1925 Spanish Presidential Election

The **1925 Spanish Presidential Election** was held on Monday June 1, 1921 and was the eighth presidential election to be held in Spain. The election was also the first multiparty presidential election to occur under the Federal Republic of Spain and the 1921 constitution, as well as the first multiparty election in Spain since 1895 and the first multiparty election to have its results respected since the 1890 presidential election. The 1925 election was the last presidential or legislative election to be won by the Liberal Conservative party.

Following the death of the Spanish dictator Francisco Serrano in December 1920, interior minister and leader of the Conservative party Eduardo Dato assumed the presidency and began implementing a series of radical democratic reforms to the Spanish state, transforming the first Republic of Spain into the Federal Republic of Spain with a decentralised distribution of power. In February 1921, an assassination attempt left President Dato mortally wounded and he was succeeded as president by prime minister Antonio Maura on March 8, 1921; during Maura's brief presidency, the government organised new snap presidential and legislative elections, which saw Manuel Allendesalazar elected president unopposed. As president, Allendesalazar sought to implement a series of societal reforms under his "*Una Nacion*" (One Nation) programme after noting the vast divides in society being caused by unfettered capitalism; inspired by key conservative figures, such as former British prime minister Benjamin Disraeli, Allendesalazar's programme focused on preventing the formation of a major divide between the richest and poorest in society, viewing such a divide as being a dangerous step towards civil unrest. Allendesalazar also personally sponsored the development of new railroad connections between the states of Spain, which, whilst beneficial to internal industrial production, brought with it the spread of radical anarchist and communist ideas across the country; attempts to crush radical groups frequently ended in massacres and only furthered to spread their causes to ever greater portions of the population. In the early 1920s, President Allendesalazar authorised the use of military force to topple the Spanish installed puppet regime in Morocco and began a direct colonial occupation, draining significant resources away from the destabilising Spanish peninsular.

Under the 1921 constitution of the Federal Republic of Spain, presidential elections were based on an American style electoral college, with each of the 34 states receiving two electoral college votes (to be allocated according to individual state rules); following amendments to election rules in 1924, a presidential candidate was required to gain at least 35 out of 68 votes, and then have their vote share confirmed by a vote in the Cortes Generales. Whilst the popular vote was used to determine electoral college votes in individual states, the national vote had no direct impact on the final outcome of the election; indeed, only half of Spain's population even held the right to vote at the time and it would not be until the 1935 general election that women and minority groups were permitted to vote. During the election campaign, incumbent president Manuel Allendesalazar was challenged by Liberal Republican party leader Niceto Alcalá-Zamora for the presidency in the first competitive presidential election in 30 years, and the two party leaders travelled across the country giving speeches and holding election rallies.

Following the election, Manuel Allendesalazar and the Conservative party gained 36 out of 68 electoral college votes, compared to Niceto Alcalá-Zamora's 32 electoral votes, and was inaugurated on June 11, 1925 to a second full term in office as president of Spain. Allendesalazar's second term in office was marked by the gradual collapse of the Spanish economy and the increasing spread of partisan extremism across the country.