2023 Valencia City Council election

The 2023 Valencia City Council election, also the 2023 Valencia municipal election, will be held on Sunday, 28 May 2023, to elect the 12th City Council of the municipality of Valencia. All 33 seats in the City Council will be up for election.

2023 Valencia City Council election

28 May 2019
All 33 seats in the City Council of Valencia 17 seats needed for a majority
Opinion polls
Leader Joan Ribó María José Catalá Sandra Gómez Party Compromís PP PSPV–PSOE Leader since 7 May 2010 12 January 2019 14 October 2018 Last election 10 seats, 27.4% 8 seats, 21.8% 7 seats, 19.3% Seats before 10 8 7   Leader Fernando Giner José Gosálbez María Oliver Sanz Party Cs Vox Podem–EUPV Leader since 28 March 2015 21 April 2019 27 November 2018 Last election 6 seats, 17.6% 2 seats, 7.3% 0 seats, 4.2% Seats before 6 2 0
Mayor before election Joan Ribó Compromís Elected Mayor Joan Ribó Compromís

Electoral system

The City Council of Valencia (Valencian: Ajuntament de València, Spanish: Ayuntamiento de Valencia) is the top-tier administrative and governing body of the municipality of Valencia, composed of the mayor, the government council and the elected plenary assembly.[1]

Voting for the local assembly is on the basis of universal suffrage, which comprises all nationals over eighteen, registered and residing in the municipality of Valencia and in full enjoyment of their political rights, as well as resident non-national European citizens and those whose country of origin allows Spanish nationals to vote in their own elections by virtue of a treaty. Local councillors are elected using the D'Hondt method and a closed list proportional representation, with a threshold of five percent of valid votes—which includes blank ballots—being applied in each local council. Parties not reaching the threshold are not taken into consideration for seat distribution.[1][2] Councillors are allocated to municipal councils 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 mayor is indirectly elected by the plenary assembly. A legal clause requires that mayoral candidates earn the vote of an absolute majority of councillors, or else the candidate of the most-voted party in the assembly shall be automatically appointed to the post. In the event of a tie, a toss-up would determine the appointee.[1]

The electoral law allows for parties and federations registered in the interior ministry, coalitions and groupings of electors to present lists of candidates. Parties and federations intending to form a coalition 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 are seeking election, disallowing electors from signing for more than one list of candidates. For the case of Valencia, as its population is between 300,001 and 1,000,000, at least 5,000 signatures are required.[2]

Parliamentary status

The table below shows the status of the different political groups in the City Council at the present time.[3]

Current parliamentary composition

Groups		Parties		Councillors
				Seats	Total
	Commitment to Valencia Municipal Group		Compromís	10	10
	People's Municipal Group		PP	8	8
	Socialist Municipal Group		PSPV–PSOE	7	7
	Citizens–Party of the Citizenry Municipal Group		Cs	6	6
	Vox Municipal Group		Vox	2	2

Parties and candidates

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.
						Votes (%)	Seats
	Compromís	List Valencian Nationalist Bloc (Bloc) Valencian People's Initiative (IdPV) Greens Equo of the Valencian Country (VerdsEquo)		Joan Ribó	Valencian nationalism Eco-socialism Green politics	27.44%	10
	PP	List People's Party (PP)		María José Catalá	Conservatism Christian democracy	21.78%	8
	PSPV–PSOE	List Socialist Party of the Valencian Country (PSPV–PSOE)		Sandra Gómez	Social democracy	19.30%	7
	Cs	List Citizens–Party of the Citizenry (Cs)		Fernando Giner	Liberalism	17.61%	6
	Vox	List Vox (Vox)		José Gosálbez	Right-wing populism Ultranationalism National conservatism	7.25%	2

Opinion polls

The table below lists voting intention estimates 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 given poll. When available, seat projections are also displayed below the voting estimates in a smaller font. 17 seats are required for an absolute majority in the City Council of Valencia.

Polling firm/Commissioner	Fieldwork date	Sample size	Turnout							Lead
SyM Consulting/EPDA[p 1]	14–16 Jan 2021	605	?	24.6 9	22.9 8	21.6 7/8	11.8 4	13.2 4/5	3.2 0	1.7
Demoscopia y Servicios/ESdiario[4]	1–7 Oct 2020	?	68.0	27.8 10	24.3 8	20.1 7	11.0 4	11.6 4	3.1 0	3.5
SyM Consulting/EPDA[p 2]	5–6 Jun 2020	802	?	25.9 9	28.7 10	19.2 6/7	7.0 2/3	8.4 3	7.0 2	2.8
November 2019 general election[5]	10 Nov 2019	N/A	75.1	9.0 3	24.4 8	24.8 9	8.4 3	16.8 6	13.7 4	0.4
2019 municipal election	26 May 2019	N/A	66.3	27.4 10	21.8 8	19.3 7	17.6 6	7.3 2	4.2 0	5.6

References

Opinion poll sources

1. "Empate técnico entre izquierda y derecha en el Ayuntamiento de Valencia según el sondeo de SyM Consulting para El Periódico de Aquí". El Periódico de Aquí (in Spanish). 26 January 2021.
2. "La izquierda mantendría el Ayuntamiento de València pese al avance del Partido Popular, según una encuesta de SyM Consulting para El Periódico de Aquí". El Periódico de Aquí (in Spanish). 10 June 2020.

Other

1. "Ley 7/1985, de 2 de abril, Reguladora de las Bases del Régimen Local". Law No. 7 of 2 April 1985. Boletín Oficial del Estado (in Spanish). Retrieved 30 June 2020.
2. "Ley Orgánica 5/1985, de 19 de junio, del Régimen Electoral General". Organic Law No. 5 of 19 June 1985. Boletín Oficial del Estado (in Spanish). Retrieved 30 January 2020.
3. "Grups Polítics. Corporació 2019 - 2023. Dades biogràfiques". City Council of Valencia (in Valencian). Retrieved 12 October 2020.
4. "El tirón de Ribó compensa el ascenso del PP de Catalá y salva al Rialto". ESdiario (in Spanish). 12 October 2020.
5. "Electoral Results Consultation. Congress. November 2019. Valencia Municipality". Ministry of the Interior (in Spanish). Retrieved 10 June 2020.