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2015 Madrid municipal election

Election in the Spanish municipality of Madrid From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

A municipal election was held in Madrid on 24 May 2015 to elect the 10th City Council of the municipality. All 57 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.

Registered2,386,120 Increase 3.4%
Turnout1,644,093 (68.9%)
Increase 1.7 pp
Quick facts All 57 seats in the City Council of Madrid 29 seats needed for a majority, Registered ...
2015 Madrid municipal election

 2011
24 May 2015
2019 

All 57 seats in the City Council of Madrid
29 seats needed for a majority
Opinion polls
Registered2,386,120 Increase 3.4%
Turnout1,644,093 (68.9%)
Increase 1.7 pp
  First party Second party Third party
 
Leader Esperanza Aguirre Manuela Carmena Antonio Miguel Carmona
Party PP Ahora Madrid PSOE
Leader since 6 March 2015 30 March 2015 6 October 2014
Last election 31 seats, 49.7% Did not contest 15 seats, 23.9%
Seats won 21 20 9
Seat change Decrease 10 Increase 20 Decrease 6
Popular vote 564,154 519,721 249,286
Percentage 34.6% 31.8% 15.3%
Swing Decrease 15.1 pp New party Decrease 8.6 pp

  Fourth party Fifth party Sixth party
 
Leader Begoña Villacís David Ortega Raquel López
Party C's UPyD IUCMLV
Leader since 2 March 2015 9 October 2010 26 March 2015
Last election 0 seats, 0.2% 5 seats, 7.9% 6 seats, 10.7%
Seats won 7 0 0
Seat change Increase 7 Decrease 5 Decrease 6
Popular vote 186,487 29,812 27,651
Percentage 11.4% 1.8% 1.7%
Swing Increase 11.2 pp Decrease 6.1 pp Decrease 9.0 pp

Mayor before election

Ana Botella
PP

Mayor after election

Manuela Carmena
Ahora Madrid

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Leading the People's Party (PP) local list was Esperanza Aguirre, former president of the Community of Madrid (2003–2012), president of the Senate of Spain (1999–2002) and minister of Education and Culture (1996–1999), as well as the leader of the regional PP branch since 2004. Mayor Ana Botella, who succeeded Alberto Ruiz-Gallardón early into his term in December 2011, had declined re-election in September 2014. The election was an unexpectedly close race between Aguirre's PP and former judge Manuela Carmena's Podemos-supported Ahora Madrid (English: Madrid Now) platform. The collapse in the PP vote and the loss of its absolute majority allowed Carmena to gain power through an alliance with the Spanish Socialist Workers' Party (PSOE), resulting in the first left-wing government in the city since 1989.

The PSOE suffered heavily from tactical voting to Ahora Madrid after it became apparent throughout the campaign that the left-of-centre vote was coalescing around Carmena's coalition. The newcomer liberal Citizens (Spanish: Ciudadanos) party also entered the City Council for the first time, collecting votes disenchanted with the PP and replacing Union, Progress and Democracy (UPyD) as the main centrist local force. United Left (IU) fell below the 5% threshold and failed to gain any representation for the first time in history.

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 (Spanish: ayuntamientos), local corporations with independent legal personality composed of a mayor, a government council and an elected legislative assembly.[1] 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).[2] In the case of Madrid, the top-tier administrative and governing body was the City Council of Madrid.[3]

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).[4] 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 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.[5]

Elections to the assemblies of local entities were officially called on 31 March 2015 with the publication of the corresponding decree in the BOE, setting election day for 24 May.[6]

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, nor were legally incapacitated), as well as resident non-national European citizens, and those whose country of origin allowed reciprocal voting by virtue of a treaty.[7]

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.[8] Each municipality was a multi-member constituency, with a number of seats based on the following scale:[9]

More information Population, Councillors ...
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
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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.[10]

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 Madrid, as its population was over 1,000,001, at least 8,000 signatures were required.[11] 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.[12]

Below is a list of the main parties and alliances which contested the election:

More information Candidacy, Parties and alliances ...
Candidacy Parties and
alliances
Leading candidate Ideology Previous result Gov. Ref.
Vote % Seats
PP
List
Esperanza Aguirre Conservatism
Christian democracy
49.7% 31 Yes [13]
[14]
PSOE Antonio Miguel Carmona Social democracy 23.9% 15 No [15]
IUCMLV Raquel López Socialism
Communism
10.7% 6 No [16]
UPyD David Ortega Social liberalism
Radical centrism
7.9% 5 No [17]
C's Begoña Villacís Liberalism 0.2% 0 No [18]
Ahora
Madrid
List
Manuela Carmena Progressivism
Participatory democracy
Did not contest No [19]
[20]
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Campaign

Electoral debates were held in Telemadrid between the candidates of the PP, PSOE, IU, UPyD, Vox, Citizens and Ahora Madrid in the last week of campaign, between 18 and 20 May. The most expected and tense moment came with the debate between PP candidate Esperanza Aguirre and AM Manuela Carmena, as the most-likely candidates to become the next Mayor of the city. Aguirre immediately accused Carmena of saying in the past that "ETA members had suffered a lot", trying to link the former judge with the terrorist group, as well as trying to discredit Carmena's career in the judiciary, which was seen as a furious attack of Aguirre on Carmena. The latter, visibly surprised, counterattacked responding that Aguirre was acting arrogantly and contemptuous to others and accusing her of allowing corruption to spread during her tenure as president of Madrid. "Please go, you've caused a lot of harm" said Carmena to Aguirre.[21]

