A municipal election was held in Barcelona on 26 May 2019 to elect the 11th City Council of the municipality. All 41 seats in the City Council were up for election. It was held concurrently with regional elections in twelve autonomous communities and local elections all across Spain, as well as the 2019 European Parliament election in Spain.
The contest was won by Republican Left of Catalonia (ERC), which under the leadership of Ernest Maragall—brother of former Barcelona mayor and president of the Government of Catalonia Pasqual Maragall with the Socialists' Party of Catalonia (PSC)—came out on top in a municipal election in Barcelona for the first time in history, as a resurgent PSC drew votes away from incumbent mayor Ada Colau's Barcelona in Common (BComú). Colau was able to retain the mayorship through an BComú—PSC alliance that received the support of Barcelona for Change (BCN Canvi) councillors under Manuel Valls, the former prime minister of France, who after his failed run at the 2017 French presidential election was nominated by the liberal Citizens (Cs) to become their mayoral candidate in his city of birth. Valls's support of Colau's investiture was based on his stated intention to prevent the pro-Catalan independence camp from securing control over Catalonia's capital city.
Together for Catalonia (JxCat), the new brand of former Democratic Convergence of Catalonia (CDC) members who had openly embraced a Catalan independence ideology following the dissolution of the Convergence and Union (CiU) federation in June 2015, fell to fifth place to a record-low 10.5% of the vote under the leadership of Joaquim Forn, the former Interior minister who was at the time at preventive detention because of his involvement in the organization of the controversial 2017 Catalan independence referendum. Concurrently, support for the People's Party (PP) plummeted even further to its worst historical showing, barely passing the five percent threshold with 5.01%, whereas the Popular Unity Candidacy (CUP) was expelled from the city council altogether.
Overview Under the 1978 Constitution, the governance of municipalities in Spain—part of the country's local government system—was 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.; . The mayor was indirectly elected by the local assembly, requiring an absolute majority; otherwise, the candidate from the most-voted party automatically became mayor (ties were resolved by drawing lots).; . In the case of Barcelona, the top-tier administrative and governing body was the City Council of Barcelona..
Date The term of local assemblies 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. The election decree was required to be issued no later than 54 days before the scheduled election date and published on the following day in the Official State Gazette (BOE).. The previous local elections were held on 24 May 2015, setting the date for election day on the fourth Sunday of May four years later, which was 26 May 2019.
Local assemblies could not be dissolved before the expiration 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 could—optionally—decide to call a by-election..
Elections to the assemblies of local entities were officially called on 2 April 2019 with the publication of the corresponding decree in the BOE, setting election day for 26 May..
Electoral system 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 sentence), 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:.
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 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..
Outgoing council The table below shows the composition of the political groups in the local assembly at the time of the election call.
+ Parliamentary composition in April 2019 Groups Parties Councillors Seats Total Barcelona in Common's Municipal Group BComú 7 11 ICV 3 EUiA 1 Democratic Municipal Group PDeCAT 7 9 INDEP 2 Citizens's Municipal Group Cs 5 5 Republican Municipal Group ERC 4 4 Socialist Municipal Group PSC 4 4 People's Party's Municipal Group PP 3 3 Popular Unity Candidacy–Let's ReverseBarcelona Municipal Group CUP 3 3 Non-Inscrits DC 1 2 INDEP 1
Parties and candidates 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 were required to inform the relevant electoral commission within 10 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. 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 alliances which contested the election:
Candidacy Parties andalliances Leading candidate Ideology Previous result Vote % Seats BComú–ECG Ada Colau Left-wing populismParticipatory democracy 25.2% Junts Joaquim Forn Catalan independenceLiberalism 22.8% BCN Canvi–Cs Manuel Valls Liberalism 11.0% ERC+BCN–Nova–AM Ernest Maragall Catalan independenceLeft-wing nationalismSocial democracy 11.0% PSC–CP Jaume Collboni Social democracy 9.6% PP Josep Bou ConservatismChristian democracy 8.7% CapgiremBCN–AMunt Anna Saliente Catalan independenceAnti-capitalismSocialism 7.4%
Campaign Budget Parties and alliances Budget(self-reported) BComú–ECG €425,000 PSC–CP €416,701 Junts €320,000 ERC+BCN–Nova–AM €246,250 Capgirem BCN–AMunt €200,000 BCN Canvi–Cs €170,000 PP No data
According to a report from the Catalan newspaper Diari Ara, BCN Canvi–Cs candidate Manuel Valls would have received funds from a group of businessmen to prepare the campaign, that would have included a salary of €20,000 monthly for him. Valls rejected those accusations and said all funds he received for the campaign were declared.
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 were required for an absolute majority in the City Council of Barcelona.