1901 Spanish general election#Senate

{{Spanish general election background 1879-1923}}

In March 1899, Conservative leader Francisco Silvela formed a regenerationist government that aimed at implementing a program of reforms to address the causes of Spain's decline as a nation—self-evidenced in the country's defeat in the Spanish–American War and the subsequent loss of the Spanish colonies in the Caribbean and Pacific.{{sfn|Maestre Rosa|1973|p=213}} However, Silvela was forced to resign as prime minister and cede power to Marcelo Azcárraga in October 1900, following the political and social backlash resulting from both the tax reform adopted by his finance minister, Raimundo Fernández-Villaverde—which, while intending to reduce the national debt caused by the war in Cuba, sparked a wave of protests and strikes—and the conflictive marriage between Princess of Asturias María de las Mercedes and Infante Carlos of Bourbon, whose father had fought in the Carlist side during the Third Carlist War.{{cite web |last=Herráiz García |first=C. |title=Silvela y la Vielleuze, Francisco (1845-1905) |url=https://www.mcnbiografias.com/app-bio/do/show?key=silvela-y-la-vielleuze-francisco |language=es |website=MCN Biografías |access-date=11 October 2022}}{{cite news |last=De la Santa Cinta |first=Joaquín |date=13 September 2017 |url=https://elcorreodepozuelo.com/2017/09/13/presidentes-del-consejo-ministros-la-regencia-maria-cristina-habsburgo-lorena-francisco-silvela-le-vielleuze-marcelo-azcarraga-palmero-praxedes-mateo-sagasta/ |title=Presidentes del Consejo de Ministros durante la Regencia de María Cristina de Habsburgo-Lorena: Francisco Silvela Le Vielleuze, Marcelo Azcárraga Palmero y Práxedes Mateo Sagasta |language=es |newspaper=El Correo de Pozuelo |access-date=4 May 2023}} Further, the Carlist uprising of October 1900—an attempted armed insurrection originating in Badalona which spread to other towns in Spain—had led to the suspension of constitutional freedoms in a number of provinces for several months.{{cite journal |publisher=Agencia Estatal Boletín Oficial del Estado |journal=Gaceta de Madrid |issue=306 |date=2 November 1900 |language=es |title=Real decreto suspendiendo temporalmente las garantías constitucionales en la Península é islas adyacentes |url=https://boe.es/datos/pdfs/BOE//1900/306/A00421-00421.pdf |page=421}}{{cite journal |publisher=Agencia Estatal Boletín Oficial del Estado |journal=Gaceta de Madrid |issue=69 |date=10 March 1901 |language=es |title=Real decreto derogando el de 1.º de Noviembre último, por el cual se suspendieron las garantías constitucionales en la Península |url=https://boe.es/datos/pdfs/BOE//1901/069/A01061-01061.pdf |page=1061}} Azcárraga's government fell in March 1901, unable to deal with these issues and amid a wave of anti-clericalism propelled by Benito Pérez Galdós's Electra play—which caused a storm of both outrage and uproar—, being replaced by a Liberal Party government under Práxedes Mateo Sagasta, the so-called "Electra cabinet".{{cite news |date=6 February 2020 |url=https://www.rtve.es/play/audios/24-horas/24-horas-algun-lugar-del-tiempo-electra-galdos/5503846/ |title=La Electra de Galdós |language=es |publisher=RTVE |access-date=7 March 2025}}{{cite news |date=29 October 2023 |url=https://cadenaser.com/audio/1698226317021/ |title=Anticlericalismo y pederastia |language=es |publisher=Cadena SER |access-date=7 March 2025}}{{cite news |date=25 February 2025 |url=https://cadenaser.com/audio/1740414012363/ |title=25 de febrero de 1901: El anticlericalismo provoca la caída del gobierno en pleno; surge el Gabinete Electra |language=es |publisher=Cadena SER |access-date=7 March 2025}}

Concurrently, regenerationism saw the rise of movements opposed to the Cánovas-founded political system. On the one hand, the establishment of the regenerationist National Union (UN) party by Joaquín Costa and Santiago Alba.{{sfn|Fernández Sarasola|2009|p=209}} On the other hand, Catalan regionalism was invigorated following Silvela's refusal to meet their demands and a growing disaffection among the Catalan middle and industrial classes, which in turn led to the establishment throughout 1899 of the liberal conservative Catalan National Centre (CNC) and the Regionalist Union (UR). Both parties would merge in April 1901 into the Regionalist League (LR).