In the last days of the campaign, especially following her debate with Aguirre, several celebrities such as actors Pilar Bardem, Carlos Bardem, Loles León, Goya Toledo, Paco León, playwright Cristina Rota, lawyer and former politician Cristina Almeida and journalist Ernesto Ekaizer expressed their support for Carmena's candidacy, with actress Eva Hache going on to say through the Twitter social network that "I don't know if we are Manuela but surely we are not the other [in reference to Aguirre]. VOTE."[22][23] Carmena had also received the support of dozens of artists who created drawings in support of Carmena's and Ahora Madrid candidacy, with the drawings themselves becoming viral in the social networks.[24] Following the Telemadrid debate, after which Aguirre was highly criticised for her aggressive behaviour towards Carmena,[25] supporters cast the drawings next to Aguirre's home in Malasaña.[26] On 21 May, a Carmena's act in the center of Madrid exceeded its capacity, originally scheduled for 800 people, resulting in the closing of a street and in Carmena herself apologizing to the around 1,500 people outside that were not able to enter.[27]

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; 29 seats were required for an absolute majority in the City Council of Madrid.

Color key:

  Poll conducted after legal ban on opinion polls   Exit poll

More information Polling firm/Commissioner, Fieldwork date ...
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Voting preferences

The table below lists raw, unweighted voting preferences.

More information Polling firm/Commissioner, Fieldwork date ...
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Victory preferences

The table below lists opinion polling on the victory preferences for each party in the event of a municipal election taking place.

More information Polling firm/Commissioner, Fieldwork date ...
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Victory likelihood

The table below lists opinion polling on the perceived likelihood of victory for each party in the event of a municipal election taking place.

More information Polling firm/Commissioner, Fieldwork date ...
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Results

More information Parties and alliances, Popular vote ...
Summary of the 24 May 2015 City Council of Madrid election results
Parties and alliances Popular vote Seats
Votes % ±pp Total +/−
People's Party (PP) 564,15434.57−15.12 21−10
Madrid Now (Ahora Madrid) 519,72131.84New 20+20
Spanish Socialist Workers' Party (PSOE) 249,28615.27−8.66 9−6
Citizens–Party of the Citizenry (C's) 186,48711.43+11.24 7+7
Union, Progress and Democracy (UPyD) 29,8121.83−6.02 0−5
United Left of the Community of MadridThe Greens (IUCM–LV) 27,6511.69−9.06 0−6
Vox (Vox) 9,8670.60New 0±0
Animalist Party Against Mistreatment of Animals (PACMA) 9,5990.59+0.13 0±0
The Greens–Green Group (LV–GV) 5,4090.33New 0±0
United Free Citizens (CILUS) 2,5120.15New 0±0
Spanish Phalanx of the CNSO (FE de las JONS) 2,0890.13±0.00 0±0
Blank Seats (EB) 1,8950.12New 0±0
The National Coalition (LCN) 1,2590.08New 0±0
Communist Party of the Peoples of Spain (PCPE) 1,2260.08−0.06 0±0
Humanist Party (PH) 1,0150.06−0.07 0±0
Spanish Alternative (AES) 9980.06−0.25 0±0
Multi-Cultural Party of Social Justice (MJS) 7890.05New 0±0
Libertarian Party (P–LIB) 6170.04New 0±0
Internationalist Solidarity and Self-Management (SAIn) 5430.03New 0±0
Internationalist Socialist Workers' Party (POSI) 5280.03−0.04 0±0
Castilian Party–Commoners' Land: Pact (PCAS–TC: Pacto) 4900.03−0.03 0±0
Union for Leganés (ULEG) 2700.02−0.05 0±0
Blank ballots 15,8250.97−1.87
Total 1,632,042 57±0
Valid votes 1,632,04299.27+1.09
Invalid votes 12,0510.73−1.09
Votes cast / turnout 1,644,09368.90+1.68
Abstentions 742,02731.10−1.68
Registered voters 2,386,120
Sources[28][29][30][31]
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Popular vote
PP
34.57%
Ahora Madrid
31.84%
PSOE
15.27%
C's
11.43%
UPyD
1.83%
IUCMLV
1.69%
Others
2.40%
Blank ballots
0.97%
Seats
PP
36.84%
Ahora Madrid
35.09%
PSOE
15.79%
C's
12.28%

Aftermath

Government formation

More information Ballot →, 13 June 2015 ...
Investiture
Ballot → 13 June 2015
Required majority → 29 out of 57
29 / 57
checkY
  • PP (21)
21 / 57
X markN
7 / 57
X markN
Abstentions/Blank ballots
0 / 57
Absentees
0 / 57
Sources[28][32]
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Notes

  1. Within Ganemos.
  2. Esperanza Aguirre as PP candidate hypothesis.
  3. No specified PP candidate.
  4. Does not include non-resident citizens.

References

Bibliography

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