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2023 Spanish local elections
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2023 Spanish local elections
The 2023 Spanish local elections were held on Sunday, 28 May 2023, to elect all 66,976 councillors in the municipalities of Spain, all 1,191 provincial seats in 41 provinces (including 38 indirectly-elected provincial deputations and the three directly-elected Basque General Assemblies) and 233 seats in eleven island councils (seven Canarian island cabildos and four Balearic island councils, all directly-elected). They were held concurrently with regional elections in twelve autonomous communities.
The elections took place following a period of instability dominated by the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic in March 2020 and its political and economical consequences, including the worst worldwide recession since the Great Depression resulting from the massive lockdowns enforced to reduce the spread of SARS-CoV-2, as well as the economic impact of the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine.
The People's Party (PP) emerged as the first political force and was able to flip the control of a large number of major cities, despite winning the popular vote to the ruling Spanish Socialist Workers' Party (PSOE) by just three percentage points. This outcome prompted Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez to call a snap general election for July, which led to an insufficient PP victory and to Sánchez's re-election.
Municipalities in Spain were local corporations with independent legal personality. They had a governing body, the municipal council or corporation, composed of a mayor, deputy mayors and the elected plenary assembly. Voting for the local assemblies was on the basis of universal suffrage, which comprised all nationals over 18 years of age, registered and residing in the corresponding municipality and in full enjoyment of their political rights, as well as resident non-national European citizens and those whose country of origin allowed Spanish nationals to vote in their own elections by virtue of a treaty.
Local councillors were elected using the D'Hondt method and a closed list proportional representation, with an electoral threshold of five percent of valid votes—which included blank ballots—being applied in each local council. Councillors were allocated to municipal councils based on the following scale:
Councillors of municipalities with populations below 250 inhabitants were elected under an open list partial block voting, with electors voting for individual candidates instead of parties: for up to four candidates in municipalities with populations between 100 and 250 inhabitants; and for up to two candidates in municipalities below 100. This did not apply to municipalities which, as a result of their geographical location or the convenience of a better management of municipal interests or other circumstances, made it advisable to be organized through the open council system (Spanish: régimen de concejo abierto), in which voters directly elected the local mayor.
The mayor was indirectly elected by the plenary assembly. A legal clause required that mayoral candidates earn the vote of an absolute majority of councillors, or else the candidate of the most-voted party in the assembly was to be automatically appointed to the post. In the event of a tie, a toss-up would determine the appointee.
Provincial deputations were the governing bodies of provinces in Spain, having an administration role of municipal activities and composed of a provincial president, an administrative body, and a plenary. Basque provinces had foral deputations instead—called General Assemblies (Spanish: Juntas Generales)—, whereas deputations for single-province autonomous communities were abolished and their functions transferred to the corresponding regional parliaments in 1982–1983. For insular provinces, such as the Balearic and Canary Islands, deputations were replaced by island councils in each of the islands or group of islands. For Majorca, Menorca, Ibiza and Formentera this figure was referred to in Spanish as consejo insular (Catalan: consell insular), whereas for Gran Canaria, Tenerife, Fuerteventura, La Gomera, El Hierro, Lanzarote and La Palma its name was cabildo insular.
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2023 Spanish local elections
The 2023 Spanish local elections were held on Sunday, 28 May 2023, to elect all 66,976 councillors in the municipalities of Spain, all 1,191 provincial seats in 41 provinces (including 38 indirectly-elected provincial deputations and the three directly-elected Basque General Assemblies) and 233 seats in eleven island councils (seven Canarian island cabildos and four Balearic island councils, all directly-elected). They were held concurrently with regional elections in twelve autonomous communities.
The elections took place following a period of instability dominated by the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic in March 2020 and its political and economical consequences, including the worst worldwide recession since the Great Depression resulting from the massive lockdowns enforced to reduce the spread of SARS-CoV-2, as well as the economic impact of the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine.
The People's Party (PP) emerged as the first political force and was able to flip the control of a large number of major cities, despite winning the popular vote to the ruling Spanish Socialist Workers' Party (PSOE) by just three percentage points. This outcome prompted Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez to call a snap general election for July, which led to an insufficient PP victory and to Sánchez's re-election.
Municipalities in Spain were local corporations with independent legal personality. They had a governing body, the municipal council or corporation, composed of a mayor, deputy mayors and the elected plenary assembly. Voting for the local assemblies was on the basis of universal suffrage, which comprised all nationals over 18 years of age, registered and residing in the corresponding municipality and in full enjoyment of their political rights, as well as resident non-national European citizens and those whose country of origin allowed Spanish nationals to vote in their own elections by virtue of a treaty.
Local councillors were elected using the D'Hondt method and a closed list proportional representation, with an electoral threshold of five percent of valid votes—which included blank ballots—being applied in each local council. Councillors were allocated to municipal councils based on the following scale:
Councillors of municipalities with populations below 250 inhabitants were elected under an open list partial block voting, with electors voting for individual candidates instead of parties: for up to four candidates in municipalities with populations between 100 and 250 inhabitants; and for up to two candidates in municipalities below 100. This did not apply to municipalities which, as a result of their geographical location or the convenience of a better management of municipal interests or other circumstances, made it advisable to be organized through the open council system (Spanish: régimen de concejo abierto), in which voters directly elected the local mayor.
The mayor was indirectly elected by the plenary assembly. A legal clause required that mayoral candidates earn the vote of an absolute majority of councillors, or else the candidate of the most-voted party in the assembly was to be automatically appointed to the post. In the event of a tie, a toss-up would determine the appointee.
Provincial deputations were the governing bodies of provinces in Spain, having an administration role of municipal activities and composed of a provincial president, an administrative body, and a plenary. Basque provinces had foral deputations instead—called General Assemblies (Spanish: Juntas Generales)—, whereas deputations for single-province autonomous communities were abolished and their functions transferred to the corresponding regional parliaments in 1982–1983. For insular provinces, such as the Balearic and Canary Islands, deputations were replaced by island councils in each of the islands or group of islands. For Majorca, Menorca, Ibiza and Formentera this figure was referred to in Spanish as consejo insular (Catalan: consell insular), whereas for Gran Canaria, Tenerife, Fuerteventura, La Gomera, El Hierro, Lanzarote and La Palma its name was cabildo insular.
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