The Spanish {{lang|es|Cortes|italic=no}} were envisaged as "co-legislative bodies", based on a nearly perfect bicameral system.{{harvp|Const. Esp.|1876|loc=tit. II, art. 18–19 & tit. V, art. 41}}. Both the Congress of Deputies and the Senate had legislative, control and budgetary functions, sharing equal powers except for laws on contributions or public credit, where the Congress had preeminence, and judicial matters, where preeminence was vested in the Senate.{{harvp|Const. Esp.|1876|loc=tit. V, art. 38 & 42}}.{{cite web |url=https://www.senado.es/web/conocersenado/temasclave/historiaconstitucional/index.html |title=El Senado en la historia constitucional española |website=Senate of Spain |language=es |access-date=26 December 2016}} Voting for the {{lang|es|Cortes|italic=no}} was on the basis of universal manhood suffrage, which comprised all national males over 25 years of age, having at least a two-year residency in a municipality and in full enjoyment of their civil rights.{{harvp|L Dip|1890|loc=tit. I, art. 1–2}}.{{sfn|García Muñoz|2002|pp=106–107}}{{sfn|Carreras de Odriozola|Tafunell Sambola|2005|p=1077}}

For the Congress of Deputies, 92 seats were elected using a partial block voting system in 26 multi-member constituencies, with the remaining 310 being elected under a one-round first-past-the-post system in single-member districts. Candidates winning a plurality in each constituency were elected. In constituencies electing eight seats or more, electors could vote for no more than three candidates less than the number of seats to be allocated; in those with more than four seats and up to eight, for no more than two less; in those with more than one seat and up to four, for no more than one less; and for one candidate in single-member districts. The Congress was entitled to one member per each 50,000 inhabitants, with each multi-member constituency being allocated a fixed number of seats. Additionally, literary universities, economic societies of Friends of the Country and officially organized chambers of commerce, industry and agriculture were entitled to one seat per each 5,000 registered voters that they comprised.{{harvp|Const. Esp.|1876|loc=tit. IV, art. 27–31}}.{{harvp|L Dip|1890|loc=tit. III, art. 21–24}}.

As a result of the aforementioned allocation, each Congress multi-member constituency was entitled the following seats:{{harvp|L Dip|1890|loc=trans. prov. 1}}, applying {{harvp|L Dip|1871|loc=art. 1}} and {{harvp|L Dip|1878|loc=tit. I, art. 2}}.Rules modifying constituency boundaries:

• {{cite act |title=Ley dividiendo la provincia de Guipúzcoa en distritos para la elección de Diputados a Cortes |type=Law |language=es |date=23 June 1885 |url=https://www.boe.es/datos/pdfs/BOE//1885/175/A00877-00878.pdf |access-date=6 May 2023}}
• {{cite act |title=Ley dividiendo el distrito electoral de Tarrasa en dos, que se denominarán de Tarrasa y de Sabadell |type=Law |language=es |date=18 January 1887 |url=https://www.boe.es/datos/pdfs/BOE//1887/022/A00211-00211.pdf |access-date=6 May 2023}}
• {{cite act |title=Ley fijando la división de la provincia de Álava en distritos electorales para Diputados a Cortes |type=Law |language=es |date=10 July 1888 |url=https://www.boe.es/datos/pdfs/BOE//1888/193/A00117-00117.pdf |access-date=6 May 2023}}
• {{cite act |title=Leyes aprobando la división electoral de las provincias de León y Vizcaya |type=Law |language=es |date=2 August 1895 |url=https://www.boe.es/datos/pdfs/BOE//1895/216/A00457-00458.pdf |access-date=6 May 2023}}
• {{cite act |title=Leyes aprobando la división electoral en las provincias de Sevilla y de Barcelona |type=Law |language=es |date=5 July 1898 |url=https://www.boe.es/datos/pdfs/BOE//1898/190/A00140-00140.pdf |access-date=22 September 2022}}
• {{cite act |title=Ley mandando que en lo sucesivo sean cuatro los Diputados á Cortes que elegirá la circunscripción electoral de Cartagena |type=Law |language=es |date=7 August 1899 |url=https://boe.es/datos/pdfs/BOE//1899/222/A00517-00517.pdf |access-date=10 October 2022}}

