1993 Spanish general election

A general election was held in Spain on Sunday, 6 June 1993, to elect the members of the 5th Cortes Generales. All 350 seats in the Congress of Deputies were up for election, as well as 208 of 256 seats in the Senate.

Felipe González's third term in office had seen Spain completing projects like the Madrid–Seville high-speed rail line and hosting events such as the Seville Expo '92 and the Barcelona '92 Summer Olympics, which contributed to the modernization of the country's international image. Some corruption scandals affecting the ruling Spanish Socialist Workers' Party (PSOE) were uncovered during this period: deputy prime minister Alfonso Guerra resigned in 1991 after his brother was accused of nepotism and tax evasion, and a judicial probe was started on the alleged illegal funding of PSOE campaigns (the "Filesa case"). The outset of the early 1990s recession and its impact on the Spanish economy (amid unemployment growth and rising inflation) forced the government to devalue the peseta three times in nine months. As a result of mounting crises and rising political tension, González chose to call a snap election for June 1993.

Amid a large voter turnout of 76.4%, González's PSOE emerged as the largest party for the fourth consecutive time, though it lost the overall majority it had held since 1982 and fell to 159 deputies. In contrast, José María Aznar's People's Party (PP) gained from the collapse of the Democratic and Social Centre (CDS) and made significant inroads, increasing its support to 34.8% of the vote and 141 seats. However, the party fell short of opinion poll predictions that gave it the most seats, which was attributed to González being perceived as decisively defeating Aznar in the second of two head-to-head debates held during the campaign. United Left (IU) remained stagnant, with party leader Julio Anguita having suffered a stroke in the week previous to the election that prevented him from campaigning.

For the first time since 1979, the election brought in a hung parliament, but parliamentary arithmetics meant that the PSOE remained the only party able to form a government. González was forced to seek the support of Catalan and Basque nationalist groups—such as Convergence and Union (CiU) and the Basque Nationalist Party (PNV)—in order to renew his tenure, in exchange for regional concessions. His fourth government was a minority one, in spite of coalition offerings made to CiU and PNV being rejected.