A regional election was held in the Community of Madrid on 4 May 2021 to elect the 12th Assembly of the autonomous community. All 136 seats in the Assembly were up for election. This marked the first time that a regional premier in Madrid made use of the presidential prerogative to call an early election.
On 10 March 2021 after the unexpected announcement by the Spanish Socialist Workers' Party (PSOE) and Citizens (Cs) of moves to bring down People's Party-led governments in the Region of Murcia, Madrilenian president Isabel Díaz Ayuso broke her alliance with Cs and called a snap election in the Community of Madrid for 4 May, a move which she had unsuccessfully attempted twice in 2020. Despite both the PSOE and Más Madrid preventively filing motions of no confidence in an attempt to thwart Ayuso's move, the next day the Assembly's bureau provisionally acknowledged the parliamentary dissolution, though it announced a complaint against Ayuso's election call. Subsequently, the second deputy prime minister of Spain and Unidas Podemos national leader, Pablo Iglesias, announced he would be stepping down from his national cabinet posts in order to run as his alliance's leading candidate in the regional election.
The election resulted in a landslide victory for Ayuso's PP, which fell four seats short of an overall majority and secured more votes and seats than all three main leftist parties combined, in what was the best performance since 2011. The vote share of both the PSOE and Cs collapsed, with the former being surpassed by Más Madrid and the latter failing to win any seats. In the election aftermath, Iglesias announced his farewell from Spanish politics and his resignation from all of his political and institutional posts. The strong result for the PP, fueled by Ayuso's controversial personality and charisma as well as a general feeling of exhaustion in the region in response to restrictions enforced to curb the COVID-19 pandemic by the Spanish government of Pedro Sánchez, meant that it was not dependent on the far-right Vox's explicit support to form a government, though it still required its confidence-and-supply to pass laws. The election marked the best result ever in number of votes for both the PP and Más Madrid, as well as the highest turnout in a regional election to date.
Overview Under the 1983 Statute of Autonomy, the Assembly of Madrid 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 Assembly of Madrid expired four years after the date of its previous ordinary 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 Gazette of the Community of Madrid (BOCM).; . The previous election was held on 26 May 2019, setting the date for election day on the fourth Sunday of May four years later, which was 28 May 2023.
The regional president had the prerogative to dissolve the Assembly of Madrid at any given time and call a snap election, provided that no motion of no confidence was in process, no nationwide election had been called and that dissolution did not occur either during the first legislative session or during the last year of parliament before its planned expiration, nor before one year after a previous one.; . In the event of an investiture process failing to elect a regional president within a two-month period from the first ballot, the Assembly was to be automatically dissolved and a fresh election called, which was to be held on the first Sunday 54 days after the call.; . Any snap election held as a result of these circumstances did not alter the date of the chamber's next ordinary election, with elected lawmakers serving the remainder of its original four-year term.; .
Throughout 2020, as a result of both the growing divisions between the two governing coalition partners and the perceived likelihood of a motion of no confidence being tabled by the opposition over Díaz Ayuso's perceived mismanagement of the COVID-19 pandemic in the Community of Madrid, Ayuso considered calling a snap election in the region. A first attempt was reportedly aborted by her party's national leadership in June 2020, but in September, it was reported that Ayuso intended for a regional election in Madrid to be held concurrently with the announced Catalan regional election by Catalan president Quim Torra, tentatively scheduled for some point in late 2020 or early 2021. Ayuso herself seemed to cast off such rumours through her Twitter account.
On 10 March 2021, both the Spanish Socialist Workers' Party (PSOE) and Citizens (Cs) announced an agreement under which they would jointly bring down the People's Party (PP) governments in the city and the region of Murcia, where both PP and Cs had been in government since the 2019 local and regional elections. This prompted President Ayuso to immediately end her alliance with Cs and call a snap regional election for 4 May 2021, wary of the Cs branch in Madrid being intent on bringing her down in a similar fashion. The PSOE and Más Madrid tried to prevent the election call by filling one no-confidence motion each. Because the election decree does not enter into force until the moment of its publication, the issue was raised on which decision should be legally considered to have occurred first, since an election cannot be called while the process of a motion of no confidence is underway. Upon the publication of the dissolution decree the next day, the Assembly's bureau provisionally acknowledged the election call but announced it would study filling a complaint against it.