For the Senate, 180 seats were indirectly elected by the local councils and major taxpayers, with electors voting for delegates instead of senators. Elected delegates—equivalent in number to one-sixth of the councillors in each local council—would then vote for senators using a write-in, two-round majority voting system. Following a redistribution of the 19 senators allocated to Cuba and Puerto Rico as a result of the loss by Spain of these colonies, the provinces of Barcelona, Madrid and Valencia were allocated four seats each, whereas each of the remaining provinces was allocated three seats, for a total of 150. The remaining 30 were allocated to special districts comprising a number of institutions, electing one seat each—the archdioceses of Burgos, Granada, Santiago de Compostela, Seville, Tarragona, Toledo, Valencia, Valladolid and Zaragoza; the Royal Spanish Academy; the other royal academies (History; Fine Arts of San Fernando; Exact, Physical and Natural Sciences; Moral and Political Sciences and Medicine); the universities of Madrid, Barcelona, Granada, Oviedo, Salamanca, Santiago, Seville, Valencia, Valladolid and Zaragoza; and the economic societies of Friends of the Country from Madrid, Barcelona, León, Seville and Valencia. An additional 180 seats comprised senators in their own right—the monarch's offspring and the heir apparent once coming of age; Grandees of Spain with an annual income of at least 60,000 Pt (from their own real estate or from rights that enjoy the same legal consideration); Captain Generals of the Army and the Navy Admiral; the Patriarch of the Indies and archbishops; and the presidents of the Council of State, the Supreme Court, the Court of Auditors, the Supreme War Council and the Supreme Council of the Navy, after two years of service—as well as senators for life appointed directly by the monarch.{{harvp|Const. Esp.|1876|loc=tit. III, art. 20–26}}.{{harvp|L Sen|1877|loc=ch. I, art. 1–2}}.{{cite journal |publisher=Agencia Estatal Boletín Oficial del Estado |journal=Gaceta de Madrid |issue=76 |date=16 March 1899 |language=es |title=Real decreto disponiendo el número de Senadores que han de elegir las provincias que se citan |url=https://www.boe.es/datos/pdfs/BOE//1899/076/A01021-01021.pdf |page=1021}}

The term of each chamber of the Cortes—the Congress and one-half of the elective part of the Senate—expired five years from the date of their previous election, unless they were dissolved earlier. The previous Congress and Senate elections were held on 16 April and 30 April 1899, which meant that the legislature's terms would have expired on 16 April and 30 April 1904, respectively. The monarch had the prerogative to dissolve both chambers at any given time—either jointly or separately—and call a snap election.{{harvp|Const. Esp.|1876|loc=tit. V, art. 32}}.{{harvp|L Sen|1877|loc=ch. III, art. 11}}. There was no constitutional requirement for concurrent elections to the Congress and the Senate, nor for the elective part of the Senate to be renewed in its entirety except in the case that a full dissolution was agreed by the monarch. Still, there was only one case of a separate election (for the Senate in 1877) and no half-Senate elections taking place under the 1876 Constitution.

The Cortes were officially dissolved on 24 April 1901, with the dissolution decree setting the election dates for 19 May (for the Congress) and 2 June 1901 (for the Senate) and scheduling for both chambers to reconvene on 11 June.{{cite journal |publisher=Agencia Estatal Boletín Oficial del Estado |journal=Gaceta de Madrid |issue=115 |date=25 April 1901 |language=es |title=Real decreto declarando disueltos el Congreso de los Diputados y la parte electiva del Senado, y disponiendo que las Cortes se reúnan en Madrid el 11 de Junio próximo |url=https://www.boe.es/datos/pdfs/BOE//1901/115/A00361-00361.pdf |page=361}}

For the Congress, Spanish citizens of age and with the legal capacity to vote could run for election, provided that they were not sentenced to perpetual disqualification from political rights or public offices by a final court's decision, or to afflictive penalties if no legal rehabilitation had been obtained at least two years in advance of the election, or to other criminal penalties if the serving of the sentence could not be proven before taking the office of deputy. Other causes of ineligibility were imposed on those physically or morally incapacitated; bankrupt or insolvent persons who had not paid out their debts; and contractors of public works or services; as well as a number of territorial-level officers in government bodies and institutions being barred from running, during their tenure of office, in constituencies within the whole or part of their respective area of jurisdiction.{{harvp|Const. Esp.|1876|loc=tit. IV, art. 29}}.{{harvp|L Dip|1890|loc=tit. III, art. 3–5}}.

