A municipal election was held in Valencia on 26 May 2019 to elect the 11th City Council of the municipality. All 33 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.
The election saw the Coalició Compromís of incumbent mayor Joan Ribó score its first electoral win in the city in history, with the opposition People's Party (PP) under former regional minister María José Catalá scoring its worst result since 1987. This was also the first election since 1987 without the presence of Rita Barberá, the former PP mayor between 1991 and 2015 who had died in November 2016. The Socialist Party of the Valencian Country (PSPV–PSOE) recovered somewhat and clung into third place with 19.3% and 7 councillors. The election also resulted in a stagnation for the liberal Citizens (Cs), the entry of the far-right Vox party for the first time and the Unidas Podemos alliance—comprising both Podemos and United Left of the Valencian Country (EUPV)—not reaching the minimum five percent threshold to be entitled to seat allocation.
With the left-from-centre parties—Compromís and PSOE—securing an overall majority of seats against the combined PP–Cs–Vox bloc, Ribó was able to be re-elected for a second term in office as city mayor.
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 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.
+ Council composition in April 2019 Groups Parties Councillors Seats Total People's Municipal Group PP 10 10 Commitment to Valencia Municipal Group Compromís 9 9 Citizens Municipal Group Cs 5 5 Socialist Municipal Group PSPV–PSOE 5 5 Valencia in Common Municipal Group Podemos 3 3 Non-Inscrits INDEP 1 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 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 María José Catalá ConservatismChristian democracy 25.8% Compromís Joan Ribó ValencianismProgressivismGreen politics 23.3% Cs Fernando Giner Liberalism 15.4% PSPV–PSOE Sandra Gómez Social democracy 14.0% Podem–EUPV María Oliver Left-wing populismDirect democracyDemocratic socialism 14.5% Vox José Gosálbez Right-wing populismUltranationalismNational conservatism 0.8%
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; 17 seats were required for an absolute majority in the City Council of Valencia.
Polling firm/Commissioner Fieldwork date Sample size Turnout EUPV Lead 2019 municipal election 26 May 2019 66.3 21.8 27.4 17.6 19.3 0.8 7.3 0.4 4.2 5.6 SyM Consulting/EPDA 24–26 May 2019 781? 19.9 21.7 15.5 20.1 – 7.5 – 5.5 1.6 ElectoPanel/Electomanía 22–23 May 2019?? 19.5 23.8 18.0 22.1 – 7.7 1.1 7.0 1.7 ElectoPanel/Electomanía 21–22 May 2019?? 19.8 23.9 17.8 22.0 – 7.4 1.1 7.1 1.9 ElectoPanel/Electomanía 20–21 May 2019?? 19.7 23.5 17.8 22.2 – 7.5 1.0 7.3 1.3 ElectoPanel/Electomanía 19–20 May 2019?? 19.7 23.4 18.2 22.4 – 7.2 1.1 7.2 1.0 GIPEyOP 7–20 May 2019 545? 15.4 25.2 24.8 18.3 0.3 8.5 – 6.8 0.4 KeyData/Público 19 May 2019? 69.4 18.3 22.7 19.4 20.0 0.7 7.7 – 6.3 2.7 ElectoPanel/Electomanía 16–19 May 2019?? 19.9 23.3 17.7 22.6 – 6.8 1.3 7.4 0.7 IMOP/El Confidencial 13–16 May 2019 800 73 18.3 25.5 18.1 18.2 – 9.2 – 6.9 7.2 ElectoPanel/Electomanía 13–16 May 2019?? 19.5 23.1 18.4 22.3 – 7.3 1.5 7.0 0.8 Sigma Dos/El Mundo 13–16 May 2019 400? 20.4 24.4 16.8 23.1 – 5.0 – 6.1 1.3 ElectoPanel/Electomanía 10–13 May 2019?? 19.3 22.0 19.2 21.1 – 8.8 1.8 6.5 0.9 SyM Consulting/EPDA 10–12 May 2019 808? 14.7 23.6 16.5 24.6 – 5.7 – 5.3 1.0 ElectoPanel/Electomanía 7–10 May 2019?? 