The three province capitals of Valencia will be governed by the PP. Like the eight in Andalusia and most of the capitals of Castilla y León. In Madrid, almost all the relevant cities in the metropolitan area up to a total of 115 municipalities will also have a popular mayor starting tomorrow, when the new governments that emerged from the polls on May 28 will be constituted. In that vote, the PP went on to become the main municipalist force partly on its own merits – it has a majority in almost three thousand municipalities throughout Spain – and partly thanks to agreements with other forces, and in particular with the extreme right .
Starting tomorrow, Málaga, Granada, Córdoba, Cádiz and Almería will have PP mayors thanks to the absolute majority obtained on the 28th. In Seville, on the other hand, the PP did not achieve such good results and fell two councilors behind the absolute majority. However, at least for now, he does not plan to agree with Vox, and in fact the future mayor has already formed his government team that does not include the extreme right, which obtained three councilors in the municipality. A different case is that of Huelva, where there is an agreement with Vox. The PP obtained 13 councilors and has been forced to agree with the far-right party so that its candidate, Pilar Miranda, can take over the baton today. Finally, there is Jaén, where the key to the mandate is held by a candidacy linked to the emptied Spain that already yesterday promised to give its support to the Popular Party. The PSOE was the most voted force in this town.
After Burgos, Valladolid also joins the list of municipalities in which the PP and Vox pact will give the popular mayoralty. In both cases, the PSOE was the list with the most votes, but this has not prevented the conservative flank from prevailing, which will appoint Jesús Julio Carnero as the new mayor. The socialists a priori will retain Soria and Palencia, in the latter case, in agreement with a local formation. In this community, in León, the new corporation will not be constituted because the result has been contested.
In Guadalajara, the sum of forces between PP and Vox will also unseat the PSOE, the force with the most votes, from the mayor’s office. Alberto Rojo will give up his position, despite winning eleven seats, and will be replaced by Ana Guarinos, who won nine. Vox, which was the third force in the city, is decisive with its four votes. The same thing happens in Toledo where the same combination of both conservative formations will evict the socialist Milagros Tolón. In Ciudad Real, the aspiring mayor Francisco Cañizares, of the PP, has also incorporated Vox, although with 11 councilors he did not need this support numerically.
The formula of the agreement for the formation of the government of the Valencian Community with Vox has been extended to other municipalities where the extreme right also participates in the formation of the new local executives. However, none of the three provincial capitals is going to require, at least for the appointment of mayors, the support of this party, although it is to be able to approve the main decisions of the local government throughout the mandate. Valencia, Castellón and Alicante will for the moment have mayors with a relative majority.
Carmen Moriyón, the president of Foro Asturias, gave in to pressure from Vox in recent hours, to become mayor of Gijón again this Saturday, a position she already held between 2011 and 2019. Its eight councilors, five from the PP and the two of the extreme right leave the candidate with the most votes, the socialist Luis Manuel Flórez, out of the game. Vox stood up this week and demanded to enter the Government. Contrary to what she declared in the campaign, Moriyón granted the ultra-right a seat on the government board and the festivities council, in addition to reviewing the equality ordinance and freezing funds for language policy. Foro, the former party of Francisco Álvarez Cascos, had previously reached an agreement with the PP, so that Gijón will have a right-wing tripartite.
Gonzalo Pérez Jácome, although he has been involved in major scandals, such as being accused by some of his former councilors of appropriating party funds and imposing a kind of tax on advisers or being recorded talking about collecting bribes from companies, was the most voted in Ourense, with ten councilors, seven from the PP, six from the PSOE and four from the BNG. To dislodge him, these three formations would have to unite, but for the Bloc it means crossing a red line to give power to the PP. On Friday night, the popular candidate, Manuel Cabezas, offered his votes to the socialist Francisco Rodríguez, in exchange for the PSOE allowing the popular to govern in the Provincial Council. But to reach the municipal absolute majority, the Bloc would have to join the alliance. In Ourense everything is always possible and with Jácome, even more.
The global pact between the PNV and the PSOE to rely on many of the main Basque town halls will allow today the re-election of the jeltzale Juan Mari Aburto, who is facing his third term as mayor of Bilbao and will be able to comfortably manage municipal politics. The Basque nationalists obtained 12 councilors out of a total of 29 on May 28, while the Socialists, the third force after EH Bildu (six councillors), achieved five. The two formations have an absolute majority and have opted to reissue the agreement that they already signed the last legislature. The terms of the pact are similar, although the Socialists will manage one more area: Education. In this way, the PNV will manage 16 areas, while the Socialists will manage five. The jeltzales lost two councilors in the Biscayan capital on March 28, although they continue to be the hegemonic force that, in fact, has governed the town since the recovery of democratic institutions 44 years ago.
