourth party Fifth party Sixth party
 
Leader María Eugenia Rodríguez Palop Jorge Buxadé Oriol Junqueras
Party Podemos–IU Vox Ahora Repúblicas
Alliance GUE/NGL
Greens/EFA
ECR Greens/EFA
GUE/NGL
Leader since 21 March 2019 21 April 2019 29 September 2018
Last election 11 seats, 18.0% 0 seats, 1.6% 3 seats, 6.1%
Seats won 6 4 3
Seat change 5 4 0
Popular vote 2,258,857 1,393,684 1,252,139
Percentage 10.1% 6.2% 5.6%
Swing 7.9 pp 4.6 pp 0.5 pp

Held one month after the 28 April 2019 general election, the Spanish Socialist Workers' Party (PSOE) of Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez scored a landslide victory—as well as the first win for the party in a European Parliament election in 15 years, also with Josep Borrell as its main candidate—by achieving 32.9% of the share and 20 seats, a result which allowed it to become the largest national delegation within the Progressive Alliance of Socialists and Democrats. Concurrently, the opposition People's Party (PP) suffered a severe setback and scored its worst result ever in a European Parliament election, but slightly improved on its general election results by achieving 20.2% of the vote and 12 seats. Citizens (Cs), which had integrated Union, Progress and Democracy (UPyD) within its lists ahead of the election, became the third most-voted party of the country, but at 12.2% and 7 seats it only slightly improved on the combined Cs–UPyD results in 2014. Unidas Podemos Cambiar Europa (English: "United We Can Change Europe"), the alliance of Podemos and United Left (IU) suffered a considerable drop from both parties' past results, being reduced to 10.1% and 6 seats. Far-right Vox performed well below expectations after disappointing results for the party in the 2019 general election, scoring 6.2% of the share and 3 seats.

Afterwards, and as a result of the United Kingdom's withdrawal from the European Union coming into effect on 31 January 2020, five additional seats were allocated to Spain's MEP delegation, which were re-distributed by granting one each to PSOE, PP, Cs, Vox and Junts according to their May 2019 election results.

Electoral system

54 members of the European Parliament were allocated to Spain as per the Treaty of Lisbon. Voting was on the basis of universal suffrage, which comprised all nationals and resident non-national European citizens over 18 years of age and in full enjoyment of their political rights. Additionally, Spaniards abroad were required to apply for voting before being permitted to vote, a system known as "begged" or expat vote (Spanish: Voto rogado).

All seats were elected in a single multi-member constituency—comprising the entire national territory—using the D'Hondt method and a closed list proportional voting system, with no electoral threshold being applied in order to be entitled to enter seat distribution. The use of the electoral method resulted in an effective threshold based on the district magnitude and the distribution of votes among candidacies.

The law did not provide for by-elections to fill vacated seats; instead, any vacancies that occurred after the proclamation of candidates and into the legislative term were to be covered by the successive candidates in the list and, when required, by the designated substitutes.

Outgoing delegation

Outgoing delegation in April 2019
Groups Parties MEPs
Seats Total
European People's Party PP 16 17
INDEP 1
Progressive Alliance of Socialists and Democrats PSOE 14 14
European United Left–Nordic Green Left Podemos 5 10
IU 4
Anova 1
Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe Cs 4 8
UPyD 1
PDeCAT 1
EAJ/PNV 1
INDEP 1
Greens–European Free Alliance ERC 2 5
ICV 1
BNG 1
Equo 1

Parties and candidates

The electoral law allowed for parties and federations registered in the interior ministry, coalitions and groupings of electors to present lists of candidates. Parties and federations intending to form a coalition ahead of an election were required to inform the relevant Electoral Commission within ten days of the election call. In order to be entitled to run, parties, federations, coalitions and groupings of electors needed to secure the signature of at least 15,000 registered electors; this requirement could be lifted and replaced through the signature of at least 50 elected officials—deputies, senators, MEPs or members from the legislative assemblies of autonomous communities or from local city councils. Electors and elected officials were disallowed from signing for more than one list of candidates.