For the Senate, eligibility was limited to those entitled to be appointed as senators in their own right or those who had belonged to one of the following categories: presidents of the Senate and the Congress of Deputies; deputies who had belonged to at least three different congresses or serving for at least eight terms; government ministers; other Grandees of Spain; Army's lieutenant generals and Navy's vice admirals, two years after their appointment; ambassadors after two years of service and plenipotentiary ministers after four; other members and prosecutors of the Council of State, the Supreme Court, the Court of Auditors, the Supreme War Council and the Supreme Council of the Navy, and the Dean of the Court of Military Orders, after two years of service; presidents and directors of the Royal Spanish Academy and the other royal academies (History; Fine Arts of San Fernando; Exact, Physical and Natural Sciences; Moral and Political Sciences and Medicine); full academics of the aforementioned corporations occupying the first half of the seniority scale in their corps, first-class general inspectors of the corps of Civil Engineers, Mines and Forests, full-time university professors with at least four years of seniority in their category and practice (and provided that those had an annual income of at least 7,500 Pt from their own property, salaries from jobs that cannot be lost except for legally proven cause, or from retirement, withdrawal or termination); as well as those who had an annual income of 20,000 Pt or were taxpayers with a minimum quota of 4,000 Pt in direct contributions at least two years in advance, as long as they were of the Spanish nobility, had been previously deputies, provincial deputies or mayors in provincial capitals or towns over 20,000 inhabitants, as well as those who had ever held the office of senator before the promulgation of the 1876 Constitution.{{harvp|Const. Esp.|1876|loc=tit. III, art. 22}}.{{harvp|L Sen|1877|loc=ch. II, art. 4}}.

{{bar box

|title=Seats

|titlebar=#ddd

|width=550px

|barwidth=500px

|bars=

{{bar percent|PL|{{party color|Liberal Party (Spain, 1880)}}|61.19}}

{{bar percent|PLC|{{party color|Conservative Party (Spain)}}|18.91}}

{{bar percent|CR|{{party color|Republican Coalition (Spain, 1901)}}|3.73}}

{{bar percent|G|{{party color|Gamacists}}|3.73}}

{{bar percent|PLR|{{party color|Liberal Reformist Party (Spain)}}|2.99}}

{{bar percent|T|{{party color|Tetuanists}}|2.49}}

{{bar percent|UN|{{party color|National Union (Spain, 1900)}}|1.49}}

{{bar percent|CT|{{party color|Traditionalist Communion}}|1.49}}

{{bar percent|LR|{{party color|Regionalist League of Catalonia}}|1.49}}

{{bar percent|RB|{{party color|Autonomist Republican Union Party}}|0.50}}

{{bar percent|PI|{{party color|Integrist Party}}|0.50}}

{{bar percent|INDEP|{{party color|Independent politician}}|1.49}}

}}

{{bar box

|title=Seats

|titlebar=#ddd

|width=550px

|barwidth=500px

|bars=

{{bar percent|PL|{{party color|Liberal Party (Spain, 1880)}}|64.44}}

{{bar percent|PLC|{{party color|Conservative Party (Spain)}}|21.11}}

{{bar percent|T|{{party color|Tetuanists}}|3.89}}

{{bar percent|CR|{{party color|Republican Coalition (Spain, 1901)}}|1.67}}

{{bar percent|G|{{party color|Gamacists}}|1.67}}

{{bar percent|PLR|{{party color|Liberal Reformist Party (Spain)}}|1.11}}

{{bar percent|UN|{{party color|National Union (Spain, 1900)}}|0.56}}

{{bar percent|INDEP|{{party color|Independent politician}}|0.56}}

{{bar percent|ARCH|{{party color|Nonpartisan}}|5.00}}

}}

File:1901 Spanish general election (Congress of Deputies).svg|Election results by constituency (Congress).

