Following legislative elections, the monarch selects a candidate for prime minister, generally the leader of the party or coalition with a majority in the lower house. The parliament then votes on the selected candidate.

The People’s Party (PP) won the most seats in the snap election in July 2023, but its leader, Alberto Núñez Feijóo, failed to secure the necessary votes to become prime minister. Pedro Sánchez, whose PSOE party won the second most seats, reached a coalition deal with the left-wing party Sumar, secured the votes of Basque and Catalan nationalist lawmakers, and formed a new government in November.

The lower house of Spain’s bicameral parliament, the Congress of Deputies, is composed of 350 members elected in multimember constituencies for each of Spain’s provinces, with the exception of the North African exclaves of Ceuta and Melilla, each of which has one single-member constituency. The Senate has 266 members, 208 of whom are elected directly, and 58 of whom are chosen by regional legislatures. Members of both chambers serve four-year terms. Spain’s legislative elections are generally considered free and fair.

In May 2023, municipal and regional elections took place across the country. The PSOE lost control of several regions and cities, while the PP won majorities in Madrid and La Rioja. After his party’s poor showing, Prime Minister Sánchez called for snap general elections in July.

In the July 2023 polls, the PP secured 137 seats, followed by the PSOE with 121, Vox with 33, and Sumar with 31, among several other parties. In the Senate, the PP won 120 seats, an absolute majority, and the PSOE took 72.

Spain’s constitution and electoral laws provide the legal framework for democratic elections, and they are generally implemented fairly. Measures to prevent fraud were strengthened after a mail-ballot buying scheme in Melilla and other small towns was uncovered during the municipal and regional elections in 2023.

Citizens are free to organize political parties, which are able to function without interference in practice. While the PP and the PSOE once dominated the political system, corruption scandals, persistent economic woes, and the dispute over Catalonia have aided the rise of new alternatives in recent years, including United We Can (UP) or Sumar on the left and Vox on the right.

There have been multiple democratic transfers of power between rival parties since Spain returned to democracy in the late 1970s.

Voting and political affairs in general are largely free from undue interference by unelected or external forces. However, disinformation and other such manipulation in elections is a growing concern. In 2023, law enforcement authorities continued to investigate an alleged campaign by the former PP government to obtain and disseminate compromising information about Catalan separatist leaders and other political opponents. In March, parliament also started an investigation into the issue.

Women and ethnic, racial, and religious minority groups enjoy full political rights. Women are free to advocate for their political interests, and they are relatively well represented in practice, holding 44 and 42 percent of the seats in the Chamber of Deputies and the Senate, respectively.

Spain’s system of regional autonomy grants significant powers of self-governance to the country’s traditional national minorities, including the Catalan and Basque minorities.

In 2023, PSOE and left-wing, nationalist and independentist parties proposed an amnesty bill that would pardon crimes committed by Catalan separatists, generating controversy over its constitutionality. The proposed bill excluded some acts, such as terrorism and torture. At the end of the year the bill had not yet been passed.

Elected officials are generally free to make and implement laws and policies without undue interference. However, the political system has failed to produce a stable governing majority in the parliament since 2015, resulting in frequent and inconclusive elections, a sharp decline in the passage of legislation, and an increased use of mechanisms like executive decrees to advance the government’s agenda without the approval of lawmakers.

Concerns about official corruption often center on party financing. Most party expenses are funded by the state, but political parties can access commercial bank loans. Over the past decade, lawmakers have imposed some restrictions on such private sources of funding, prohibited banks from forgiving party debt, strengthened rules on asset disclosure and conflicts of interest for high-ranking officials, and enacted more severe penalties for corruption-related crimes.

Although the courts have a solid record of investigating and prosecuting corruption cases, the system is often overburdened, and cases move slowly.

In March 2023, a law to protect whistleblowers entered into force. The law includes sanctions for those who retaliate against whistleblowers exposing corruption, but only protects informants who obtained information legally.

