2027 Barcelona municipal election

2027 Barcelona municipal election

← 2023
23 May 2027

All 43[a] seats in the City Council of Barcelona
22 seats needed for a majority
Opinion polls
 
Leader Jordi Martí Jaume Collboni Gerardo Pisarello
Party Junts PSC–CP BComú–C
Leader since 6 September 2024 5 May 2014 20 February 2026
Last election 11 seats, 22.5% 10 seats, 19.8% 9 seats, 19.8%
Current seats 11 10 9
Seats needed Increase 10 Increase 11 Increase 12

 
Leader Elisenda Alamany Daniel Sirera Gonzalo de Oro
Party ERC–AM PP Vox
Leader since 22 December 2023 9 January 2023 5 January 2023
Last election 5 seats, 11.2% 4 seats, 9.2% 2 seats, 5.7%
Current seats 5 4 2
Seats needed Increase 16 Increase 17 Increase 19

Incumbent Mayor

Jaume Collboni
PSC



A municipal election will be held in Barcelona on Sunday, 23 May 2027, to elect the 13th City Council of the municipality of Barcelona. All 43[a] seats in the City Council will be up for election. It will be held concurrently with regional elections in at least six 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—is centered on the figure of city councils (Spanish: ayuntamientos), local corporations with independent legal personality composed of a mayor, a government council and an elected legislative assembly.[2][3] In the case of Barcelona, the top-tier administrative and governing body is the City Council of Barcelona.[4]

Electoral system

Voting for local assemblies is on the basis of universal suffrage, which comprises all nationals over 18 years of age, registered and residing in the municipality of Barcelona and in full enjoyment of their political rights (provided that they are not sentenced—by a final court ruling—to deprivation of the right to vote), as well as resident non-national European citizens and those whose country of origin allow Spanish nationals to vote in their own elections by virtue of a treaty.[3][5][6]

Local councillors are elected using the D'Hondt method and a closed list proportional voting system, with an electoral threshold of five percent of valid votes (which includes blank ballots) being applied in each municipality.[7] Each municipality constitutes a multi-member constituency, entitled a number of seats based on the following scale:[8]

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 does not provide for by-elections to fill vacated seats; instead, any vacancies that occur after the proclamation of candidates and into the legislative term are to be covered by the successive candidates in the list and, when required, by the designated substitutes.[9]

The mayor is indirectly elected by the local assembly.[3] A legal clause requires candidates to earn the vote of an absolute majority of councillors, or else the candidate of the most-voted party is to be automatically appointed to the post. In the event of a tie, the appointee is to be determined by lot.[10]

Election date

The term of city councils in Spain expires four years after the date of their previous election, with election day being fixed for the fourth Sunday of May every four years (as of 2026, this has been the year before a leap year). The election decree shall be issued no later than the fifty-fifth day prior to the scheduled election date and published on the following day in the Official State Gazette (BOE).[11] The previous local elections were held on 28 May 2023, setting the date for election day on the fourth Sunday of May four years later, which is 23 May 2027.

Local councils can not be dissolved before the expiry of their term, except in cases of mismanagement that seriously harm the public interest and imply a breach of constitutional obligations, in which case the Council of Ministers can—optionally—agree to call a by-election.[12]

Current council

The table below shows the composition of the political groups in the local assembly at the present time.[13]

Current Council composition
Groups Parties Councillors
Seats Total
Together for Catalonia's Municipal Group JxCat 11 11
Socialist Municipal Group PSC 10 10
Barcelona in Common's Municipal Group BComú 9 9
Republican Municipal Group ERC 5 5
People's Party's Municipal Group PP 4 4
Vox's Municipal Group Vox 2 2

Parties and candidates

The electoral law allows 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 ahead of an election are required to inform the relevant electoral commission within ten days of the election call, whereas groupings of electors need to secure the signature of a determined amount of the electors registered in the municipality for which they seek election, disallowing electors from signing for more than one list of candidates. In the case of Barcelona, as its population is over 1,000,001, at least 8,000 signatures are required.[14] Amendments to the electoral law in 2024 increased requirements for a balanced composition of men and women in the electoral lists through the use of a zipper system.[15]

Below is a list of the main parties and electoral alliances which will likely contest the election:

Candidacy Parties and
alliances
Leading candidate Ideology Previous result Gov. Ref.
Vote % Seats
Junts Jordi Martí Catalan independence
Sovereigntism
Populism
22.5% 11 No [16]
[17]
PSC–CP
List
Jaume Collboni Social democracy 19.8% 10 Yes
BComú–C
List
Gerardo Pisarello Left-wing populism
Participatory democracy
19.8% 9 No [18]
[19]
ERC–AM Elisenda Alamany Catalan independence
Left-wing nationalism
Social democracy
11.2% 5 No [20]
PP
List
Daniel Sirera Conservatism
Christian democracy
9.2% 4 No
Vox
List
Gonzalo de Oro Right-wing populism
Ultranationalism
National conservatism
5.7% 2 No

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

Polling firm/Commissioner Fieldwork date Sample size Turnout JxCat PSC BComú ERC PP Vox CUP Podem Aliança.cat SALF Lead
Celeste-Tel/ERC[p 1][p 2] 17–25 Nov 2025 803 59.0 11.6
6
20.5
10
15.1
7
16.5
8
9.5
4
6.1
3
4.8
0
10.0
5
4.0
GESOP/El Periódico[p 3] 15–19 Sep 2025 801 ? 14.8
7
23.5
11/12
14.2
6/7
13.0
6
8.2
3/4
7.0
3
5.0
0/2
5.4
2
8.7
GESOP/El Periódico[p 4] 13–18 Sep 2024 800 ? 18.4
8/9
23.1
11/12
17.0
8
11.2
5
9.5
4
5.8
2/3
5.0
0/1
4.7
EM-Analytics/Electomanía[p 5] 28 Aug–15 Sep 2024 1,002 ? 18.9
9
23.5
12
17.1
8
10.2
5
11.3
5
5.5
2
3.6
0
4.5
0
4.6
2024 EP election 9 Jun 2024 N/a 49.6 15.9
(7)
29.9
(15)
6.2
(3)
13.8
(6)
15.8
(7)
5.0
(0)
6.7
(3)
2.0
(0)
14.0
EM-Analytics/Electomanía[p 6] 1 Apr–15 May 2024 1,280 ? 20.7
9
21.9
10
17.3
8
10.4
5
11.1
5
5.9
2
3.4
0
5.2
2
1.2
2024 regional election 12 May 2024 N/a 61.3 19.6
(9)
27.9
(13)
8.9
(4)
12.9
(6)
13.8
(6)
6.2
(3)
4.7
(0)
2.1
(0)
8.3
2023 general election 23 Jul 2023 N/a 67.4 10.4
(4)
33.2
(15)
16.9
(8)
12.2
(5)
15.9
(7)
5.8
(2)
2.7
(0)
[b] 16.3
2023 municipal election 28 May 2023 N/a 60.6 22.5
11
19.8
10
19.8
9
11.2
5
9.2
4
5.7
2
3.8
0
2.7

Voting preferences

The table below lists raw, unweighted voting preferences.

Preferred Mayor

The table below lists opinion polling on leader preferences to become mayor of Barcelona.

Notes

  1. ^ a b Seat total has been manually calculated by applying the electoral rules set out in the law, on the basis of the latest official population figures provided by the Spanish government as of 2026. As such, it should be deemed as a provisional, non-binding estimation. The definitive allocation will be determined by the election decree at the time of the parliament's dissolution.[1] The City Council size was set at 41 seats for the previous election.
  2. ^ a b Within Sumar.

