1987 European Parliament election in Spain

60 members of the European Parliament were allocated to Spain as per the 1985 Treaty of Accession. Voting was on the basis of universal suffrage, which comprised all nationals over 18 years of age and in full enjoyment of their political rights.^[1][2]

All seats were elected using the D'Hondt method and a closed list proportional representation, with no electoral threshold being applied in order to be entitled to enter seat distribution. Seats were allocated to a single multi-member constituency comprising the entire national territory. The use of the D'Hondt method might result in an effective threshold depending on the district magnitude.^[3]

The ruling Spanish Socialist Workers' Party (PSOE) designated former Foreign Affairs Minister Fernando Morán to lead their campaign.^[4] The main opposition People's Alliance party (AP), running on its own after the People's Democratic Party (PDP) and Liberal Party (PL) broke away from the People's Coalition, chose Manuel Fraga—who had resigned as party leader in December 1986—to lead the party list.^[5] Adolfo Suárez had considered running as main candidate for his Democratic and Social Centre party (CDS),^[6] but declined after the electoral law was amended by the ruling Spanish Socialist Workers' Party to make elected MEPs incompatible for posts in the Cortes Generales—Suárez was deputy in the Congress of Deputies, and would have been forced to renounce one of the two offices if elected.^[7]

The electoral law allowed for parties and federations registered in the interior ministry, coalitions and groupings of electors to present lists of candidates. Parties and federations intending to form a coalition ahead of an election were required to inform the relevant Electoral Commission within ten days of the election call. In order to be entitled to run, parties, federations, coalitions and groupings of electors needed to secure the signature of at least 15,000 registered electors; this requirement could be lifted and replaced through the signature of at least 50 elected officials—deputies, senators, MEPs or members from the legislative assemblies of autonomous communities or from local city councils. Electors and elected officials were disallowed from signing for more than one list of candidates.^[1]

Candidacy		Parties and alliances	Leading candidate		Ideology	Ref.
	PSOE	List Spanish Socialist Workers' Party (PSOE) Socialists' Party of Catalonia (PSC)		Fernando Morán	Social democracy	[9]
	AP	List People's Alliance (AP) Navarrese People's Union (UPN) Centrists of Galicia (CdG)		Manuel Fraga	Conservatism	[10]
	CDS	List Democratic and Social Centre (CDS)		Eduard Punset	Centrism Liberalism	[7]
	CiU	List Democratic Convergence of Catalonia (CDC) Democratic Union of Catalonia (UDC)		Carles Gasòliba	Catalan nationalism Centrism
	IU	List Communist Party of Spain (PCE) Socialist Action Party (PASOC) Communist Party of the Peoples of Spain (PCPE) Progressive Federation (FP) Republican Left (IR) United Candidacy of Workers (CUT) Initiative for Catalonia (IC) – Unified Socialist Party of Catalonia (PSUC) – Agreement of Left Nationalists (ENE)		Fernando Pérez Royo	Socialism Communism	[11]
	UE	List Basque Nationalist Party (EAJ/PNV) Nationalist Galicianist Party (PGN)		Jon Gangoiti	Peripheral nationalism	[12]
	HB	List Popular Unity (HB) – People's Socialist Revolutionary Party (HASI) – Basque Nationalist Action (EAE/ANV) – Patriotic Socialist Committees (ASK)		Txema Montero	Basque independence Abertzale left Revolutionary socialism	[13]
	IP	List Basque Country Left (EE) Galician Socialist Party–Galician Left (PSG–EG) Agreement of Left Nationalists (ENE) Socialist Party of Majorca (PSM) Socialist Party of Menorca (PSM) Aragonese Union (UA–CHA)		Mario Onaindia	Left-wing nationalism	[12]
	CEP	List Basque Solidarity (EA) Republican Left of Catalonia (ERC) Galician Nationalist Party (PNG)		Carlos Garaikoetxea	Left-wing nationalism	[14]
	PDP	List People's Democratic Party (PDP)		Javier Rupérez	Christian democracy
	UM	List Majorcan Union (UM)		Antoni Rosés	Liberalism Regionalism

The table below lists voting intention estimates in reverse chronological order, showing the most recent first and using the dates when the survey fieldwork was done, as opposed to the date of publication. Where the fieldwork dates are unknown, the date of publication is given instead. The highest percentage figure in each polling survey is displayed with its background shaded in the leading party's colour. If a tie ensues, this is applied to the figures with the highest percentages. The "Lead" column on the right shows the percentage-point difference between the parties with the highest percentages in a given poll. When available, seat projections are also displayed below the voting estimates in a smaller font.

Polling firm/Commissioner	Fieldwork date	Sample size	Turnout						UE			IP	CEP			AS	Lead
1987 EP election	10 Jun 1987	—	68.5	39.1 28	24.6 17	10.3 7	4.4 3	5.3 3	1.2 0	1.9 1	1.2 0	1.4 0	1.7 1	0.9 0	0.6 0	0.6 0	14.5
Gallup/Época[p 1]	4 Jun 1987	?	?	46.8 29/30	24.7 16	9.3 6	4.0 2/3	4.4 3	? 1	–	? 1	? 1	–	–	–	–	22.1
Sigma Dos/Diario 16[p 2][p 3]	30 May–1 Jun 1987	2,500	?	41.0– 43.0 25/27	24.0– 26.0 15/16	11.0– 13.0 7/9	4.0– 4.8 2/3	4.5– 5.5 3	1.0– 1.6 0/1	1.4– 2.0 1	–	1.4– 1.9 1	0.8– 1.4 0/1	–	0.8– 1.4 0/1	0.8– 1.4 0/1	17.0
Iope–Etmar/El Periódico[p 4]	25–29 May 1987	2,497	?	41.6 28	25.2 17	10.0 6	4.4 3	5.4 3	0.8 0	2.0 1	1.0 0	2.0 1	1.9 1	–	0.5 0	0.5 0	16.4
Demoscopia/El País[p 5][p 6]	22–26 May 1987	11,000	?	38.6 23/26	24.4 15/17	14.7 9/10	4.7 2/3	3.3 1/2	1.4 0/1	1.7 0/1	1.3 0/1	1.6 0/1	1.4 0/1	1.3 0/1	0.7 0	0.5 0	14.2
CIS[p 7]	18–19 May 1987	2,497	?	45.1 30	26.4 17	9.9 6	4.2 2	4.0 2	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	18.7
Sigma Dos/Diario 16[p 2]	8 May 1987	?	?	42.3 25/27	26.1 14/17	10.8 6/8	5.1 3	5.2 3	1.6 1	1.4 0/1	–	1.1 0/1	1.1 0/1	–	1.6 1	2.1 1	16.2
1986 general election	22 Jun 1986	—	70.5	44.1 (30)	26.0 (17)	9.2 (6)	5.0 (3)	4.6 (3)	1.5 (1)	1.1 (0)	1.1 (0)	0.8 (0)	0.4 (0)	–	–	–	18.1

Opinion poll sources

Other

• European elections Spain in Europe Politique.