These consequences included the COVID-19 recession resulting from the extensive COVID-19 lockdowns implemented to curb the spread of the SARS-CoV-2 virus, as well as the economic impact of the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

[3] Despite speculation about an early election,[4][5] Pedro Sánchez, the incumbent prime minister of Spain, consistently expressed his intention to complete the legislature as scheduled in 2023.

[11][12] Voting for the Cortes Generales was on the basis of universal suffrage, which comprised all nationals over 18 years of age and in full enjoyment of their political rights.

[17] For the Congress of Deputies, 348 seats 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.

[26] The prime minister had the prerogative to propose the monarch to dissolve both chambers at any given time—either jointly or separately—and call a snap election, provided that no motion of no confidence was in process, no state of emergency was in force and that dissolution did not occur before one year had elapsed since the previous one.

[32][33] On 2 August 2022, Sánchez himself dispelled any doubts on this issue by announcing that the election would be held in December 2023,[34] a position reiterated on 27 March 2023 when he said that there were still "nine months left" in the current parliamentary term.

[41] The Cortes Generales were officially dissolved on 30 May 2023 after the publication of the dissolution decree in the BOE, setting the election date for 23 July and scheduling for both chambers to reconvene on 17 August.

Other general causes of ineligibility were imposed on members of the Spanish royal family; the president and members of the Constitutional Court, the General Council of the Judiciary, the Supreme Court, the Council of State, the Court of Auditors and the Economic and Social Council; the Ombudsman; the State's Attorney General; high-ranking members—undersecretaries, secretaries-general, directors-general and chiefs of staff—of Spanish government departments, the Prime Minister's Office, government delegations, the Social Security and other government agencies; heads of diplomatic missions in foreign states or international organizations; judges and public prosecutors in active service; Armed Forces and police corps personnel in active service; members of electoral commissions; the chair of RTVE; the director of the Electoral Register Office; the governor and deputy governor of the Bank of Spain; the chairs of the Official Credit Institute and other official credit institutions; and members of the Nuclear Safety Council; as well as a number of territorial-level officers in the aforementioned government bodies and institutions being barred from running, during their tenure of office, in constituencies within the whole or part of their respective area of jurisdiction.

[50][51] Disqualification provisions for the Cortes Generales extended to any employee of a foreign state and to members of regional governments, as well as the impossibility of running simultaneously as candidate for both the Congress and Senate.

Concurrently, parties, federations or coalitions that had not obtained a mandate in either chamber of the Cortes at the preceding election were required to secure the signature of at least 0.1 percent of electors in the aforementioned constituencies.

[91][92] The conflict came to a head from September 2021 when both sides clashed for the control of the People's Party of the Community of Madrid, with Ayuso's possible rise to the presidency of the regional PP being seen by Casado's supporters as an immediate threat to his national leadership.

[93][94] Following several months of a leadership that was perceived as poor and erratic, coupled with an erosion of popular support in opinion polls and a disappointing result in the 2022 Castilian-Leonese regional election, the crisis entered a new stage on 16 February 2022 when some media revealed an alleged plot of the party's national leadership to investigate Ayuso's family in search of compromising material—more specifically, alleged influence peddling in the awarding of public contracts to Ayuso's brother.

[60] Díaz expressed her will to shape a new electoral platform transcending political parties, as well as the Unidas Podemos brand,[98][99] aiming to secure the support of ideologically close forces, such as En Comú Podem (ECP), Compromís, and Más Madrid/Más País, while giving a prevalent role to civil society.

[100][101][102] The platform saw an advance unity act during an event to be held on 13 November 2021, with the participation of a number of women representative of the various political spaces that could eventually join it: Díaz herself, Barcelona mayor Ada Colau (ECP), Valencian vice-president Mónica Oltra (Compromís), Madrilenian opposition leader Mónica García (Más Madrid), and Ceutan councillor Fatima Hamed (from the Movement for Dignity and Citizenship, MDyC); the absence of Podemos members in the event, most notably of Equality and Social Rights ministers Irene Montero and Ione Belarra, was seen as evidence of the growing diminished role of Unidas Podemos within the platform.

[103] Díaz's-led left-wing alliance was also well received by Sánchez, who saw it as important for the "progressive space" to be in "top shape" for his government to be able to maintain and expand its majority in the next election.

[116][119][120] Sonia Gallego of Al Jazeera said that Vox's rhetoric "will put it on a collision course with those separatist movements, not just in the Basque Country but Catalonia as well".

[119][122] Feijóo was also faced with criticism from Sumar due to his past ties with drug trafficker Marcial Dorado [es] when he served in the Galician government in the 1990s.

[117] PP and Vox also campaigned on ending Sanchismo, policies introduced by Sánchez and his coalition government, with Feijóo stating that it his main priority.

[128] In order to challenge social inequality, Díaz proposed a €20,000 "universal inheritance" policy for those over 18 years old which could be spent on studies or creating a business.

[178][179] In part due to a campaign led by the Assemblea Nacional Catalana encouraging pro-Catalan independence voters to boycott the election,[180][181][182] pro-independence parties lost 46% of the votes they won in November 2019, materializing in the loss of 9 seats and in the anti-capitalists of the Popular Unity Candidacy (CUP) being expelled from Congress.

[183] During the campaign period, news agencies mentioned that in case of a PP victory, it would have to rely on Vox for a parliamentary majority,[117][119][184] despite Feijóo saying that he would prefer a minority government instead.

[190] The election of the president of the Congress of Deputies—or speaker—on 17 August saw the PSOE candidate Francina Armengol winning in a vote which was seen to boost Sanchez's hopes of re-election.

[194] Feijóo's intentions were unchanged by his recent parliamentary setback, despite calls from some factions within his party asking him to "leave the fiction" of insisting that he had the required support for his investiture.

[198][199] Following Feijóo's defeat, King Felipe VI summoned all parties to a new round of talks on 2 and 3 October, after which he nominated Pedro Sánchez as the next candidate to attempt the investiture.