The Assembly of Madrid was officially dissolved on 11 March 2021 with the publication of the corresponding decree in the BOCM, setting election day for 4 May and scheduling for the chamber to reconvene on 8 June..
Electoral system Voting for the Assembly was based on universal suffrage, comprising all Spanish nationals over 18 years of age, registered in the Community of Madrid and with full political rights, provided that they had not been deprived of the right to vote by a final sentence.; ( by ). Additionally, non-resident citizens were required to apply for voting, a system known as "begged" voting ()..
The Assembly of Madrid had one seat per 50,000 inhabitants or fraction above 25,000. All were elected in a single multi-member constituency—corresponding to the autonomous community's territory—using the D'Hondt method and closed-list proportional voting, with a five percent-threshold of valid votes (including blank ballots) regionally.; . As a result of the aforementioned allocation, the Assembly was entitled to 136 seats, based on the official population figures resulting from the latest revision of the municipal register (as of 1 January 2020)..
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 2021 Groups Parties Legislators Seats Total Socialist Parliamentary Group PSOE 37 37 People's Parliamentary Group PP 30 30 Citizens's Parliamentary Group Cs 26 26 More Madrid Parliamentary Group Más Madrid 18 20 Equo 2 Vox Parliamentary Group in Madrid Vox 12 12 United We Can–United Left–Stand Up Madrid Parliamentary Group Podemos 5 7 IU–M 2
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 0.5 percent of the electorate in the Community of Madrid, 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 PSOE Ángel Gabilondo Social democracy 27.3% PP Isabel Díaz Ayuso ConservatismChristian democracy 22.2% Cs Edmundo Bal Liberalism 19.5% Más Madrid Mónica García ProgressivismParticipatory democracyGreen politics 14.7% Vox Rocío Monasterio Right-wing populismUltranationalismNational conservatism 8.9% Podemos–IU Pablo Iglesias Left-wing populismDirect democracyDemocratic socialism 5.6%
Campaign Timetable The key dates are listed below (all times are CET):
10 March: The election decree is issued with the countersign of the president, after deliberation in the Council of Government. 11 March: Formal dissolution of parliament and start of prohibition period on the inauguration of public works, services or projects. 14 March: Initial constitution of provincial and zone electoral commissions with judicial members. 17 March: Division of constituencies into polling sections and stations. 21 March: Deadline for parties and federations to report on their electoral alliances. 24 March: Deadline for electoral register consultation for the purpose of possible corrections. 31 March: Deadline for parties, federations, alliances, and groupings of electors to present electoral lists. 2 April: Publication of submitted electoral lists in the Official Gazette of the Community of Madrid (BOCM). 5 April: Deadline for non-resident citizens (electors residing abroad (CERA) and citizens temporarily absent from Spain) to apply for voting. 7 April: Official proclamation of validly submitted electoral lists. 8 April: Publication of proclaimed electoral lists in the BOCM. 9 April: Deadline for the selection of polling station members by sortition. 17 April: Deadline for the appointment of non-judicial members to provincial and zone electoral commissions. 18 April: Official start of electoral campaigning.. 22 April: Deadline to apply for postal voting . 27 April: Start of legal ban on electoral opinion polling publication; deadline for CERA citizens to vote by mail. 30 April: Deadline for postal and temporarily absent voting . 2 May: Last day of electoral campaigning; deadline for CERA voting. 3 May: Official election silence ("reflection day"). 4 May: Election day (polling stations open at 9 am and close at 8 pm or once voters present in a queue at/outside the polling station at 8 pm have cast their vote); provisional vote counting. 7 May: Start of general vote counting, including CERA votes. 10 May: Deadline for the general vote counting. 19 May: Deadline for the proclamation of elected members. 13 June: Deadline for the reconvening of parliament (date determined by the election decree, which for the 2021 election was set for 8 June).; ; . 28 June: Deadline for the publication of definitive election results in the BOCM.
Party slogans Party or alliance Original slogan English translation PSOE « Hazlo por Madrid »« No es solo Madrid. Es la democracia » "Do it for Madrid""It is not just Madrid. It is democracy" PP « Libertad » "Freedom" Cs « Elige centro » "Choose centre" Más Madrid « Por lo que de verdad importa » "For what really matters" Vox « Protege Madrid » "Protect Madrid" Podemos–IU « Que hable la mayoría » "Let the majority speak"
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