The 2016 Basque regional election was held on Sunday, 25 September 2016, to elect the 11th Parliament of the Basque Autonomous Community. All 75 seats in the Parliament were up for election. The election was held simultaneously with a regional election in Galicia. Lehendakari Iñigo Urkullu announced that the election would be held one month ahead of schedule, on 25 September 2016, based on the "climate of ungovernability" affecting national politics as a result of the ongoing Spanish government formation negotiations, intending to move the regional election as far away as possible from a possible new general election. This prompted Galician president Alberto Núñez Feijóo to hold the Galician regional election in the same date.
Urkullu's Basque Nationalist Party (PNV) emerged as the largest political force in the region with an increased plurality, but required from the support of other parties to govern. This was to be provided by the Socialist Party of the Basque Country–Basque Country Left (PSE–EE), which despite scoring the worst result in its history after seeing its support almost halved—falling from 18.9% and 16 seats to 11.9% and 9 seats—would go on to form a coalition minority government with the PNV. EH Bildu was able to hold onto second place, albeit with a reduced support by going down from 21 to 17 seats, whereas the Elkarrekin Podemos alliance scored third, but below campaign expectations. The People's Party (PP) continued on its long-term decline in the Basque Country, whereas Citizens (Cs) failed to win any seat.
Urkullu was able to get re-elected as lehendakari with the support of both his party and the PSE–EE. The resulting coalition recovered an alliance which both the PNV and the PSE had already formed between 1987 and 1998 in the Basque government, and which had already been extended to city councils and the Juntas Generales following the 2015 local and foral elections.
The results of the Basque and Galician elections, both of which saw very poor PSOE's performances after being overtaken by the Podemos-led alliances and polling at record-low levels of support, prompted dissenters within the party—led by Andalusian president Susana Díaz—to call for Pedro Sánchez's resignation as PSOE secretary-general. Sánchez's refusal to resign and his announcement of a party congress for later in the year—amid an ongoing government formation process and with the growing risk of a third general election in a row being held in Spain—led to an attempt from his critics to force his downfall, triggering a severe party crisis and a break down of party discipline which led to Sánchez's ousting on 1 October 2016, a divided PSOE abstaining in Mariano Rajoy's investiture on 29 October and a subsequent party leadership election in 2017 which would see Sánchez returning to his post of secretary-general and taking full control over the party.
Overview
Electoral system
The Basque Parliament was the devolved, unicameral legislature of the autonomous community of the Basque Country, having legislative power in regional matters as defined by the Spanish Constitution of 1978 and the regional Statute of Autonomy, as well as the ability to vote confidence in or withdraw it from a lehendakari.
Voting for the Parliament was on the basis of universal suffrage, which comprised all nationals over 18 years of age, registered in the Basque Country and in full enjoyment of their political rights. Additionally, Basques abroad were required to apply for voting before being permitted to vote, a system known as "begged" or expat vote (). The 75 members of the Basque Parliament were elected using the D'Hondt method and a closed list proportional representation, with an electoral threshold of three percent of valid votes—which included blank ballots—being applied in each constituency. Seats were allocated to constituencies, corresponding to the provinces of Álava, Biscay and Gipuzkoa, being allocated a fixed number of 25 seats each to provide for an equal representation of the three provinces in parliament as required under the regional statute of autonomy. This meant that Álava was allocated the same number of seats as Biscay and Gipuzkoa, despite their populations being, as of 1 July 2016: 322,801, 1,134,041 and 708,288, respectively.
The use of the D'Hondt method might result in a higher effective threshold, depending on the district magnitude.