A municipal election was held in Barcelona on 28 May 2023 to elect the 12th City Council of the municipality. All 41 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.

Incumbent mayor Ada Colau's party, Barcelona in Common (BComú), fell to third place behind Xavier Trias-led Together for Catalonia (JxCat) alliance and the Socialists' Party of Catalonia (PSC), which scored its best result since 2011. PSC's Jaume Collboni was able to become the new city's mayor following an alliance with BComú and the surprise support of the People's Party (PP), which aimed at preventing the city's government from falling into the hands of pro-Catalan independence parties.

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 Barcelona, the top-tier administrative and governing body was the City Council of Barcelona..

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 26 May 2019, setting the date for election day on the fourth Sunday of May four years later, which was 28 May 2023.

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 4 April 2023 with the publication of the corresponding decree in the BOE, setting election day for 28 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 2023 Groups Parties Councillors Seats Total Republican Municipal Group ERC 9 10 Nova 1 Barcelona in Common's Municipal Group BComú 10 10 Socialist Municipal Group PSC 7 8 Els Units 1 Together for Catalonia's Municipal Group JxCat 5 5 Citizens's Municipal Group CS 3 3 People's Party's Municipal Group PP 2 2 Brave's Municipal Group Valents 2 2 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 Barcelona, as its population was over 1,000,001, at least 8,000 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 ERC–AM Ernest Maragall Catalan independenceLeft-wing nationalismSocial democracy 21.4% BComú–C Ada Colau Left-wing populismParticipatory democracy 20.7% PSC–CP Jaume Collboni Social democracy 18.4% CS Anna Grau Liberalism 13.2% Valents Eva Parera Liberalism TxBCN–CM Xavier Trias Catalan independenceLiberalismChristian democracy 10.5% PP Daniel Sirera ConservatismChristian democracy 5.0% CUP Basha Changue Catalan independenceSocialism 3.9% Vox Gonzalo de Oro Right-wing populismUltranationalismNational conservatism 1.2%

Campaign Party slogans Party or alliance Original slogan English translation ERC–AM « L’alcalde de tothom » "Everyone's mayor" BComú–C « Barcelona obre camí » "Barcelona paves the way" PSC–CP « De nou Barcelona » "Barcelona again" CS « Libérate » "Break free" Valents « Barcelona grande otra vez » "Barcelona great again" TxBCN–CM « Fem-ho » "Let's do it" PP « Recupera Barcelona » "Recover Barcelona"

Debates + 2023 Barcelona municipal election debates Date Organizer(s) Moderator(s) ERC BComú PSC CS Valents TxBCN PP Audience 10 May RTVE Gemma NiergaQuim Barnola 3.6% 23 May CCMA Laura RoselAriadna Oltra 12.1%

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.

Graphical summary

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; 21 seats were required for an absolute majority in the City Council of Barcelona.