2023 Barcelona City Council election
![]() | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
All 41 seats in the City Council of Barcelona 21 seats needed for a majority | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Opinion polls | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
The 2023 Barcelona City Council election, also the 2023 Barcelona municipal election, will be held on Sunday, 28 May 2023, to elect the 12th City Council of the municipality of Barcelona. All 41 seats in the City Council will be up for election. The election will be held simultaneously with regional elections in at least seven autonomous communities and local elections all throughout Spain.
Electoral system[]
The City Council of Barcelona (Catalan: Ajuntament de Barcelona, Spanish: Ayuntamiento de Barcelona) is the top-tier administrative and governing body of the municipality of Barcelona, composed of the mayor, the government council and the elected plenary assembly.[1] Elections to the local councils in Spain are fixed for the fourth Sunday of May every four years.[2]
Voting for the local assembly is on the basis of universal suffrage, which comprises all nationals over eighteen, registered and residing in the municipality of Barcelona and in full enjoyment of their political rights, as well as resident non-national European citizens and those whose country of origin allows Spanish nationals to vote in their own elections by virtue of a treaty. Local councillors are elected using the D'Hondt method and a closed list proportional representation, with an electoral threshold of five percent of valid votes—which includes blank ballots—being applied in each local council.[1][2] Councillors are allocated to municipal councils based on the following scale:
Population | Councillors |
---|---|
<100 | 3 |
101–250 | 5 |
251–1,000 | 7 |
1,001–2,000 | 9 |
2,001–5,000 | 11 |
5,001–10,000 | 13 |
10,001–20,000 | 17 |
20,001–50,000 | 21 |
50,001–100,000 | 25 |
>100,001 | +1 per each 100,000 inhabitants or fraction +1 if total is an even number |
The mayor is indirectly elected by the plenary assembly. A legal clause requires that mayoral candidates earn the vote of an absolute majority of councillors, or else the candidate of the most-voted party in the assembly shall be automatically appointed to the post. In the event of a tie, the appointee will be determined by lot.[1]
Council composition[]
The table below shows the composition of the political groups in the City Council at the present time.[3]
Groups | Parties | Councillors | |||
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Seats | Total | ||||
Republican Municipal Group | ERC | 9 | 10 | ||
Nova | 1 | ||||
Barcelona in Common's Municipal Group | BComú | 10 | 10 | ||
Socialist Municipal Group | PSC | 7 | 8 | ||
Els Units | 1 | ||||
Together for Catalonia's Municipal Group | JxCat | 5 | 5 | ||
Citizens's Municipal Group | Cs | 3 | 3 | ||
People's Party's Municipal Group | PP | 2 | 2 | ||
Brave's Municipal Group | Valents | 2 | 2 | ||
Non-Inscrits | INDEP | 1[b] | 1 |
Parties and candidates[]
The electoral law allows for parties and federations registered in the interior ministry, coalitions and groupings of electors to present lists of candidates. Parties and federations intending to form a coalition ahead of an election are required to inform the relevant Electoral Commission within ten days of the election call, whereas groupings of electors need to secure the signature of a determined amount of the electors registered in the municipality for which they seek election, disallowing electors from signing for more than one list of candidates. For the case of Madrid, as its population is over 1,000,001, at least 8,000 signatures are required.[2]
Below is a list of the main parties and electoral alliances which will likely contest the election:
Candidacy | Parties and alliances |
Leading candidate | Ideology | Previous result | Gov. | Ref. | |||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Votes (%) | Seats | ||||||||
ERC+BCN– Nova–AM |
List
|
![]() |
Ernest Maragall | Catalan independence Left-wing nationalism Social democracy |
21.37% | 10 | ![]() |
[5] | |
BComú | List
|
![]() |
Ada Colau | Left-wing populism Participatory democracy |
20.74% | 10 | ![]() |
[6] | |
PSC–CP | List
|
![]() |
Jaume Collboni | Social democracy | 18.41% | 8 | ![]() |
[7] | |
Cs | List |
![]() |
María Luz Guilarte | Liberalism | 13.18% | 6 | ![]() |
[8] | |
Valents | List
|
![]() |
Eva Parera | Liberalism | ![]() |
[9] [10] | |||
JxCat | List
|
![]() |
Elsa Artadi | Catalan independence Populism |
10.51%[c] | 5 | ![]() |
[11] | |
Centrem | List
|
![]() |
Àngels Chacón | Catalan nationalism Liberalism Christian democracy |
![]() |
[12] [13] | |||
PP | List
|
![]() |
Josep Bou | Conservatism Christian democracy |
5.01% | 2 | ![]() |
[14] [15] |
Opinion polls[]
The tables below list opinion polling results in reverse chronological order, showing the most recent first and using the dates when the survey fieldwork was done, as opposed to the date of publication. Where the fieldwork dates are unknown, the date of publication is given instead. The highest percentage figure in each polling survey is displayed with its background shaded in the leading party's colour. If a tie ensues, this is applied to the figures with the highest percentages. The "Lead" column on the right shows the percentage-point difference between the parties with the highest percentages in a poll.
