Following the 2016 election , the People 's Party ( PP ) formed a minority government with confidence and supply support from Ciudadanos ( Cs ) and Canarian Coalition ( CC ) , allowed by the Spanish Socialist Workers ' Party ( PSOE ) abstaining in Mariano Rajoy 's investiture after a party crisis resulted in the ousting of Pedro Sánchez as leader . The PP 's term of office was undermined by a constitutional crisis over the Catalan issue , the result of a regional election held thereafter , coupled with corruption scandals and protests with thousands of retirees demanding pension increases . In May 2018 , the National Court found in the Gürtel case that since 1989 the PP had profited from the kickbacks-for-contracts scheme and confirmed the existence of an illegal accounting and financing structure kept separate from the party 's official accounts . Sánchez , who was re-elected as PSOE leader in a leadership contest in 2017 , brought down Rajoy 's government in June 2018 through a motion of no confidence . Rajoy resigned as PP leader and was succeeded by Pablo Casado
motion of no confidence
2018 vote of no confidence in the government of Mariano Rajoy
2019 Spanish general election