2023 Madrid City Council election

The 2023 Madrid City Council election, also the 2023 Madrid municipal election, was held on Sunday, 28 May 2023, to elect the 12th City Council of the municipality of Madrid. All 57 seats in the City Council were up for election. The election was held simultaneously with regional elections in twelve autonomous communities and local elections all throughout Spain.

2023 Madrid City Council election

← 2019 28 May 2023 2027 →
All 57 seats in the City Council of Madrid 29 seats needed for a majority
Opinion polls
Registered	2,386,293 0.5%
Turnout	1,651,560 (69.2%) 1.0 pp
First party Second party Third party   Leader José Luis Martínez-Almeida Rita Maestre Reyes Maroto Party PP MM–VQ PSOE Leader since 28 April 2017 30 July 2020 21 November 2022 Last election 15 seats, 24.3% 19 seats, 31.0% 8 seats, 13.7% Seats won 29 12 11 Seat change 14 7 3 Popular vote 729,304 313,712 274,786 Percentage 44.5% 19.1% 16.8% Swing 20.2 pp 11.9 pp 3.1 pp   Fourth party Fifth party   Leader Javier Ortega Smith Begoña Villacís Party Vox CS Leader since 18 April 2019 2 March 2015 Last election 4 seats, 7.7% 11 seats, 19.2% Seats won 5 0 Seat change 1 11 Popular vote 148,994 47,429 Percentage 9.1% 2.9% Swing 1.4 pp 16.3 pp
Mayor before election José Luis Martínez-Almeida PP Elected Mayor José Luis Martínez-Almeida PP

Electoral system

The City Council of Madrid (Spanish: Ayuntamiento de Madrid) was the top-tier administrative and governing body of the municipality of Madrid, composed of the mayor, the government council and the elected plenary assembly.^[1] Elections to the local councils in Spain were fixed for the fourth Sunday of May every four years.^[2] Voting for the local assembly was on the basis of universal suffrage, which comprised all nationals over 18 years of age, registered and residing in the municipality of Madrid and in full enjoyment of their political rights, as well as resident non-national European citizens and those whose country of origin allowed Spanish nationals to vote in their own elections by virtue of a treaty.

Local councillors were elected using the D'Hondt method and a closed list proportional representation, with an electoral threshold of five percent of valid votes—which included blank ballots—being applied in each local council.^[1][2] Councillors were 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 was indirectly elected by the plenary assembly. A legal clause required that mayoral candidates earned the vote of an absolute majority of councillors, or else the candidate of the most-voted party in the assembly was to be automatically appointed to the post. In the event of a tie, the appointee would be determined by lot.^[1]

Council composition

The table below shows the composition of the political groups in the City Council at the time of dissolution.^[3]

Council composition in April 2023

Groups		Parties		Councillors
				Seats	Total
	More Madrid Municipal Group		Más Madrid	16	16
	People's Party's Municipal Group		PP	15	15
	Citizens–Party of the Citizenry Municipal Group		CS	11	11
	Socialist Municipal Group in Madrid		PSOE	8	8
	Vox Municipal Group		Vox	4	4
	Mixed Group		RM	2[a]	3
			INDEP	1[b]

Parties and candidates

The electoral law allowed 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 were required to inform the relevant Electoral Commission within ten 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 of candidates. In the case of Madrid, as its population was over 1,000,001, at least 8,000 signatures were required.^[2]

Below is a list of the main parties and electoral alliances which contested the election:

Candidacy		Parties and alliances	Leading candidate		Ideology	Previous result		Gov.	Ref.
						Vote %	Seats
	MM–VQ	List More Madrid (Más Madrid) Greens Equo (Verdes Equo)		Rita Maestre	Progressivism Participatory democracy Green politics	31.0%	19		[7]
	PP	List People's Party (PP)		José Luis Martínez-Almeida	Conservatism Christian democracy	24.3%	15		[8]
	CS	List Citizens–Party of the Citizenry (CS)		Begoña Villacís	Liberalism	19.2%	11		[9] [10] [11]
	PSOE	List Spanish Socialist Workers' Party (PSOE)		Reyes Maroto	Social democracy	13.7%	8		[12]
	Vox	List Vox (Vox)		Javier Ortega Smith	Right-wing populism Ultranationalism National conservatism	7.7%	4		[13]
	Podemos– IU–AV	List We Can (Podemos) United Left–Madrid (IU–M) – Communist Party of Madrid (PCM) – The Dawn. Marxist Organization OM (La Aurora (om)) – Republican Left (IR) Green Alliance (AV)		Roberto Sotomayor	Left-wing populism Direct democracy Democratic socialism	2.6% [c]	0		[14]

