A regional election was held in the Balearic Islands on 24 May 2015 to elect the 9th Parliament of the autonomous community. All 59 seats in the Parliament were up for election. It was held concurrently with regional elections in twelve other autonomous communities and local elections all across Spain.
All in all, the election resulted in the loss of the parliamentary majority by the People's Party (PP), together with its worst election result ever in the islands. The Socialist Party of the Balearic Islands (PSIB) also saw losses, but could form a coalition government, led by socialist Francina Armengol, together with More for Mallorca (Més) and More for Menorca (MpM), obtaining confidence and supply support from We Can (Podemos/Podem) and the People for Formentera (GxF) deputy. It was the first time that left-wing parties had a majority of seats in the Balearic parliament, with previous PSIB-led governments having required the support of centrist Majorcan Union (UM) to rule in 1999 and 2007. Opposition, aside from PP, was formed by Proposta per les Illes (El Pi) and Citizens (C's), both obtaining their whole representation in Mallorca, but being close to winning seats in Ibiza and Menorca, respectively—in the latter, Ciutadella de Menorca People's Union represented the C's Menorcan branch.
Background
In the 2011 election, the People's Party (PP), led by José Ramón Bauzá, regained an absolute majority, and Bauzá was elected president on 15 June 2011. A series of controversial and unpopular decrees and laws followed, the most discussed involving the language of the Balearic Islands—Catalan in its island dialects—and the education. These generated record-attendance demonstrations, the most important one on 29 September 2013, when more than 70,000 people demonstrated in Palma protesting, amongst other things, against the changes in the language decree. It established more school hours in Spanish and English, however the majority of public schools and their teachers were not prepared to carry it out.
The main opposition party, the Socialist Party of the Balearic Islands, elected Francina Armengol as its new leader in February 2012 in place of former regional president Francesc Antich.
During the 2011–2015 legislature, Agreement for Mallorca joined the coalition between the Socialist Party of Mallorca (PSM) and InitiativeGreens in 2013. It was renamed as More for Mallorca in October 2013, with PSM leader Biel Barceló as its secretary general. Its sister party Socialist Party of Menorca formed the coalition More for Menorca with the Greens of Menorca and Equo in July 2014.
The disbanded Majorcan Union (UM) had resulted in two parties with similar political views in the 2011 election: Convergence for the Isles—the political heir of UM—and Regionalist League of the Balearic Islands (IB–Lliga). None of them obtained representation in the Parliament. In November 2012, they both united with other local parties to create a new party called Proposal for the Isles to contest in the 2015 election not only in Mallorca, but also in Menorca and Ibiza. Jaume Font, former PP member and IB–Lliga leader, was elected as its president.
In addition, the Spanish politics were observing the growth of new parties like We Can () in the left and young parties like Citizens (C's) in the centre-right. In their regional branches, Alberto Jarabo was elected as the secretary general of Podemos in February 2015, while Xavier Pericay was elected as C's candidate in April 2015.
Overview Under the 2007 Statute of Autonomy, the Parliament of the Balearic Islands was the unicameral legislature of the homonymous autonomous community, having legislative power in devolved matters, as well as the ability to grant or withdraw confidence from a regional president.. The electoral and procedural rules were supplemented by national law provisions..
Date The term of the Parliament of the Balearic Islands expired four years after the date of its previous election, unless it was dissolved earlier. The election decree was required to be issued no later than 25 days before the scheduled expiration date of parliament and published on the following day in the Official Gazette of the Balearic Islands (BOIB), with election day taking place 54 days after the decree's publication.; ( by ). The previous election was held on 22 May 2011, which meant that the chamber's term would have expired on 22 May 2015. The election decree was required to be published in the BOIB no later than 28 April 2015, setting the latest possible date for election day on 21 June 2015.
The regional president had the prerogative to dissolve the Parliament of the Balearic Islands at any given time and call a snap election, provided that no motion of no confidence was in process and that dissolution did not occur before one year after a previous one under this procedure.; . In the event of an investiture process failing to elect a regional president within a 60-day period from the first ballot, the Parliament was to be automatically dissolved and a fresh election called..
The Parliament of the Balearic Islands was officially dissolved on 31 March 2015 with the publication of the corresponding decree in the BOIB, setting election day for 24 May..
Electoral system Voting for the Parliament was based on universal suffrage, comprising all Spanish nationals over 18 years of age, registered in the Balearic Islands 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.; ( by ). Additionally, non-resident citizens were required to apply for voting, a system known as "begged" voting ()..
The Parliament of the Balearic Islands had 59 seats. All were elected in four multi-member constituencies—corresponding to the islands of Mallorca, Menorca, Ibiza and Formentera, each of which was assigned a fixed number of seats—using the D'Hondt method and closed-list proportional voting, with a five percent-threshold of valid votes (including blank ballots) in each constituency.; . The use of this electoral method resulted in a higher effective threshold depending on district magnitude and vote distribution.
As a result of the aforementioned allocation, each Parliament constituency was entitled the following seats:; .
Seats Constituencies 33 Mallorca 13 Menorca 12 Ibiza 1 Formentera
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. ( by ).
Outgoing parliament The table below shows the composition of the parliamentary groups in the chamber at the time of dissolution.
+ Parliamentary composition in March 2015 Groups Parties Legislators Seats Total People's Parliamentary Group PP 34 34 Socialist Parliamentary Group PSIB–PSOE 17 18 GxE 1 More Parliamentary Group Més 3 5 IV 1 PSMe 1 Non-Inscrits GxF 1 2 El Pi 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 at least one percent of the electorate in the constituencies for which they sought election, disallowing electors from signing for more than one list. ( by ). 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 PP José Ramón Bauzá ConservatismChristian democracy 46.7% PSIB–PSOE Francina Armengol Social democracy 24.4% Més Biel Barceló Left-wing nationalismDemocratic socialismGreen politics 8.6% MxMe Nel Martí Left-wing nationalismDemocratic socialismGreen politics 1.0% GxF Silvia Tur EnvironmentalismDemocratic socialism 0.5% El Pi Jaume Font RegionalismLiberalism 6.0% C's Xavier Pericay Liberalism 0.2% GxE Juanjo Cardona Progressivism colspan="2" Podemos/Podem Alberto Jarabo Left-wing populismDirect democracyDemocratic socialism colspan="2"
Campaign Debates + 2015 Balearic regional election debates Date Organizer(s) Moderator(s) PP PSIB Més El Pi Guanyem UPyD C's PREF Podem RC Audience 12 May Deacorde Marketing S NI NI — 18 May Student Council of the UIB Àlvar Moreno S S S S S S S A S — 20 May Student Council of the UIB Neus Albis S S S S S A S NI S NI — 20 May IB3 Cristina Bugallo NI NI NI NI NI NI NI NI 7.4% 21 May Diario de Mallorca Miguel Borrás S NI NI NI —
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; 30 seats were required for an absolute majority in the Parliament of the Balearic Islands.