Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez’s Spanish Socialist Workers' Party (PSOE) became the largest party in both chambers of the Cortes but fell short of the majority, taking 123 seats in the 350-member Congress of Deputies and 121 seats in the 265-member Senate (of whom 208 are directly elected). The People's Party (PP, the largest party in the outgoing legislature now led by Mr. Pablo Casado) saw its share more than halved in both chambers, taking 66 Deputy seats and 56 Senate seats. The Ciudadanos ("Citizens", C's, led by Mr. Albert Rivera) came third in the Congress of Deputies before the Podemos ("We Can") - IU (United Left) – EQUO, led by Mr. Pablo Iglesias. The Republican Left of Catalonia (ERC) - Sovereigntists (Sobiranistes), a pro-independence Catalan party, took a total of 26 seats in the Cortes, thereby becoming the largest Catalan party in the new legislature. A record 166 women were elected to the Congress of Deputies (47.4%), up from 137 (39.1%) elected in 2016.

The early elections in April 2019 were the first to be held under Prime Minister Sánchez (PSOE) who had had succeeded Mr. Mariano Rajoy (PP) in June 2018. The PSOE held only 85 of the 350 seats in the outgoing Congress and needed to rely on other parties to govern. On 15 February 2019, Prime Minister Sánchez called early elections after his government failed to pass the budget law in Parliament. During election campaigning, the major parties focused on immigration, unemployment, corruption and Catalan independence. The April 2019 elections – the third elections in four years – triggered prolonged coalition talks. The talks between PSOE and Podemos did not bear fruit before the deadline of 23 September to form a government, prompting King Felipe VI to call a snap election in November.