The political context of the June 2009 European elections in Spain was one of steady and deepening economic crisis together with a political crisis that had begun at the start of the second term of the socialist administration led by J. L. Rodriguez Zapatero in 2008. The June 2009 electoral campaign was tightly focused on the confrontation between the two major parties: the PSOE and the PP. Compared to the 2004 European elections, the results showed a slight decline in the socialist vote, though more noticeable in urban areas, with the PP benefiting to varying degrees depending on the particular community. For the first time in European elections, there was a clear protest vote against the government, something that had been little used hitherto in Spain.