A municipal election was held in Barcelona on 24 May 2015 to elect the 10th City Council of the municipality. All 41 seats in the City Council were up for election. It was held concurrently with regional elections in thirteen autonomous communities and local elections all across Spain.
The election was won by the Barcelona en Comú (BComú) citizen platform, supported by Podemos, Initiative for Catalonia GreensâÂÂUnited and Alternative Left (ICVâÂÂEUiA) and Constituent Process (Procés Constituent) and led by Ada Colau popular activist and former spokeswoman of the Platform for People Affected by Mortgages (PAH). Incumbent mayor Xavier Trias of the Convergence and Union (CiU) federation, who had campaigned for a second consecutive term in office, saw his support reduced from 14 to 10 out of 41 seats in the council. Citizens (C's) became the third largest political force in the city, whereas Republican Left of Catalonia (ERC) obtained its second best historical result. On the other hand, both the Socialists' Party of Catalonia (PSC) and the People's Party (PP) were severely mauled. The PSC, which had won every municipal election in Barcelona and had controlled the local government up until 2011, fell to fifth place and below 10% of the share, while the PP achieved its worst result since the People's Alliance (AP) result in the 1987 election. The Popular Unity Candidacy (CUP) also entered the City Council for the first time in history, winning 3 seats and 7.4% of the votes.
Colau went on to become the first female mayor of Barcelona in history with the support of the BComú, ERC, the PSC and one of the CUP councillors.
Under the 1978 Constitution, the governance of municipalities in SpainâÂÂpart of the country's local government systemâÂÂwas centered on the figure of city councils (), local corporations with independent legal personality composed of a mayor, a government council and an elected legislative assembly. In the case of Barcelona, the top-tier administrative and governing body was the City Council of Barcelona.
Voting for local assemblies was based on universal suffrage, comprising all Spanish nationals over 18 years of age, registered and residing in the municipality and with full political rights (provided that they had not been deprived of the right to vote by a final court ruling, nor being legally incapacitated), as well as resident non-national European citizens, and those whose country of origin allowed reciprocal voting by virtue of a treaty.
Local councillors were elected using the D'Hondt method and closed-list proportional voting, with a five percent-threshold of valid votes (including blank ballots) in each municipality. Each municipality was a multi-member constituency, with a number of seats based on the following scale:
The law did not provide for by-elections to fill vacant seats; instead, any vacancies arising after the proclamation of candidates and during the legislative term were filled by the next candidates on the party lists or, when required, by designated substitutes.
The mayor was indirectly elected by the local assembly. A legal clause required candidates to earn the vote of an absolute majority of councillors, or else the candidate of the most-voted party was automatically appointed to the post. In the event of a tie, the appointee was determined by lot.
The term of city councils in Spain expired four years after the date of their previous election, with election day being fixed for the fourth Sunday of May every four years (as of , this has been the year before a leap year). The election decree was required to be issued no later than the fifty-fifth day prior to the scheduled election date and published on the following day in the Official State Gazette (BOE). The previous local elections were held on 22 May 2011, setting the date for election day on the fourth Sunday of May four years later, which was 24 May 2015.
Local councils could not be dissolved before the expiry of their term, except in cases of mismanagement that seriously harmed the public interest and implied a breach of constitutional obligations, in which case the Council of Ministers couldâÂÂoptionallyâÂÂagree to call a by-election.
Elections to local councils were officially called on 31 March 2015 with the publication of the corresponding decree in the BOE, setting election day for 24 May.
The electoral law allowed for parties and federations registered in the interior ministry, alliances and groupings of electors to present lists of candidates. Parties and federations intending to form an alliance ahead of an election were required to inform the relevant electoral commission within ten days of the election call, whereas groupings of electors needed to secure the signature of a determined amount of the electors registered in the municipality for which they sought election, disallowing electors from signing for more than one list of candidates. In the case of Barcelona, as its population was over 1,000,001, at least 8,000 signatures were required. Additionally, a balanced composition of men and women was required in the electoral lists, so that candidates of either sex made up at least 40 percent of the total composition.
Below is a list of the main parties and electoral alliances which contested the election:
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.
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 were required for an absolute majority in the City Council of Barcelona.
The table below lists raw, unweighted voting preferences.
The table below lists opinion polling on the victory preferences for each party in the event of a municipal election taking place.
The table below lists opinion polling on the perceived likelihood of victory for each party in the event of a municipal election taking place.
The table below lists opinion polling on leader preferences to become mayor of Barcelona.
Opinion poll sources
Other