Below is a list of the main parties and electoral alliances which contested the election:

Candidacy Parties and
alliances
Leading candidate Ideology Previous result Ref.
Vote % Seats
PP
List
  • People's Party (PP)
Dolors Montserrat Conservatism
Christian democracy
26.1% 16
PSOE
List
  • Spanish Socialist Workers' Party (PSOE)
  • Socialists' Party of Catalonia (PSC)
Josep Borrell Social democracy 23.0% 14
Podemos–IU
List
  • Podemos (Podemos)
  • United Left (IU)
  • Catalonia in Common (CatComú)
  • Barcelona in Common (BComú)
María Eugenia Rodríguez Palop Left-wing populism
Democratic socialism

18.0%
11

Cs
List
  • Citizens–Party of the Citizenry (Cs)
  • Union, Progress and Democracy (UPyD)
Luis Garicano Liberalism
9.7%
6


Ahora
Repúblicas
List
  • Republican Left of Catalonia (ERC)
  • Basque Country Gather (EH Bildu)
  • Galician Nationalist Bloc (BNG)
  • Andecha Astur (AA)
  • Puyalón de Cuchas (Puyalón)
  • Canarian Nationalist Alternative (ANC)
  • National Congress of the Canaries (CNC)
  • Unity of the People (UP)
Oriol Junqueras Secessionism
Left-wing nationalism

6.1%
3
Junts
List
  • Catalan European Democratic Party (PDeCAT)
  • Democratic Convergence of Catalonia (CDC)
  • Together for Catalonia (JxCat)
    – National Call for the Republic (CNxR)
Carles Puigdemont Catalan independence
Liberalism

5.4%
3
CEUS
List
  • Basque Nationalist Party (EAJ/PNV)
  • Canarian Coalition–Canarian Nationalist Party (CCa–PNC)
  • Commitment to Galicia (CxG)
  • Proposal for the Isles (El Pi)
  • Valencian Democrats (DV)
  • Yes to Navarre (GBai)
Izaskun Bilbao Peripheral nationalism
CpE
List
  • Commitment Coalition (Compromís)
  • More for Majorca (Més)
  • It is Time (En Marea)
  • Aragonese Union (CHA)
  • New Canaries (NCa)
  • Castilian Party (PCAS)
  • Caballas Coalition (Caballas)
  • Coalition for Melilla (CpM)
  • Andalusian People's Initiative (iniciativa)
  • Andalusian Left (IzA)
  • The Greens of Europe (LVdeE)
Jordi Sebastià Left-wing nationalism
Eco-socialism

1.9%
1
Vox
List
  • Vox (Vox)
Jorge Buxadé Right-wing populism
Ultranationalism
National conservatism
1.6% 0

Campaign

Party slogans

Party or alliance Original slogan English translation Ref.
PP « Centrados en tu futuro » "Centered on your future"
PSOE « Siempre hacia delante » "Always forward"
Podemos–IU « Verdades en Europa » "Truths in Europe"
Cs « Vamos Europa » "Let's go Europe"
Ahora Repúblicas « Impuls republicà » "Republican impulse"
Vox « En Europa, por España » "In Europe, for Spain"

Election debates

2019 European Parliament election debates in Spain
Date Organisers Moderator(s)     P  Present    S  Surrogate    NI  Not invited   I  Invited    A  Absent invitee 
PP PSOE UPCE Cs AR Junts CEUS CpE Vox Audience Refs
12 May laSexta
(El Objetivo)
Ana Pastor P
Montserrat
P
Borrell
P
Palop
P
Garicano
NI NI NI NI P
Buxadé
6.9%
(1,147,000)

22 May RTVE
Xabier Fortes P
Montserrat
P
Borrell
P
Palop
P
Garicano
S
Solé
S
Knörr
P
Bilbao
P
Sebastià
P
Buxadé
5.2%
(817,000)

Opinion polls

The tables below list opinion polling results in reverse chronological order, showing the most recent first and using the dates when the survey fieldwork was done, as opposed to the date of publication. Where the fieldwork dates are unknown, the date of publication is given instead. The highest percentage figure in each polling survey is displayed with its background shaded in the leading party's colour. If a tie ensues, this is applied to the figures with the highest percentages. The "Lead" column on the right shows the percentage-point difference between the parties with the highest percentages in a poll.

