Spanish General Election of 1982

The Socialists won 202 seats, sweeping Spain's consolidation of democracy after Franco.

Overview

The October 1982 election delivered the Spanish Socialist Workers' Party of Felipe Gonzalez 46.6 percent and 202 of 350 seats, the largest majority of the democratic era, ending the centrist UCD's collapse and signalling the democratic regime's maturity. The Communist and regional parties' performance fixed the plural map that still exists. Gonzalez governed fourteen years, modernizing Spain into NATO and the European Community by 1986. The 1982 vote demonstrated a clean left alternation, silencing coup fears after 1981's attempted Tejero seizure of parliament.