Legal safeguards to ensure government transparency include asset-disclosure rules for public officials and laws governing conflicts of interest. The Transparency Act, which took effect in 2014, is meant to facilitate public access to government records, though freedom of information activists have reported onerous procedures and called for improvements to the law, as well as mechanisms to access more judicial and parliamentary documents.

The Council of Europe’s Group of States Against Corruption (GRECO) has noted that the Council of Transparency and Good Governance (CTBG), the body tasked with monitoring compliance with transparency obligations, lacks resources and does not have the ability to impose sanctions. Civil society organizations continue to report that the Sánchez government frequently resists complying with requests or orders to disclose information.

Spain has a free press that covers a wide range of perspectives and actively investigates high-level corruption. However, consolidation of private ownership poses a threat to media independence, and ownership in the print and online media sectors is less transparent than in broadcast media. Media outlets have also encountered a proliferation of lawsuits intended to obstruct their coverage of private-sector wrongdoing.

The level of violence against journalists has fallen considerably, but journalists are sometimes subject to harassment and physical assaults in the course of their work, especially during protests. The continued harassment of journalists by far-right elements of social media has been widely reported.

A controversial public safety law that took effect in 2015, nicknamed the “gag law” by its critics, established large fines for offenses including spreading images that could endanger police officers or protected facilities. Journalists continue to face penalties for alleged violations of the law while reporting on police actions. In 2023, a journalist was also sentenced to two years in prison for publishing information about a murder, even though the court recognized that the published information was true.

During the electoral campaign in 2023, the right-wing political party Vox barred certain journalists from covering its events and press conferences.

Religious freedom is guaranteed in the constitution and respected in practice. As the country’s dominant religion, Roman Catholicism enjoys benefits not afforded to others, such as financing through the tax system. However, the religious organizations of Jews, Muslims, and Protestants also have certain privileges through agreements with the state, including tax exemptions and permission to station chaplains in hospitals and other institutions. Other groups that choose to register can obtain a legal identity and the right to own or rent property. The penal code contains a provision to punish blasphemy, but prosecutions are rare in practice. In recent years, extreme conservative groups have used this provision to promote self-censorship.

The government does not restrict academic freedom in law or in practice.

Private discussion remains open and vibrant. Aggressive enforcement of laws banning the glorification of terrorism has threatened free speech, and in 2017 the Supreme Court ruled that a person could violate the law without intending to “glorify” a terrorist group or “humiliate” its victims. However, over the past several years there has been a noticeable decline in the strict implementation of these laws.

Individuals have also been prosecuted for insulting the monarchy, the flag, and other state institutions. In 2023, the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) found that Spain had violated a trade union representative’s right to freedom of expression after he was convicted of insulting Spain for shouting offensive words towards the national flag during a protest.

The constitution provides for freedom of assembly, and the authorities typically respect this right. However, the public safety act that took effect in 2015 imposed a number of restrictions, including fines of up to €600,000 ($630,000) for participating in unauthorized protests near key buildings or infrastructure. Participants in protests on a variety of local concerns have been ordered to pay smaller but still substantial fines under the law in practice, and as of 2023 at least 250,000 penalties had been imposed based on the law.

In recent years, several protesters have been prosecuted for participating in demonstrations that resulted in clashes with police, facing up to seven years in prison for allegedly attacking the authorities or causing public disturbances. Human rights organizations have reported an escalation in police violence during demonstrations.

Despite these concerns, a number of protests took place across Spain in 2023, including demonstrations by human rights activists, Catalan separatist groups, opposition parties, workers’ rights organizations, and advocates for social benefits and the public health system.

Domestic and international nongovernmental organizations operate without significant government restrictions.

With the exception of members of the military and national police, workers are free to organize in unions of their choice, engage in collective bargaining, and mount legal strikes.

