2004 Spanish general election

Uncommon card · No. 185825

A general election was held in Spain on 14 March 2004 to elect the members of the 8th Cortes Generales under the Spanish Constitution of 1978. All 350 seats in the Congress of Deputies were up for election, as well as 208 of 259 seats in the Senate. It was held concurrently with a regional election in Andalusia. Since 2000, the ruling People's Party (PP) had governed with a parliamentary absolute majority, allowing it to renegue from its previous agreements with peripheral nationalist parties. This period saw sustained economic growth, but the controversial management—and, at times, attempted cover-up—of a number of crises affected the standing of Aznar's government and fostered perceptions of arrogance: these included the Gescartera affair, the Prestige oil spill and the Yak-42 plane crash. A reform of unemployment benefits led to a general strike in 2002, and the unpopular decision to intervene in the Iraq War sparked massive protests across Spain. The incumbent prime minister, José María...

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