Dissolution of the Cortes and general elections on November 29

The King has dissolved the Congress of Deputies and the Senate and has called for general elections for Sunday, November 29, 2026, by means of Royal Decree 806/2026, of October 5, published this Tuesday by the Official State Gazette (BOE no. 248, of October 6, 2026, Sec. I, page 130564, reference BOE-A-2026-20742). The regulation sets an electoral campaign of fifteen days, between November 13 and 27, and the constitutive meeting of the new Chambers on December 23.

The decree is issued under article 115 of the Constitution and in accordance with article 42.1 of Organic Law 5/1985, of June 19, on the General Electoral Regime (LOREG), at the proposal of the President of the Government and following deliberation by the Council of Ministers at its meeting on October 5, 2026. The text is signed by Felipe VI and by the President of the Government, Pedro Sánchez Pérez-Castejón, and entered into force on the day of its publication in the gazette.

The call brings an early end to the legislature opened after the elections of July 23, 2023, whose Chambers are now dissolved. The royal decree is published in section I, dedicated to general provisions, under the heading of the Head of State and the subheading “General Courts. Dissolution and call for elections.”

An electoral calendar closed in fifteen days of campaigning

Article 4 of the royal decree specifies the duration of the campaign and article 5 sets the date for the constitution of the Chambers. The calendar is as follows:

• Dissolution of the Congress of Deputies and the Senate elected on July 23, 2023.
• Holding of the elections for both Chambers on Sunday, November 29, 2026.
• Fifteen-day electoral campaign, from 00:00 hours on Friday, November 13, until 24:00 hours on Friday, November 27.
• Constitutive sessions of the Congress and the Senate on December 23, at ten o’clock.

Article 6 establishes that the elections will be governed by the LOREG and its implementing regulations, while the sole final provision determines the entry into force on the day of official publication.

Allocation of seats: 350 deputies per constituency

The annex of the decree details, in application of article 162 of the LOREG, the number of deputies corresponding to each constituency, with a total of 350 seats. The largest constituencies concentrate a significant part of the representation:

• Madrid, 38 deputies; Barcelona, 32; Valencia/València, 16.
• Alicante/Alacant and Seville, 12 each; Málaga, 11; Murcia, 10.
• Illes Balears, Bizkaia, Cádiz, A Coruña and Las Palmas, 8 each.
• Asturias, Granada, Pontevedra, Santa Cruz de Tenerife and Zaragoza, 7 each.
• At the opposite end, Soria elects 2 deputies, and Ceuta and Melilla, 1 each.

The Senate and the regulatory framework of the electoral appointment

For the Upper House, article 3.2 applies article 165 of the LOREG and distributes seats based on territorial criteria:

• Four senators in each provincial constituency.
• Three in Gran Canaria, Mallorca and Tenerife.
• One in Ibiza, Formentera, Menorca, Fuerteventura, La Gomera, El Hierro, Lanzarote and La Palma.
• Two senators in Ceuta and two in Melilla.

The same article refers to the annex for the distribution of deputies, so that the regulation exhausts in a single text the dissolution, the call, the calendar, and the allocation of seats, without the need for subsequent developments.

Impact

The call immediately reorganizes the national political agenda: it activates the electoral procedure for the entire electorate, forces the parties to define candidacies and alliances in the coming weeks, and sets the constitution of the new Chambers for December 23, before the end of the year. From that date, the round of consultations for the investiture of the President of the Government will begin, with a calendar that conditions the approval of the next budgets and the legislative activity of early 2027.

Source: Official State Gazette, no. 248, of October 6, 2026, Sec. I. General provisions, page 130564 (official reference: BOE-A-2026-20742).