General elections: nearly 4,000 users of DEMÓCRATA AND ATRESMEDIA predict a winning PP and a PSOE with 109 seats. What’s your bet?

The current state electoral law is the Organic Law 5/1985, of June 19, on the General Electoral Regime (LOREG): it is approved and in force, not pending approval. As of November 11, 2026, it is important to distinguish it from its reforms: some were approved, others were rejected, and the government project on debates and polls expired on October 6.

Status of the main parliamentary reform

The project 121/000063, registered by the Government in Congress on July 9, 2025 and published on July 24, aimed to modify two specific aspects without replacing the seat allocation system:

• Electoral debates: require public media to hold at least one during the campaign, with mandatory attendance unless justified. It also contemplated the participation of parties considered significant by their subsequent electoral results.
• Polls: require the publication of anonymized microdata, that is, individual responses without information that allows identifying respondents, to facilitate verification of results.

It was sent to the Constitutional Commission and accumulated 39 extensions of the amendment deadline, until September 30, 2026. Finally, it expired with the dissolution of the Cortes: these obligations were not approved through this project and their recovery will require a new parliamentary initiative. (Project text; Dissolution of the Cortes).

Approved reforms

• Own representation of Formentera. The socialist initiative 122/000280, presented on May 8, 2026, culminated in Organic Law 2/2026, of June 30, published on July 2. It modified articles 161.2 and 165.2 so that Ibiza and Formentera are separate constituencies and each elects one senator, adapting LOREG to the constitutional reform. It came into force the day after its publication. (Organic Law 2/2026).
• External vote. As a relevant precedent, Organic Law 12/2022, of September 30, eliminated the requested vote: residents abroad no longer have to request documentation in advance. It incorporated automatic sending, downloadable ballots, and deadline extensions. It is an approved reform, not a pending proposal. (Parliamentary documentation).

Other recent proposals

• Separate counting of postal votes. Vox presented initiative 122/000074 on March 15, 2024 to use separate ballot boxes and differentiate postal and in-person results. It was rejected on June 23, 2026. (Publication of rejection).
• Identification of postal voters. Another Vox proposal, 122/000200, presented on June 4, 2025, added in-person identification by ID when casting the vote, in addition to separate counting. It was also rejected on September 23, 2025. (Proposal text).
• Voting from age 16. The proposal 122/000183, from the Republican Group, presented in 2025, was withdrawn and not approved. (Congress information).
• Threshold for European elections. The European Parliament requested on January 20, 2026 to introduce a barrier between 2% and 5%. The resolution is non-binding and does not by itself modify Spanish legislation. (Demócrata).

Summary: a comprehensive reform of Congress has not been approved: provincial constituencies, closed lists, the D’Hondt formula, and the 3% threshold per constituency remain. (Consolidated LOREG).

The Spanish Constitution of 1978 establishes the President of the Government as the central figure of the executive power. His powers and functions are scattered across several provisions (mainly articles 97, 98, 99, 100, 112, 113, 115, and 116), but they can be grouped into major blocks to better understand his role.

1. Direction of Government action

The core function is set out in article 97: the Government directs domestic and foreign policy, the civil and military administration, and the defense of the State, and exercises executive functions. Within this collegiate body, the President of the Government is the one who:

• Sets the general political line of the Government, both domestically and internationally.
• Coordinates the work of the ministers, ensuring coherence among the different departments and resolving conflicts of competence that may arise between them.
• Promotes the Government's normative activity (bill projects, royal decree-laws, royal legislative decrees, regulations), although formal approval corresponds to the Council of Ministers.

In practice, this means that the figure of the president concentrates the political leadership of the Executive and sets the governmental agenda.

2. Appointment, dismissal, and organization of the Government

The President of the Government has key powers over the composition and structure of the Government itself:

• Proposes the appointment and dismissal of ministers to the King. According to article 100, other members of the Government are appointed and removed by the King at the president's proposal. In practice, this grants the president the power to configure his team and reshape it when he deems appropriate.
• Determines the internal structure of the Government, proposing the creation, merger, or suppression of ministries and state secretariats, which are then formalized through organizational norms of the Executive itself.
• May present his resignation, which entails the dismissal of the entire Government and the opening of a new investiture process.

