1918 Spanish general election

1918 Spanish general election

← 1916 24 February 1918 (Congress)[a] 10 March 1918 (Senate) 1919 →
All 409 seats in the Congress of Deputies and 180 (of 360) seats in the Senate 205 seats needed for a majority in the Congress of Deputies
First party Second party Third party   Leader Eduardo Dato Manuel García Prieto Count of Romanones Party Conservative Liberal Democratic Romanonist Leader since 1913 1913 1912 Leader's seat Vitoria Senator for life Guadalajara Last election 90 (C) · 36 (S) Did not contest 228 (C) · 112 (S)[b] Seats won 104 (C) · 48 (S) 89 (C) · 41 (S) 40 (C) · 23 (S) Seat change 14 (C) · 12 (S) 89 (C) · 41 (S) 188 (C) · 89 (S)   Fourth party Fifth party Sixth party   Leader Santiago Alba Melquíades Álvarez Antonio Maura Party Liberal Left Alliance Maurist Leader since 1917 1918 1913 Leader's seat Albuñol — Palma Last election Did not contest 34 (C) · 3 (S)[c] 17 (C) · 5 (S) Seats won 33 (C) · 17 (S) 34 (C) · 2 (S) 27 (C) · 9 (S) Seat change 33 (C) · 17 (S) 0 (C) · 1 (S) 10 (C) · 4 (S)
Prime Minister before election Manuel García Prieto Liberal Democratic Prime Minister after election Antonio Maura Maurist

The 1918 Spanish general election was held on Sunday, 24 February (for the Congress of Deputies)^[a] and on Sunday, 10 March 1918 (for the Senate), to elect the 17th Cortes of the Kingdom of Spain in the Restoration period. All 409 seats in the Congress of Deputies were up for election, as well as 180 of 360 seats in the Senate.

The election was held in the wake of the Spanish crisis of 1917, a series of events that threatened the government and the Restoration system by posing a three-way challenge: military (the Defence Juntas, a military union movement created without the approval of the Spanish legislature), political (the Assembly of Parliamentarians in Barcelona demanding a recognition of regional autonomy) and social (the 1917 general strike in response to the worsening living conditions of the working classes). These three challenges were aggravated by the rising cost of living and high inflation rates resulting from the economic boom sparked by Spain's neutrality in World War I and an uneven redistribution of national income.

The resulting parliament was the most fragmented since the approval of the 1876 Constitution, with neither the ruling liberal bloc of Prime Minister Manuel García Prieto nor the opposition conservative bloc under Eduardo Dato beinge able to muster a parliamentary majority. Amid growing unstability, the feeling that no one was willing or able to seize power and the threat of a possible abdication of King Alfonso XIII, a national unity government was formed between the Conservative, Liberal Democratic, Liberal, Liberal Left, Maurist and Regionalist League parties with Antonio Maura as new prime minister.

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