{{notelist}}

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{{refbegin|30em}}

• {{cite act |italics=y |title=Ley mandando que los distritos para las elecciones de Diputados a Cortes sean los que se expresan en la división adjunta |type=Law |date=1 January 1871 |reporter=Gaceta de Madrid |volume=27 |issn=0212-1220 |language=es |url=https://boe.es/datos/pdfs/BOE//1871/027/A00217-00232.pdf |access-date=21 August 2022 |ref={{harvid|L Dip|1871}}}}
• {{cite act |italics=y |title=Constitución de la Monarquía Española |type=Constitution of the Spanish Monarchy |date=30 June 1876 |reporter=Gaceta de Madrid |volume=184 |issn=0212-1220 |language=es |url=https://boe.es/datos/pdfs/BOE//1876/184/A00009-00012.pdf |access-date=19 August 2022 |ref={{harvid|Const. Esp.|1876}}}}
• {{cite act |italics=y |title=Ley electoral de Senadores |type=Law |date=8 February 1877 |reporter=Gaceta de Madrid |volume=41 |issn=0212-1220 |language=es |url=https://www.boe.es/datos/pdfs/BOE//1877/041/A00373-00375.pdf |access-date=19 August 2022 |ref={{harvid|L Sen|1877}}}}
• {{cite act |italics=y |title=Ley electoral de los Diputados a Cortes |type=Law |date=28 December 1878 |reporter=Gaceta de Madrid |volume=364 |issn=0212-1220 |language=es |url=https://www.boe.es/datos/pdfs/BOE//1878/364/A00885-00890.pdf |access-date=19 August 2022 |ref={{harvid|L Dip|1878}}}}
• {{cite act |italics=y |title=Ley electoral para Diputados a Cortes |type=Law |date=26 June 1890 |reporter=Gaceta de Madrid |volume=180 |issn=0212-1220 |language=es |url=https://www.boe.es/datos/pdfs/BOE//1890/180/A00901-00908.pdf |access-date=19 August 2022 |ref={{harvid|L Dip|1890}}}}
• {{cite journal |last=Fernández Almagro |first=Melchor |year=1943 |title=Las Cortes del siglo XIX y la práctica electoral |url=https://dialnet.unirioja.es/servlet/articulo?codigo=2126375 |language=es |journal=Revista de Estudios Políticos |issue=9–10 |pages=383–419 |issn=0048-7694 |access-date=16 December 2020}}
• {{cite journal |last=Maestre Rosa |first=Julio |year=1973 |title=Francisco Silvela y su liberalismo regeneracionista |url=https://dialnet.unirioja.es/servlet/articulo?codigo=1710467 |language=es |journal=Revista de Estudios Políticos |issue=187 |pages=191–226 |issn=0048-7694 |access-date=30 August 2022}}
• {{cite journal |last=Martorell Linares |first=Miguel Ángel |title=La crisis parlamentaria de 1913-1917. La quiebra del sistema de relaciones parlamentarias de la Restauración |url=https://recyt.fecyt.es/index.php/RevEsPol/article/view/45498 |location=Madrid |publisher=Centro de Estudios Constitucionales |language=es |journal=Revista de Estudios Políticos |issue=96 |year=1997 |pages=137–161}}
• {{cite book |last1=Martínez Ruiz |first1=Enrique |last2=Maqueda Abreu |first2=Consuelo |last3=De Diego |first3=Emilio |year=1999 |title=Atlas histórico de España |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=U_RL9S5uSF8C&pg=PA109 |language=es |volume=2 |location=Bilbao |publisher=Ediciones KAL |pages=109–120 |isbn=9788470903502}}
• {{cite book |last1=Armengol i Segú |first1=Josep |last2=Varela Ortega |first2=José |year=2001 |title=El poder de la influencia: geografía del caciquismo en España (1875-1923) |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=QY99T3Mg5ykC |language=es |location=Madrid |publisher=Marcial Pons Historia |pages=655–776 |isbn=9788425911521}}
• {{cite journal |last=García Muñoz |first=Montserrat |year=2002 |title=La documentación electoral y el fichero histórico de diputados |url=https://revistas.ucm.es/index.php/RGID/article/view/RGID0202120093A |language=es |journal=Revista General de Información y Documentación |volume=12 |issue=1 |pages=93–137 |issn=1132-1873 |access-date=13 September 2020}}
• {{cite book |last1=Carreras de Odriozola |first1=Albert |last2=Tafunell Sambola |first2=Xavier |year=2005 |orig-year=1989 |title=Estadísticas históricas de España, siglos XIX-XX |url=http://www.fbbva.es/TLFU/dat/autores.pdf |language=es |volume=1 |location=Bilbao |publisher=Fundación BBVA |pages=1072–1097 |edition=II |isbn=84-96515-00-1 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150924010950/http://www.fbbva.es/TLFU/dat/autores.pdf |archive-date=24 September 2015 |df=dmy-all}}
• {{cite book |last=Fernández Sarasola |first=Ignacio |year=2009 |title=Los partidos políticos en el pensamiento español: de la Ilustración a nuestros días |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=9FILttDEQ0wC |language=es |location=Madrid |publisher=Marcial Pons Historia |isbn=9788496467958}}
• {{cite journal |last=Martínez Relanzón |first=Alejandro |title=Political Modernization in Spain Between 1876 and 1923 |url=https://journals.umcs.pl/k/article/view/4152/5068 |location=Madrid |publisher=Maria Curie-Skłodowska University |journal=Annales Universitatis Mariae Curie-Skłodowska, Sectio K |volume=24 |issue=1 |year=2017 |doi=10.17951/k.2017.24.1.145 |pages=145–154|s2cid=159328027 |doi-access=free }}

{{refend}}

{{Spanish elections}}

Category:1901 elections in Spain

Category:1901 in Spain

1901

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