The constitution provides for an independent judiciary, and the courts operate autonomously in practice. However, the Council of Europe (CoE) has criticized the fact that 12 judges who sit on the 20-member General Council of the Judiciary (CGPJ)—which oversees the courts and is responsible for appointing, transferring, and promoting judges—are appointed through a three-fifths vote in the parliament. This arrangement has exposed the body to political disruptions.

The CGPJ’s membership was due to be renewed in late 2018, but the opposition PP denied the governing parties the necessary supermajority. The incumbent council has continued to operate, but in 2023 the Constitutional Court confirmed that the CGPJ cannot make appointments while operating on an interim basis.

To secure the necessary votes to become prime minister, Pedro Sánchez signed a deal with Catalan separatist parties in which he promised to create parliamentary committees that would analyze if abusive “lawfare” practices had been used in Catalan-related cases. This triggered outrage from the judiciary, which claimed the measure would constitute interference in its duties. In December 2023, the parliament approved the creation of three parliamentary committees.

The authorities generally observe legal safeguards against arbitrary arrest and detention,

though judges can authorize special restrictions on communication and delayed arraignment for detainees held in connection with acts of terrorism. Defendants typically enjoy full due process rights during trial. However, high-profile cases related to Basque and Catalan nationalism in recent years have featured flaws—including disproportionate charges and penalties as well as unjustified pretrial detention—that drew criticism from international organizations.

In May 2023, the UN Human Rights Committee found that the Spanish Supreme Court had violated former Catalan president Carles Puigdemont’s right to be elected by suspending him from the European Parliament in 2018.

The population generally faces little threat of large-scale violence. The potential for terrorist attacks by radical Islamist groups remains a concern, but Basque Fatherland and Freedom (ETA), a separatist group that carried out terrorist attacks for decades, formally dissolved in 2018.

Prison conditions generally meet international standards, but reception centers for irregular migrants suffer from overcrowding and other problems.

Women, members of racial and other minority groups, and LGBT+ people enjoy legal protections against discrimination and other mistreatment, though a degree of societal bias persists. In 2022, hate crimes based on sex or gender increased by 76.6 percent. Members of some minority populations—including Roma populations—remain economically marginalized and are allegedly subject to police profiling.

Spain is a major point of entry to Europe for irregular migrants and refugees, with most making the crossing by sea. In 2023, approximately 52,000 people arrived by sea, and according to UN data at least 1,190 people died at sea while trying to reach Spain. International human rights groups have criticized the response from Spanish authorities, stating that migrants and asylum seekers are often housed in poor conditions, including improvised camps that allegedly violate human rights standards, or returned to their countries without due process.

There are few significant restrictions on individuals’ freedom to travel within the country or abroad, or to change their place of residence, employment, or education. However, the authorities have been criticized for failing to grant documented asylum seekers free movement within Spanish territory, despite multiple court rulings on the matter.

The legal framework supports property rights, and there are no major restrictions on private business activity.

Personal social freedoms are generally respected. Same-sex marriage has been legal in Spain since 2005, and same-sex couples may adopt children. A February 2023 law allows people aged 16 or older to change their gender on official documents without a medical diagnosis or proof of hormone treatment and bans therapies intended to modify sexual orientation or gender identity.

There are legal protections against domestic abuse and rape, including spousal rape. While both remain problems in practice, the government and civil society groups work actively to combat them. A law that took effect in 2022 defined rape as nonconsensual sex, eliminating the need to show that the crime featured physical violence or intimidation, but critics denounced an unintentional loophole that allowed people convicted under the old law to apply for reduced sentences. Abortion is legal but can be difficult to access in practice: in 5 of Spain’s 17 autonomous regions, no public hospital offers the procedure.

Residents generally have access to economic opportunity and protection from exploitative working conditions, though Spain’s income inequality is among the worst in the European Union. Despite strong antitrafficking efforts by law enforcement agencies, however, migrant workers remain vulnerable to debt bondage, forced labor, and sexual exploitation.