Barcelona 2019 Local Election Results

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On May 26th, 756,007 Barcelonians went to their polling stations to elect a new city government for the next four years. They represented 66.17% of registered voters, an increase of 5.57% as compared to the results of the 2015 elections. Casting either a “null” or “void” ballot is often used as a form of protest, however the low number of both—2,625 (0.35%) and 2,012 (0.27%) respectively—indicates increased voter interest.

The Results

To date, 100% of votes have been counted, but the results have not been declared official by the Ministry of Interior. The provisional results are as follows:

  • ERC+BCN-NOVA-AM—160,990 (21.35%)
  • BARCELONA EN COMÚ-ECG—156,157 (20.71%)
  • PSC-CP—138,748 (18.40%)
  • BCN Canvi-Cs—99,494 (13.20%)
  • JUNTS—78,957 (10.47%)
  • PP—37,745 (5.01%)
  • Capgirem BCN-AMUNT—29,335 (3.89%)
  • BCAP-PRIMÀRIES—28,230 (3.74%)
  • VOX—8,723 (1.16%)
  • PACMA—6,359 (0.84%)
  • EVE—1,886 (0.25%)
  • FC's—1,145 (0.15%)
  • PACT—695 (0.09%)
  • UNIDOS SI—567 (0.08%)
  • EB—432 (0.06%)
  • CNV—383 (0.05%)
  • PCPC—371 (0.05%)
  • P.D.S.J.E.—317 (0.04%)
  • PFiV—215 (0.03%)
  • PUM+J—194 (0.03%)
  • P-LIB—146 (0.02%)
  • FE de las JONS—131 (0.02%)
  • dCIDE—93 (0.01%)
  • N P R S—57 (0.01%)

Nevertheless, some of the numbers have been challenged. The Ministry of Interior has detected discrepancies between the proceedings of the elections and the published results.

City Council and the Districts

As established by law, the city’s population and the number of seats on the city council (41) are used to establish a threshold of votes the platforms need to reach to be considered in the final adjudication of council seats. In Barcelona’s case, lists need to obtain 5% of the votes to be considered. In this election only six of the platforms reached this threshold: Esquerra Republicana de Catalunya (ERC), Barcelona En Comú, Partit dels Socialistes de Catalunya (PSC), BCN Canvi-C’s, Junts and Partido Popular (PP).

City Council

After applying the d’Hondt method to adjudicate the seats, the new city council will have the following composition:

  • ERC+BCN-NOVA-AM—10
  • BARCELONA EN COMÚ-ECG—10
  • PSC-CP—8
  • BCN Canvi-Cs—6
  • JUNTS—5
  • PP—2

Compared to the previous elections, En Comú lost one seat while ERC doubled its numbers. PSC—with eight seats—also doubled its results. Ciutadans increased its numbers from five to six seats. In a reversal for the traditional center-right, Convergencia muted into another party and went down from ten to five seats; PP lost one seat leaving it with only two and CUP lost the three it had.

Districts

In pursuit of increased effectiveness and representation, the city is geographically and administratively divided into districts. The geographical distribution of votes is a significant element of the local elections because it determines who the head of each district will be. The most voted lists in the elections, segregated by district, were:

  • Ciutat Vella—BARCELONA EN COMÚ-ECG—7,096 (27.52%)
  • Eixample—ERC+BCN-NOVA-AM—29,444 (22.82%)
  • Gràcia—BARCELONA EN COMÚ-ECG—14,838 (23.83%)
  • Horta-Guinardó—BARCELONA EN COMÚ-ECG—17,961 (22.22%)
  • Les Corts—ERC+BCN-NOVA-AM—9,450 (21.20%)
  • Nou Barris—PSC-CP—19,193 (28.03%)
  • Sant Andreu—BARCELONA EN COMÚ-ECG—17,023 (23.17%)
  • Sant Martí—BARCELONA EN COMÚ-ECG—25,196 (22.76%)
  • Sants-Montjuïc—BARCELONA EN COMÚ-ECG—18,856 (23.37%)
  • Sarrià-Sant Gervasi—BCN Canvi-Cs—19,085 (24.42%)

The Mayor and the Executive Board

Who becomes Barcelona’s 120th mayor is a task for the members of the newly formed city council to undertake. In the first plenary assembly of this body, its members will elect the new mayor from among the head of the lists represented in the council. The law stipulates that the new mayor must be elected with an absolute majority; if this is not obtained, then the head of the list with most votes in the election will automatically become the new mayor.

Before the elections, we presented a short summary of candidates most likely to become Barcelona’s next mayor. They were: Ernest Maragall, Manuel Valls, Jaume Collboni, Joaquim Forn and Ada Colau. The election results have altered the political landscape and coalition strategies among the parties.

The race results were very close for the lists headed by Ernest Maragall and the incumbent mayor, Ada Colau. Maragall’s platform ERC+BCN-NOVA-AM obtained 4,833 more votes (representing less than 1%) than Colau’s BARCELONA EN COMU-ECG. This advantage, however small, does make Maragall the most likely candidate to become the new mayor. Prior to the elections conjecture about who the new mayor would be was fed with polls and craftily leaked messages. At this stage, all speculation orbits around possible pacts and alliances among the parties in the council.

Now it’s time for wheeling and dealing. The pro-independence parties, ERC and Junts (10 and 5 seats respectively) do not add up to a majority (21). Neither would a Colau-Collboni pact if they were to re-enact the agreement they reached previously. This leaves many speculating that the deciding combination will be with whichever group obtains the support of Valls and his platform. Though he represents the center-right on this ticket, it’s not outrageous to think that Valls might endorse Collboni or Colau as new mayor, considering his past in the Parti Socialiste in France.

Final Notes

Some noteworthy changes in the local political spectrum are present in the new city council:

  • Capgirem BCN (CUP)—king maker in the outgoing city council—did not even get enough votes to win a seat in the new council. (CUP has challenged these results.)
  • Convergencia i Unió (CiU) imploded. In the term before Colau was elected mayor a CiU alliance held the mayoral seat and ruled the city. In this election Junts, its offspring, only obtained five seats.
  • Although En Comú did not get the majority of the votes in the election, it retains significant power in the city, having won six out of ten districts.
  • ERC became the most supported Catalan political brand in the capital.
  • Even though CUP will leave the council, overall support for the independence movement increased in the local halls of power.
  • From an ideological perspective, parties with progressive programs hold over 68% of seats in the city council.

Though the electoral dust has yet to settle, we can still expect to witness some political fracases as the backroom deal-making begins. The parties will attempt to modulate a number of previously confrontational messages into something that resembles an explanation for the concessions needed to be made in order to reach agreements.

During the campaign, candidates strove to differentiate themselves from other candidates, simultaneously casting their opponents as antagonistic figures in an attempt to galvanize opinions and mobilize voters. It remains to be seen for how long some parties can hold onto what has been called the política de blocs (block politics) as a strategy to position themselves in the political spectrum.

Héctor Cols is an occasional contributor to the Barcelona Metropolitan, covering human or geographical landscapes and helping with data related issues. Héctor is a curious software developer that finds no joy in conversation with Siri or Alexa and prefers to mingle with other kinds of outsiders. A fan of all things Barcelona, Héctor was in charge of the culture section of Resident Aliens, a podcast of the American Society of Barcelona.