Voting intention estimates

The table below lists weighted voting intention estimates. Refusals are generally excluded from the party vote percentages, while question wording and the treatment of "don't know" responses and those not intending to vote may vary between polling organisations. When available, seat projections determined by the polling organisations are displayed below (or in place of) the percentages in a smaller font.

Color key:

  Poll conducted after legal ban on opinion polls

Voting preferences

The table below lists raw, unweighted voting preferences.

Results

Overall

← Summary of the 26 May 2019 European Parliament election results in Spain →
Parties and alliances Popular vote Seats
Votes % ±pp Total +/−
Spanish Socialist Workers' Party (PSOE)1 7,369,789 32.86 +9.85 21 +7
People's Party (PP)1 4,519,205 20.15 −5.94 13 −3
Citizens–Party of the Citizenry (Cs)1 2 2,731,825 12.18 +2.51 8 +2
United We Can Change Europe (Podemos–IU)3 2,258,857 10.07 −7.94 6 −5
Vox (Vox)1 1,393,684 6.21 +4.64 4 +4
Republics Now (Ahora Repúblicas)4 1,252,139 5.58 −0.51 3 ±0
Free for Europe (Junts)1 5 1,018,435 4.54 +1.04 3 +1
Coalition for a Solidary Europe (CEUS)6 633,090 2.82 +0.89 1 ±0
Commitment to Europe (CpE)7 296,491 1.32 −0.60 0 −1
Animalist Party Against Mistreatment of Animals (PACMA) 295,546 1.32 +0.19 0 ±0
Green Coalition–Citizen Europe (CV–EC) 65,504 0.29 New 0 ±0
Zero Cuts–The Greens–European Green Group (Recortes Cero–LV–GVE) 50,002 0.22 +0.02 0 ±0
Volt Europa (Volt) 32,432 0.14 New 0 ±0
Feminist Initiative (IFem) 29,276 0.13 −0.02 0 ±0
Communists (PCPE–PCPC–PCPA) 28,508 0.13 −0.06 0 ±0
Act (PACT) 25,528 0.11 New 0 ±0
Andalusia by Herself (AxSí)8 23,995 0.11 −0.21 0 ±0
For a Fairer World (PUM+J) 21,584 0.10 New 0 ±0
Communist Party of the Workers of Spain (PCTE) 19,080 0.09 New 0 ±0
Pirates of Catalonia–European Pirates (pirates.cat/ep) 16,755 0.07 −0.18 0 ±0
Centrists for Europe (CCD–Lliures–UIJ–centrados) 15,615 0.07 New 0 ±0
Forum of Citizens (FAC) 14,175 0.06 −0.15 0 ±0
Positive Left (IZQP) 12,939 0.06 New 0 ±0
With You, We Are Democracy (Contigo) 12,430 0.06 New 0 ±0
Extremadurans (CEx–CREx–PREx) 11,894 0.05 +0.01 0 ±0
FE de las JONS–Spanish Alternative–La Falange–National Democracy (ADÑ)9 11,699 0.05 −0.39 0 ±0
Republican Alternative (ALTER) 11,076 0.05 ±0.00 0 ±0
Actual Equality (IGRE) 9,076 0.04 New 0 ±0
Red Current Movement (MCR) 8,402 0.04 +0.01 0 ±0
Humanist Party (PH) 7,947 0.04 −0.05 0 ±0
Euro Latino Independent Movement (MIEL) 6,809 0.03 New 0 ±0
Internationalist Solidarity and Self-Management (SAIn) 5,543 0.02 −0.02 0 ±0
Blank ballots 216,736 0.97 −1.33
Total1 22,426,066 59 +5
Valid votes 22,426,066 99.14 +0.94
Invalid votes 193,918 0.86 −0.94
Votes cast / turnout 22,619,984 60.73 +16.92
Abstentions 14,628,904 39.27 −16.92
Registered voters 37,248,888
Sources
Footnotes:
  • 1 Initially, Spain was allocated 54 seats, which were distributed as follows: PSOE (20), PP (12), Cs (7), Podemos–IU (6), Vox (3), Ahora Repúblicas (3), Junts (2) and CEUS (1). However, as a result of Brexit, Spain's MEP delegation grew to 59, with the additional 5 seats being allocated to PSOE (1), PP (1), Cs (1), Vox (1) and Junts (1).
  • 2 Citizens–Party of the Citizenry results are compared to the combined totals of Union, Progress and Democracy and Citizens–Party of the Citizenry in the 2014 election.
  • 3 United We Can Change Europe results are compared to the combined totals of Plural Left and We Can in the 2014 election.
  • 4 Republics Now results are compared to the combined totals of The Left for the Right to Decide and The Peoples Decide in the 2014 election.
  • 5 Free for Europe results are compared to Coalition for Europe totals in Catalonia in the 2014 election.
  • 6 Coalition for a Solidary Europe results are compared to Coalition for Europe totals in the 2014 election, not including results in Catalonia.
  • 7 Commitment to Europe results are compared to European Spring totals in the 2014 election.
  • 8 Andalusia by Herself results are compared to Andalusian Party totals in the 2014 election.
  • 9 FE de las JONS–Spanish Alternative–La Falange–National Democracy results are compared to the combined totals of Spanish Phalanx of the CNSO, Social Impulse, Spain on the Move and National Democracy in the 2014 election.
Popular vote
PSOE
32.86%
PP
20.15%
Cs
12.18%
Podemos–IU
10.07%
Vox
6.21%
Ahora Repúblicas
5.58%
Junts
4.54%
CEUS
2.82%
CpE
1.32%
PACMA
1.32%
Others
1.96%
Blank ballots
0.97%
Seats
PSOE
35.59%
PP
22.03%
Cs
13.56%
Podemos–IU
10.17%
Vox
6.78%
Ahora Repúblicas
5.08%
Junts
5.08%
CEUS
1.69%