19.7 21.3 19.9 20.3 – 9.4 1.7 7.0 1.0 Sigma Dos/Las Provincias 6–9 May 2019 500? 20.5 23.6 15.3 22.9 – 6.5 – 8.2 0.7 Invest Group/Prensa Ibérica 2–9 May 2019 700? 18.1 23.9 15.5 26.7 – 5.3 – 8.3 2.8 40 dB/El País 3–8 May 2019 804? 17.1 26.3 18.1 18.6 – 5.5 – 9.9 7.7 ElectoPanel/Electomanía 4–7 May 2019?? 18.5 20.9 20.4 20.5 – 9.7 1.8 6.8 0.4 SyM Consulting/Valencia Plaza 3–5 May 2019 714? 20.1 22.9 15.8 23.2 – 5.1 – 9.7 0.3 ElectoPanel/Electomanía 29 Apr–4 May 2019?? 18.3 20.3 20.8 20.7 – 9.5 1.9 6.9 0.1 2019 regional election 28 Apr 2019 77.9 18.4 20.9 18.9 19.7 1.4 10.7 0.5 6.9 1.2 April 2019 general election 28 Apr 2019 78.2 18.5 7.8 18.8 25.1 1.5 12.1 0.3 14.6 6.3 CIS 21 Mar–23 Apr 2019 479? 17.2 26.5 13.6 19.5 2.1 7.7 – 10.9 7.0 ElectoPanel/Electomanía 31 Mar–7 Apr 2019?? 21.9 21.7 12.2 20.8 – 12.0 2.8 6.9 0.2 ElectoPanel/Electomanía 24–31 Mar 2019?? 21.6 21.6 12.7 20.7 – 11.9 2.8 6.9 Tie ElectoPanel/Electomanía 17–24 Mar 2019?? 21.7 22.0 12.3 21.6 – 11.3 3.0 6.7 0.3 ElectoPanel/Electomanía 10–17 Mar 2019?? 22.0 21.5 11.7 20.8 – 13.0 2.7 6.9 0.5 ElectoPanel/Electomanía 3–10 Mar 2019?? 21.9 21.6 12.2 20.2 – 13.0 2.9 7.0 0.3 ElectoPanel/Electomanía 22 Feb–3 Mar 2019?? 22.3 22.0 14.4 20.1 – 9.1 3.1 7.0 0.3 SyM Consulting/EPDA 14–15 Feb 2019 624? 21.5 23.0 10.7 15.7 1.3 14.1 2.3 7.1 1.5 SyM Consulting/Valencia Plaza 15–17 Jan 2019 624? 26.1 20.7 12.3 21.7 – 9.3 – 5.6 4.4 GfK/Compromís 17–20 Dec 2018 908? 16.2 27.6 21.4 17.0 – 6.9 – 8.2 6.2 SyM Consulting/EPDA 15–17 Dec 2018 600 68.0 22.3 14.1 20.6 16.6 5.7 5.0 1.7 8.2 2.5 – 1.7 SyM Consulting/EPDA 21–23 Oct 2018 716? 20.1 15.9 11.7 22.6 10.9 3.6 3.4 4.2 3.4 – 2.5 Sonmerca/City Council 11 Apr–4 May 2018 2,307? 17.0 23.0 20.1 17.2 14.1 4.6 – – – – 2.9 Sigma Dos/Las Provincias 24–26 Apr 2018 500? 21.2 24.6 22.7 16.8 7.5 – – – – – 1.9 SyM Consulting/Valencia Plaza 8–11 Feb 2018 560 66.9 23.7 24.4 21.7 15.4 7.3 3.7 – – – – 0.7 Sigma Dos/Las Provincias 3–5 May 2017 500? 30.3 24.8 11.7 18.6 8.8 – – – – – 5.5 2016 general election 26 Jun 2016 76.5 36.1 15.4 17.4 1.4 0.3 0.5 27.1 9.0 2015 general election 20 Dec 2015 78.7 32.2 16.5 15.5 4.7 1.1 0.4 0.5 26.8 5.4 2015 municipal election 24 May 2015 72.1 25.8 23.3 15.4 14.0 9.8 4.7 1.1 0.8 0.7 – 2.6
Voting preferences The table below lists raw, unweighted voting preferences.
Polling firm/Commissioner Fieldwork date Sample size EUPV Lead 2019 municipal election 26 May 2019 14.4 18.1 11.6 12.8 4.8 2.8 33.7 3.7 Invest Group/Prensa Ibérica 2–9 May 2019 700 11.7 18.4 11.3 19.9 4.3 6.8 21.3 – 1.5 April 2019 general election 28 Apr 2019 14.4 6.0 14.6 19.5 9.4 11.3 21.8 4.9 CIS 21 Mar–23 Apr 2019 479 11.1 24.0 8.8 13.6 3.3 5.0 28.6 3.3 10.4 Sonmerca/City Council 11 Apr–4 May 2018 2,307 8.9 12.0 10.5 9.0 7.4 2.4 – – 34.9 10.8 1.5 Sonmerca/City Council 22 Feb–8 Mar 2017 2,211 15.6 15.7 5.3 9.0 10.6 1.8 – – 29.3 9.0 0.1 2016 general election 26 Jun 2016 27.5 11.7 13.3 0.3 20.6 23.5 6.9 2015 general election 20 Dec 2015 25.2 12.9 12.1 3.7 0.3 21.0 21.3 4.2 2015 municipal election 24 May 2015 18.4 16.7 11.0 10.0 7.0 3.4 0.6 – 27.9 1.7
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.
Polling firm/Commissioner Fieldwork date Sample size Other/None Lead Invest Group/Prensa Ibérica 2–9 May 2019 700 7.1 22.0 44.6 26.3 22.6
Preferred Mayor The table below lists opinion polling on leader preferences to become mayor of Valencia.