References

Opinion poll sources

  1. ^ "El PSC guanyaria les eleccions a Barcelona amb ERC a l'alça". Nació Digital (in Catalan). 28 January 2026.
  2. ^ "[M] BARCELONA. Encuesta Celeste-Tel (interna ERC) 28/01/2026: PSC-CP 20,5% (10), ERC-AM 16,5% (8), BCOMÚ-C 15,1% (7), JUNTS 11,6% (6), ALIANÇA.CAT 10,0% (5), PP 9,5% (4), VOX 6,1% (3), CUP-AMUNT 4,8%". Electográfica (in Spanish). 28 January 2026.
  3. ^ a b "Encuesta elecciones Barcelona: El PSC se consolida frente a una oposición desdibujada". El Periódico (in Spanish). 24 September 2025.
  4. ^ a b "Encuesta elecciones Barcelona: El PSC se afianza en cabeza y Junts y los Comuns retroceden". El Periódico (in Spanish). 23 September 2024. Archived from the original on 23 September 2024.
  5. ^ "ElectoPanel Barcelona (30S): Collboni mejora sus datos". Electomanía (in Spanish). 30 September 2024.
  6. ^ "Encuesta elecciones Barcelona: El PSC se afianza en cabeza y Junts y los Comuns retroceden". Electomanía (in Spanish). 16 May 2024. Retrieved 16 May 2024.
  7. ^ "Baròmetre de Barcelona. Segona onada 2025". City Council of Barcelona (in Spanish). 30 December 2025.
  8. ^ "Baròmetre de Barcelona. Primera onada 2025". City Council of Barcelona (in Spanish). 30 June 2025.
  9. ^ a b "Tendencias y demandas municipales y autonómicas. Municipio de Barcelona (Estudio nº 3503. Marzo 2025)". CIS (in Spanish). 1 July 2025.
  10. ^ "Baròmetre de Barcelona. Segona onada 2024". City Council of Barcelona (in Spanish). 30 December 2024.
  11. ^ "Baròmetre de Barcelona. Primera onada 2024". City Council of Barcelona (in Spanish). 23 July 2024.
  12. ^ "Baròmetre de Barcelona. Segona onada 2023". City Council of Barcelona (in Spanish). 20 December 2023.
  13. ^ "Baròmetre Post-electoral de Barcelona. Juny 2023". City Council of Barcelona (in Spanish). 23 July 2023.

Other

  1. ^ Real Decreto 1117/2025, de 3 de diciembre, por el que se declaran oficiales las cifras de población resultantes de la revisión del Padrón municipal referidas al 1 de enero de 2025 (Royal Decree 1117/2025). Official State Gazette (in Spanish). 3 December 2025. Retrieved 12 December 2025.
  2. ^ Constitution (1978), art. 140.
  3. ^ a b c LBRL (1985), art. 19.
  4. ^ LBRL (1985), arts. 121–132.
  5. ^ Constitution (1978), art. 13.
  6. ^ LOREG (1985), arts. 2–3 & 176.
  7. ^ LOREG (1985), arts. 163 & 180.
  8. ^ LOREG (1985), art. 179.
  9. ^ LOREG (1985), arts. 46, 48 & 182.
  10. ^ LOREG (1985), art. 196.
  11. ^ LOREG (1985), arts. 42 & 194.
  12. ^ LBRL (1985), art. 61.
  13. ^ Lozano, Carles. "Eleccions municipals a Barcelona (des de 1979)". Historia Electoral.com (in Catalan). Retrieved 4 November 2025.
  14. ^ LOREG (1985), arts. 44 & 187.
  15. ^ LOREG (1985), art. 44 bis.
  16. ^ López Congostrina, Alfonso (26 July 2024). "Xavier Trias abandona la política: "Hoy no diré que 'us bombin'. Hoy os daré las gracias"". El País (in Spanish). Barcelona. Archived from the original on 28 July 2024. Retrieved 29 July 2024.
  17. ^ Martín, Jordi (1 September 2024). "Martí Galbis ya preside el grupo municipal de Junts en Barcelona después de la marcha de Trias". El Nacional.cat (in Spanish). Barcelona. Archived from the original on 9 September 2024. Retrieved 13 October 2024.
  18. ^ Llimós, Albert (8 September 2024). "Ada Colau confirma que deja el Ayuntamiento de Barcelona, pero abre la puerta a volver a presentarse en el 2027". Ara (in Spanish). Barcelona. Archived from the original on 8 September 2024. Retrieved 8 September 2024.
  19. ^ Vicente, Sandra (20 February 2026). "Gerardo Pisarello se impone a Bob Pop en las primarias de los Comuns y sucederá a Ada Colau como candidato en Barcelona". El País (in Spanish). Barcelona. Retrieved 20 February 2026.
  20. ^ López Congostrina, Antonio (21 December 2023). "Alamany consigue liderar ERC en Barcelona y será la sustituta de Maragall". El País (in Spanish). Retrieved 31 December 2024.

Bibliography