Maps

Distribution by European group

Summary of political group distribution in the 9th European Parliament (2019–2024)
Groups Parties Seats Total %
Progressive Alliance of Socialists and Democrats (S&D)
  • Spanish Socialist Workers' Party (PSOE)
21 21 35.59
European People's Party (EPP)
  • People's Party (PP)
13 13 22.03
Renew Europe (RE)
  • Citizens–Party of the Citizenry (Cs)
  • Basque Nationalist Party (EAJ/PNV)
8
1
9 15.25
European United Left–Nordic Green Left (GUE/NGL)
  • We Can (Podemos)
  • United Left (IU)
  • Basque Country Gather (EH Bildu)
3
2
1
6 10.17
European Conservatives and Reformists (ECR)
  • Vox (Vox)
4 4 6.78
Greens–European Free Alliance (Greens/EFA)
  • Republican Left of Catalonia (ERC)
  • Catalonia in Common (CatComú)
2
1
3 5.08
Non-Inscrits (NI)
  • Together for Catalonia (JxCat)
2 2 3.39
Total 59 59 100.00

Elected legislators

The following table lists the elected legislators:

Bibliography

  • Ley Orgánica 5/1985, de 19 de junio, del Régimen Electoral General (Organic Law 5/1985). Boletín Oficial del Estado (in Spanish). Vol. 147. 19 June 1985 [version as of 30 January 2019]. ISSN 0212-033X. BOE-A-1985-11672. Retrieved 30 January 2020.
  • Treaty of Lisbon amending the Treaty on European Union and the Treaty establishing the European Community (2007/C 306/01). Official Journal of the European Union. Vol. 50. 17 December 2007. ISSN 1725-2423. 12007L/TXT. Retrieved 11 November 2023.
  • European Council Decision (EU) establishing the composition of the European Parliament (European Council Decision (EU) 2018/937). Official Journal of the European Union. Vol. 66. 28 June 2018. ISSN 1725-2423. 32018D0937. Retrieved 11 July 2024.

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