A municipal election was held in Zaragoza on 28 May 2023 to elect the 12th City Council of the municipality. All 31 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.

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

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..

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 Zaragoza, 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 PSOE Lola Ranera Social democracy 28.0% PP Natalia Chueca ConservatismChristian democracy 22.0% CS–Tú Aragón Daniel Pérez Calvo Liberalism 18.3% ZGZ/ZeC Elena Tomás LocalismLeft-wing populismParticipatory democracy 10.1% Podemos–AV Fernando Rivarés Left-wing populismDirect democracyDemocratic socialism 6.2% Vox Julio Calvo Right-wing populismUltranationalismNational conservatism 6.2%

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; 16 seats were required for an absolute majority in the City Council of Zaragoza.

Polling firm/Commissioner Fieldwork date Sample size Turnout Lead 2023 municipal election 28 May 2023 66.6 26.4 37.9 1.7 5.8 4.5 12.4 4.7 0.9 – 11.5 GAD3/RTVE–FORTA 12–27 May 2023 1,100? 28.0 37.0 3.0 5.0 5.0 11.0 4.0 2.0 – 9.0 40dB/Prisa 12–17 May 2023 800? 26.7 37.5 3.2 8.0 5.3 8.5 5.7 – – 10.8 CIS 10–26 Apr 2023 1,088? 26.9 36.4 3.6 8.6 5.6 8.6 5.6 1.0 – 9.5 A+M/Heraldo de Aragón 14–18 Apr 2023 800 66.2 30.7 39.5 2.3 9.3 5.8 4.8 5.4 1.2 – 8.8 Sigma Dos/El Mundo 14–17 Nov 2022 500? 29.0 39.0 3.8 9.3 4.6 6.9 5.7 – – 10.0 SocioMétrica/El Español 3–7 Oct 2022 600? 26.2 36.9 3.6 8.1 4.5 11.6 4.2 1.6 – 10.7 A+M/Heraldo de Aragón 27 Sep–6 Oct 2022 900 68.8 26.0 39.6 3.7 6.0 6.6 7.4 6.4 1.3 – 13.6 A+M/Heraldo de Aragón 4–18 Apr 2022 800 68.6 21.7 42.9 6.3 6.6 5.3 7.3 6.4 1.9 – 21.2 EM-Analytics/Electomanía 13 May–6 Aug 2021 405? 24.5 35.7 5.0 7.7 5.1 8.9 6.8 1.6 – 11.2 A+M/Heraldo de Aragón 15–16 Apr 2021 800 66.2 28.7 36.9 5.2 5.9 4.6 7.6 6.9 1.4 – 8.2 November 2019 general election 10 Nov 2019 72.5 30.0 23.2 9.6 17.3 4.9 – 12.0 6.8 2019 municipal election 26 May 2019 65.8 28.0 22.0 18.3 10.1 6.2 6.2 4.6 1.7 – 6.0

Voting preferences The table below lists raw, unweighted voting preferences.

Polling firm/Commissioner Fieldwork date Sample size Lead 2023 municipal election 28 May 2023 17.4 25.0 1.1 3.8 3.0 8.2 3.1 0.6 – 33.4 7.6 40dB/Prisa 12–17 May 2023 800 15.6 22.3 3.0 5.4 4.0 8.2 4.2 0.4 – 23.4 6.8 6.7 CIS 10–26 Apr 2023 1,088 18.8 25.9 1.4 6.1 3.7 6.8 2.6 0.4 – 26.9 3.4 7.1 Fundación DFA/City Council 16 Feb–22 Mar 2023 2,025 10.3 18.4 1.1 1.4 1.9 4.9 0.5 0.3 – 47.9 8.8 8.1 Fundación DFA/City Council 24 Oct–29 Nov 2022 2,030 12.5 18.1 0.9 1.6 2.8 6.3 0.9 0.0 – 40.9 10.0 5.6 Fundación DFA/City Council 6 Apr–16 May 2022 2,025 13.3 19.7 1.4 2.3 2.7 6.4 1.3 0.2 – 35.1 10.4 6.4 Fundación DFA/City Council 27 Oct–29 Nov 2021 2,025 12.1 18.4 1.5 2.6 2.9 5.8 1.0 0.1 – 38.0 9.2 6.3 Fundación DFA/City Council 10 May–11 Jun 2021 2,025 12.9 21.1 3.1 3.6 2.4 5.2 0.6 0.3 – 31.5 10.4 8.2 Fundación DFA/City Council 9 Nov–2 Dec 2020 2,025 14.3 15.4 4.0 3.1 2.4 4.7 0.4 0.3 – 35.0 10.7 1.1 Fundación DFA/City Council 25 May–2 Jul 2020 2,038 16.8 17.7 3.7 3.7 4.2 3.9 1.0 0.2 – 28.8 13.8 0.9 November 2019 general election 10 Nov 2019 21.6 16.7 6.9 12.5 3.5 – 8.7 28.7 4.9 2019 municipal election 26 May 2019 18.1 14.2 11.8 6.5 4.0 4.0 3.1 1.1 – 34.2 3.9

Results + ← Summary of the 28 May 2023 City Council of Zaragoza election results → Parties and alliances Popular vote Seats Votes % ±pp Total +/− People's Party (PP) 125,751 37.88 +15.84 15 +7 Spanish Socialist Workers' Party (PSOE) 87,790 26.45 −1.55 10 ±0 Vox (Vox) 41,061 12.37 +6.20 4 +2 Zaragoza in Common: United Left–Let's Win Zaragoza (ZGZ/ZeC) 19,381 5.84 −4.24 2 −1 Aragonese Union (CHA) 15,757 4.75 +0.13 0 ±0 We Can–Green Alliance (Podemos–AV) 14,908 4.49 −1.71 0 −2 Aragon Exists–Exists Coalition (Existe) 8,081 2.43 New 0 ±0 Citizens–You Aragon (CS–Tú Aragón) 5,530 1.67 −16.60 0 −6 Aragonese Party (PAR) 2,902 0.87 −0.82 0 ±0 Zaragoza Now (Zaragoza Ya) 2,104 0.63 New 0 ±0 Blank Seats to Leave Empty Seats (EB) 1,641 0.49 +0.26 0 ±0 Communist Party of the Workers of Spain (PCTE) 699 0.21 +0.14 0 ±0 For a Fairer World (PUM+J) 601 0.18 New 0 ±0 Federation of Independents of Aragon (FIA) 370 0.11 +0.05 0 ±0 We Propose for Minorities (Proponemos XM) 188 0.06 New 0 ±0 Blank ballots 5,202 1.57 +0.93 Total 331,966 31 ±0 Valid votes 331,966 98.99 −0.61 Invalid votes 3,384 1.01 +0.61 Votes cast / turnout 335,350 66.57 +0.76 Abstentions 168,393 33.43 −0.76 Registered voters 503,743 Sources

Aftermath Government formation Investiture Ballot → 17 June 2023 Required majority → 16 out of 31 Abstentions/Blank ballots Absentees Sources

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References Opinion poll sources

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