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All 135 seats in the Parliament of Catalonia 68 seats needed for a majority | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Opinion polls | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Registered | 4,432,776 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Turnout | 2,718,888 (61.3%) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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![]() Election result by constituency | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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The 1980 Catalan regional election was held on Thursday, 20 March 1980, to elect the 1st Parliament of the autonomous community of Catalonia. All 135 seats in the Parliament were up for election. This was the first regional election to be held in Catalonia since the Spanish transition to democracy and the second democratic regional election in Catalan history after that of 1932.[1]
The election results granted a victory with nearly 28% of the vote and 43 seats for the Catalan nationalist Convergence and Union (CiU), the alliance of Democratic Convergence of Catalonia (CDC) and Democratic Union of Catalonia (UDC) led by Jordi Pujol, despite earlier predictions that the Socialists' Party of Catalonia (PSC–PSOE) would emerge as the largest party in parliament and maintain the first place it had achieved in the 1977 and 1979 general elections.[2] Compared to the general elections, the PSC ambiguous positions throughout the campaign were said to have cost them votes both to the Unified Socialist Party of Catalonia (PSUC) and to the Republican Left of Catalonia (ERC)—both of which saw improvements to their general election results—as well as to abstention and, to a lesser extent, to the Socialist Party of Andalusia–Andalusian Party (PSA–PA), which was only narrowly able to enter the Parliament.[3][4] Results for the Centrists of Catalonia (CC–UCD) alliance were seen as disappointing, having lost many votes to Pujol's coalition and being shut from any chance to lead the regional government.[5][6]
The complicated parliamentary arithmetic resulting from the election—with the only alliances able to command an absolute majority being CiU–PSC (76 seats), CiU–UCD–ERC (75) and PSC–PSUC–ERC (72)—raised concerns on Pujol's prospects for a successful investiture.[7] In the end, Pujol would be able to get elected as Catalan president through the support from both UCD and ERC in a second ballot held on 24 April 1980.[8][9] The election would mark the beginning of 23 years of uninterrupted Pujol's rule and the start of CiU's hegemony in regional politics for decades to come.[10]