1918 Spanish general election

A general election was held in Spain on Sunday, 24 February (for the Congress of Deputies) and on Sunday, 10 March 1918 (for the Senate), to elect the members of the 17th Cortes under the Spanish Constitution of 1876, during the Restoration period. All 409 seats in the Congress of Deputies were up for election, as well as 180 of 360 seats in the Senate.

The Liberal government of the Count of Romanones took power in the middle of World War I in Europe, having to navigate through Spain's neutrality in the war and its impact on the country's economy. Finance Minister Santiago Alba gained prominence by leading a liberal legislative programme of tax reforms, public investments, improvements in the Public Treasury administration and fighting tax fraud. These reforms were blocked by the obstructionist and filibustering opposition from the Regionalist League under Francesc Cambó which, coupled with a conflict between Anglophiles and Germanophiles, led to Romanones's resignation in April 1917. A brief 53-day government under the Marquis of Alhucemas fell after the Defence Juntas—constituted as military pressure groups against the higher pay and quicker promotion of "Africanists"—refused to disband, with King Alfonso XIII attempting to maintain the turno by giving power back to the Conservatives under Eduardo Dato.

During his second tenure, Dato had to tackle the unravelling Spanish crisis of 1917, seeing off the meetings of the Assembly of Parliamentarians in Barcelona (demanding constitutional reform and an increased role of regions in the power-sharing) and the revolutionary general strike in August, as the social response to the rising cost of living, unequal distribution of incomes and inspired by the Russian Revolution. After less than five months, a new interference by the Defence Juntas caused the downfall of Dato's cabinet. Seeking a solution to the mounting crises after the resignation of three prime ministers in less than a year, the King tasked Alhucemas with forming a government of national unity with Maurists, liberals, and Catalanists—nicknamed the "Horace's monster" (Monstruo de Horacio) due to its heterogeneous composition—and call a snap election.

Joining the warring Conservative factions—Datists, Maurists and Ciervists—the Liberals fragmented into the Alhucemas-led Liberal Democrats, a weakened Romanonist faction and a new splinter by Alba: the Liberal Left. With both dynastic parties in disarray, the resulting parliament was the most fragmented since the approval of the Spanish Constitution of 1876, with neither being able to muster a parliamentary majority. The Republican–Socialist Conjunction merged with Melquíades Álvarez's Reformist Party into the Alliance of the Left, but results were perceived as disappointing (particularly in Madrid, where Álvarez and Alejandro Lerroux both failed to secure their seats). The election would see the formation of the "National Government" (Gobierno Nacional) under Antonio Maura, including all Liberal and Conservative factions, as well as the Regionalist League.