Voting intention estimates[]
The table below lists weighted voting intention estimates. Refusals are generally excluded from the party vote percentages, while question wording and the treatment of "don't know" responses and those not intending to vote may vary between polling organisations. When available, seat projections determined by the polling organisations are displayed below (or in place of) the percentages in a smaller font; 21 seats are required for an absolute majority in the City Council of Barcelona.
Polling firm/Commissioner | Fieldwork date | Sample size | Turnout | ![]() |
![]() |
![]() |
![]() |
![]() |
![]() |
![]() |
![]() |
![]() |
Lead | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
2021 regional election[16] | 14 Feb 2021 | N/A | 57.1 | 19.1 (8) |
9.2 (4) |
23.6 (11) |
6.2 (2) |
17.9 (8) |
5.3 (2) |
6.9 (3) |
7.1 (3) |
– | 4.5 | |
November 2019 general election[17] | 10 Nov 2019 | N/A | 73.4 | 21.0 (9) |
15.6 (7) |
19.9 (9) |
5.7 (2) |
12.4 (5) |
9.5 (4) |
7.0 (3) |
5.3 (2) |
– | 1.1 | |
2019 municipal election | 26 May 2019 | N/A | 66.2 | 21.4 10 |
20.7 10 |
18.4 8 |
13.2 6 |
10.5 5 |
5.0 2 |
3.9 0 |
1.2 0 |
[d] | 0.7 | |
Voting preferences[]
The table below lists raw, unweighted voting preferences.
Polling firm/Commissioner | Fieldwork date | Sample size | ![]() |
![]() |
![]() |
![]() |
![]() |
![]() |
![]() |
![]() |
![]() |
![]() |
![]() |
Lead |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Opinòmetre/City Council[p 1] | 22 Nov–1 Dec 2021 | 802 | 10.2 | 14.8 | 7.4 | 1.0 | 3.6 | 1.8 | 2.6 | 1.2 | 0.1 | 43.5 | 10.0 | 4.6 |
Opinòmetre/City Council[p 2] | 2–10 Jun 2021 | 808 | 13.8 | 12.3 | 9.6 | 1.1 | 7.2 | 2.5 | 4.2 | 1.1 | 0.1 | 31.6 | 13.8 | 1.5 |
Opinòmetre/City Council[p 3] | 25 Nov–3 Dec 2020 | 799 | 12.0 | 12.2 | 8.3 | 2.2 | 3.5 | 1.4 | 3.6 | 0.8 | – | 44.8 | 8.3 | 0.2 |
Opinòmetre/City Council[p 4] | 3–13 Jul 2020 | 805 | 13.1 | 13.9 | 9.3 | 1.1 | 4.2 | 0.6 | 3.1 | – | 0.1 | 39.0 | 12.0 | 0.8 |
ODEC/City Council[p 5] | 26 Nov–5 Dec 2019 | 831 | 16.0 | 15.5 | 8.9 | 2.6 | 4.7 | 1.5 | 4.7 | 0.6 | 0.4 | 34.1 | 9.1 | 0.5 |
2019 municipal election | 26 May 2019 | N/A | 14.1 | 13.7 | 12.1 | 8.7 | 6.9 | 3.3 | 2.6 | 0.8 | [e] | N/A | 33.8 | 0.4 |
Notes[]
References[]
- Opinion poll sources
- ^ "Baròmetre de Barcelona. Segona onada 2021". City Council of Barcelona (in Catalan). 27 December 2021.