3. Relationship with the Cortes Generales

The president's position is based on the confidence of the Congress of Deputies, which grants him investiture (articles 99 and following). From there, the Constitution assigns him several functions in the Government–Cortes relationship:

• Raise the question of confidence before Congress (article 112), so that it pronounces on the Government's program or a general policy declaration. If confidence is not obtained, the president must resign.
• Be the recipient of the motion of censure (article 113), which must necessarily be "constructive": Congress can only withdraw its confidence from the president if it proposes another alternative candidate.
• Political responsibility: the entire Government, and therefore the president, is jointly responsible before Congress. He is questioned, answers questions, and accounts in parliamentary sessions.

These functions uphold the parliamentary nature of the system: the president remains in office as long as he retains the support (or at least tolerance) of the majority of Congress.

4. Dissolution of the Chambers and calling of elections

Article 115 grants the president a decisive power:

• Propose to the King the dissolution of the Congress, the Senate, or the Cortes Generales and the consequent calling of general elections. The King always acts on the president's proposal, who assumes the political initiative.

There are limits: dissolution cannot be proposed while a motion of censure is pending nor before a minimum time has passed since the previous dissolution. Even so, this faculty grants the president a relevant capacity to manage political timing.

5. Relationship with the King and countersignature

Within the framework of the parliamentary monarchy, the President of the Government is the main responsible for the countersignature of many acts of the King, which is a requirement for their validity. Among others:

• The appointment and dismissal of ministers.
• The dissolution of the Chambers and the calling of elections.
• Certain appointments in the Administration and other acts of political relevance.

The countersignature implies that the political responsibility for those acts lies with the Government, and particularly with its president, not with the King.

6. States of crisis and other functions

The Constitution also assigns the president a central role in exceptional situations:

• Propose the declaration of states of alarm, exception, and siege (article 116), which are agreed upon by the Government or the Cortes, depending on the case, but always politically driven from the presidency.
• Direct defense and security policy through leadership of the Government, which holds the headship of the military administration and the State's defense policy.

Overall, the Constitution configures the President of the Government as the highest political authority of the executive power, the axis of the relationship between Government, Parliament, and Crown, and a key figure for the stability and direction of the State's general policy.

The Popular Party was the most voted force in the general elections of July 23, 2023. In the Congress it obtained 8,160,837 votes, 33.06%, and 137 deputies out of 350. It won, therefore, in votes and seats, but was 39 deputies short of an absolute majority, set at 176.

National result in the Congress

The final figures allow summarizing the PP's result in four data points:

• Votes: 8,160,837 ballots.
• National percentage: 33.06%.
• Representation: 137 deputies.
• Distance to absolute majority: 39 seats.

These data correspond to the definitive result, not only to the count released during election night. The official reference is the result published in the BOE; the presentation of the results of July 23 can also be consulted.

Comparison with November 2019

The PP improved its results compared to the general elections of November 10, 2019. Then it had obtained 5,047,040 votes, 20.81%, and 89 deputies. The comparison between both calls shows:

• 3,113,797 more votes: it went from just over five million to over eight million.
• 12.25 percentage points more: its national percentage rose from 20.81% to 33.06%.
• 48 additional deputies: it increased its representation from 89 to 137 seats.

The improvement occurred, therefore, in the three main indicators: number of votes, percentage, and parliamentary representation. The 48 additional seats explain the difference between both calls, although that growth was not enough to reach 176 deputies by itself.

Some notable territorial results

The advance was also reflected in different autonomous communities and constituencies. Among the results collected in the territorial breakdown by Europa Press the following stand out:

• Andalusia: it obtained 25 deputies and was the leading force, with approximately 36% of the votes.
• Community of Madrid: it obtained 16 deputies, six more than in 2019, with 1,463,183 votes and 40.55%.
• Galicia: it reached 13 deputies, three more than in 2019, and was the most voted force in the four provinces.
• Castilla-La Mancha: it achieved 10 deputies, also three more than in the previous call.
• Aragon: it went from four to seven deputies.
• Region of Murcia: it obtained four deputies, one more, and 41.18% of the votes.
• Cantabria: it was the leading force with 42.09% and maintained its two deputies.
• Ceuta: it obtained the only seat of the constituency, which previously belonged to Vox.

How to interpret the result

The electoral conclusion is clear: the PP won the elections to Congress but did not obtain an absolute majority. It is advisable to separate both concepts: being the candidacy with the most votes and deputies does not mean having more than half of the seats.

It is also important to distinguish the definitive count from the provisional one. Some information on election night reflected 8,091,840 votes and 33.05%. To respond to the official result, the figures to be used are the definitive ones: 8,160,837 votes, 33.06%, and 137 deputies.