A municipal election was held in Valencia on 24 May 2015 to elect the 10th City Council of the municipality. All 33 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 unveiling of a string of corruption scandals during the 2011–2015 period involving the party in power, coupled with allegations of abuse of power and perceived poor management of the economic situation, had taken its toll in the ruling People's Party (PP), which went on to suffer a dramatic decline, losing over half of its vote share and city councillors and scoring its worst result since 1991. The scope of the PP collapse was such that incumbent mayor Rita Barberá was quoted saying "¡Qué hostia!" amid tears (Spanish for "What a smack!") after learning of the results in election night. As a result, the election turned into a surprisingly close race with the Valencianist coalition Compromís, which scored a strong second place. The Socialist Party of the Valencian Country (PSPV–PSOE), unable to capitalize on the PP losses, continued its long-term decline and fell to fourth place, with its votes being drawn away to both Compromís and newly created Podemos-led Valencia in Common coalition. Centrist Citizens (C's), contesting a Valencian municipal election for the first time, turned into the third political force through its capture of disenchanted PP voters, while historical United Left of the Valencian Country (EUPV), standing within the Acord Ciutadà coalition (Valencian for "Citizen Agreement"), failed to achieve enough votes to win seats on the local assembly.
As a result of the election, with the PP unable to command a majority of seats in the city council even with the support of C's, Barberá was ousted from office after 24 years of government, being succeeded by Compromís candidate Joan Ribó. The 2015 election marked the end of the two decade-long PP political dominance over both the city and the whole of the Valencian Community, losing control over the regional government, all provincial capitals and most major cities in the region to left-wing coalitions and alliances.
Background Rita Barberá of the People's Party (PP) was elected to a sixth term as mayor of Valencia after her party won a fifth consecutive absolute majority in the local assembly in the 2011 election. The then-ruling party of Spain, the Spanish Socialist Workers' Party (PSOE), had suffered a serious decline in popular support following Prime Minister José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero's approval of unpopular austerity measures to try to tackle the economic crisis that was beleaguering the country. The PP benefitted from the PSOE's collapse, which helped cement its landslide victory by an absolute majority of seats in the 2011 general election held on 20 November and paving the way for the investiture of Mariano Rajoy as new prime minister.
However, the PP in the city of Valencia had already shown signs of political wear in the 2011 election—suffering a slight decrease in support—as a result of Barberá's continuous tenure as city mayor since 1991, as well as the unveiling of the Gürtel affair in 2009. The scandal would result in regional president Francisco Camps's resignation in July 2011, just one month after taking office, with Alberto Fabra succeeding him as regional premier. The following years saw the unveiling of a series of corruption scandals affecting the PP, involving party deputies, mayors, local councillors, two Corts's speakers and former regional president José Luis Olivas. The regional party leadership also had to cope with accusations of illegal financing, as well as possible embezzlement offences in the additional costs incurred in the Formula 1 project and Pope Benedict XVI's 2006 visit to Valencia, accusations that also reached Barberá's local government.
At the same time, both the regional and local governments had to deal with the effects of an ongoing financial crisis. The regional executive was forced to ask for a bailout from the central government headed by Rajoy in July 2012, with its economic situation remaining severe because of high unemployment and debt. The decision of Fabra's government to close down RTVV, the regional public television broadcasting channel, because of financing issues, was also met with widespread protests.
The 2014 European Parliament election, which resulted in enormous losses for the PP in the entire Valencian Community, paved the way for the rise of new parties Podemos, Compromís and Citizens, with the PSOE local branch finding itself unable to gain anything from the PP's lost support. As a result, the ruling PP faced the 2015 election with a severe decline in popular support, an increase of electoral competitiveness and the shadow of corruption looming over the local PP leadership.
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 Valencia, the top-tier administrative and governing body was the City Council of Valencia..
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 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..
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..
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.; ; .
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..
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 Valencia, as its population was between 300,001 and 1,000,000, at least 5,000 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 PP Rita Barberá ConservatismChristian democracy 52.5% PSPV–PSOE Joan Calabuig Social democracy 21.8% Compromís Joan Ribó ValencianismProgressivismGreen politics 9.0% EUPV–EV–ERPV Amadeu Sanchis ValencianismDemocratic socialismEcologism 8.7% VALC Jordi Peris Left-wing populismDirect democracyDemocratic socialism colspan="2" C's Fernando Giner Liberalism colspan="2"
Campaign Party slogans Party or alliance Original slogan English translation PP « Trabajar. Hacer. Crecer. » "Work. Do. Grow." PSPV–PSOE « Gobernar para la mayoría » "To govern for the majority" Compromís « Amb valentia »« Con valentía » "With courage" EUPV–EV–ERPV « Es tiempo de izquierda »« És temps d'esquerres » "It is the time of the left" UPyD « Libres » "Free" C's « El cambio » "The change" VALC « Es ahora » "It is now"
Issues In April 2015, Compromís denounced mayor Rita Barberá's expenses charged to public funds during 2011 and 2014, believing they could constitute an embezzlement offence as they were not related to municipal functions but to party and personal actions. The leaked bills, a total of 466 throughout the legislature amounting to expenditures of 278,000 euros, included payments for air travel, train tickets, car trips, hotels and restaurants. Compromís candidate Joan Ribó commented that "at a time when there are 85,000 unemployed in Valencia and it is the city with the highest number of evictions per capita, it is obscene, unsupportive and unethical to find all of these luxury expenses".
During the election campaign, the public prosecutor announced that it would open an investigation into Barberá's expenses, which would be linked to the already ongoing investigations on her because of luxury gifts worth 7,600 euros she would have allegedly received between 2007 and 2009 from a public body chaired by herself. The unveiling of such practices was dubbed as the "Ritaleaks case" by opposition parties—in reference to Rita Barberá's name—, which believed that such expenses were part of a larger scheme that maintained an illegal funding of the Valencian PP through public funds. The expenses scandal dominated the political landscape during the campaign, with Barberá herself being frequently booed during outdoor political acts in markets. She responded by saying she was being the target of a defamation campaign orchestrated by Compromís, and denied committing any wrongdoing or misuse of public money.
Another related scandal, the "Imelsa case", shook the PP campaign as EUPV leaked recordings allegedly belonging to public entity Imelsa former director, Marcos Benavent. Such recordings involved senior party officials, such as Xàtiva Mayor and President of the Valencia Deputation Alfonso Rus, in an alleged illegal financing network of the Valencian PP. The PP denounced Rus and expelled him from the party just 20 days ahead of the election, but he refused to withdraw as candidate and continued campaigning as an independent; the PP being unable to contest the local election in Xàtiva in a separate list.
Opinion polls