- ^ "Baròmetre Semestral de Barcelona. Juny 2021". City Council of Barcelona (in Catalan). 18 July 2021.
- ^ "Baròmetre Semestral de Barcelona. Desembre 2020". City Council of Barcelona (in Catalan). 24 December 2020.
- ^ "Baròmetre Semestral de Barcelona. Juliol 2020". City Council of Barcelona (in Catalan). 23 July 2020.
- ^ "Baròmetre Semestral de Barcelona. Desembre 2019". City Council of Barcelona (in Catalan). 27 December 2019.
- Other
- ^ a b c "Ley 7/1985, de 2 de abril, Reguladora de las Bases del Régimen Local". Law No. 7 of 2 April 1985. Boletín Oficial del Estado (in Spanish). Retrieved 27 July 2021.
- ^ a b c "Ley Orgánica 5/1985, de 19 de junio, del Régimen Electoral General". Organic Law No. 5 of 19 June 1985. Boletín Oficial del Estado (in Spanish). Retrieved 27 July 2021.
- ^ "Eleccions municipals a Barcelona (1979 - 2019)". Historia Electoral.com (in Catalan). Retrieved 1 January 2022.
- ^ Sust, Toni (9 June 2021). "Marilén Barceló no podrá pasar del grupo de Cs al de Valls y serà concejala no adscrita". El Periódico de Catalunya (in Spanish). Retrieved 1 January 2022.
- ^ Espada, Ferrán (27 October 2021). "ERC pone rumbo a las municipales con el objetivo central de retener Tarragona y Lleida y el asalto definitivo a Barcelona". Público (in Spanish). Barcelona. Retrieved 16 January 2022.
- ^ Sust, Toni (27 May 2021). "Colau cambia el guion y será candidata en 2023". El Periódico (in Spanish). Barcelona. Retrieved 16 January 2022.
- ^ "Collboni (PSC) repetirá como candidato del partido a las elecciones municipales de Barcelona en 2023" (in Spanish). Barcelona: Europa Press. 2 November 2021. Retrieved 16 January 2022.
- ^ "Ciudadanos rompe su alianza con Valls por apoyar a Colau en Barcelona". Público (in Spanish). Madrid. EFE. 17 June 2019. Retrieved 1 January 2022.
- ^ "Manuel Valls dimite como concejal de Barcelona". La Vanguardia (in Spanish). Barcelona. 31 August 2021. Retrieved 16 January 2022.
- ^ Hurtado, Julio; Pardo Torregrosa, Iñaki (20 December 2021). "Barcelona pel Canvi pasa a llamarse Valents y aspira a integrar el constitucionalismo catalán". La Vanguardia (in Spanish). Retrieved 16 January 2022.
- ^ Montilla, Raúl (7 October 2021). "Artadi lanza su candidatura como alcaldable por Barcelona". La Vanguardia (in Spanish). Barcelona. Retrieved 16 January 2022.
- ^ Pardo Torregrosa, Iñaki (8 August 2021). "Junts per Catalunya y PDECat dilucidan pueblo a pueblo el futuro de las alcaldías". La Vanguardia (in Spanish). Barcelona. Retrieved 16 January 2022.
- ^ López, Estela (11 January 2022). "El nuevo partido Centrem pugnará por la alcaldía de Barcelona". El Economista (in Spanish). Retrieved 16 January 2022.
- ^ "El PP de Barcelona propone a Daniel Sirera como alcaldable por la ciudad para 2023". El Confidencial (in Spanish). EFE. 18 November 2021. Retrieved 16 January 2022.
- ^ Palmer, Jordi (22 November 2021). "Josep Bou se postula como alcaldable del PP: "Tengo ganas, fuerza e ilusión"". El Nacional (in Spanish). Retrieved 16 January 2022.
- ^ "Electoral results. Parliament of Catalonia election 2021. Barcelona (Municipality)". Government of Catalonia (in Catalan). Retrieved 16 January 2022.
- ^ "Electoral Results Consultation. Congress. November 2019. Barcelona Municipality". Ministry of the Interior (in Spanish). Retrieved 12 January 2022.
- 2023 elections in Spain
- Elections in Barcelona