In March 2021, four Más Madrid city councillors, including former lieutenant mayor Marta Higueras, split into the Mixed Group to form "Recover Madrid" (Spanish: Recupera Madrid), a platform aiming at "preserving the original project" of former mayor Manuela Carmena under a more moderate and pragmatic line,^[15] draining material and economic resources from the Más Madrid group,^[16] and becoming involved in controversial choices, such as the approval of the 2022 budget of José Luis Martínez-Almeida, which also saw one of Recupera Madrid's councillors, Felipe Llamas, resigning from his post in disagreement.^[17][18] The platform announced its intention to not run in this election, but at the end they designed Luis Cueto as their candidate. On 12 September 2022, Podemos announced its intention to contest the 2023 Madrid City Council elections after deciding not to do so for the 2019 elections, choosing athlete Roberto Sotomayor as the party's candidate.^[19]

Campaign

Party slogans

Party or alliance		Original slogan	English translation	Ref.
	MM–VQ	« Lo va a hacer Rita »	"Rita will get it done"[d]	[20]
	PP	« Momento Madrid »	"Madrid Momentum"	[21]
	CS	« Somos de Villa »	"We are of Villa"[e]	[22]
	PSOE	« Reyes de Madrid »	"Reyes of Madrid"[f]	[23]
	Vox	« Cuida Madrid, cuida lo tuyo »	"Take care of Madrid, take care of your own"	[24]
	Podemos–IU	« Hay que arreglar Madrid corriendo »	"We must fix Madrid quickly"[g]	[25]

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

Local regression trend line of poll results from 26 May 2019 to 28 May 2023, with each line corresponding to a political party.

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; 29 seats were required for an absolute majority in the City Council of Madrid.

Polling firm/Commissioner	Fieldwork date	Sample size	Turnout								RM	Lead
2023 municipal election	28 May 2023	—	69.2	19.1 12	44.5 29	2.9 0	16.8 11	9.1 5	[h]	4.9 0	0.4 0	25.4
GAD3/RTVE–FORTA[p 1]	12–27 May 2023	?	?	19.0 12	47.0 28/30	2.0 0	17.0 10/11	7.0 4	[h]	5.0 0/3	–	28.0
KeyData/Público[p 2]	22 May 2023	?	67.7	22.6 15	40.5 26	3.8 0	17.3 11	8.7 5	[h]	4.5 0	–	17.9
NC Report/La Razón[p 3]	22 May 2023	?	?	24.8 15	41.0 26	–	17.1 11	8.6 5	[h]	–	–	16.2
Target Point/El Debate[p 4]	15–19 May 2023	?	?	23.7 14/16	40.1 25/26	4.1 0	15.1 9/10	9.0 5/6	[h]	5.0 0/3	–	16.4
DYM/Henneo[p 5]	15–18 May 2023	?	?	23.3 14/15	41.0 25/26	–	18.7 11/12	8.2 4/5	[h]	4.8 0/3	–	17.7
40dB/Prisa[p 6][p 7]	12–17 May 2023	800	?	19.5 11/13	41.0 25/27	5.4 0/3	18.0 11/12	8.0 4/5	[h]	6.1 0/3	–	21.5
Sigma Dos/El Mundo[p 8]	11–16 May 2023	1,400	?	19.2 11/12	41.9 25/26	4.0 0/3	18.8 11/12	8.2 5/6	[h]	5.8 3	–	22.7
NC Report/La Razón[p 9]	15 May 2023	1,000	?	24.1 16	42.0 26	2.5 0	17.4 11	8.1 4	[h]	3.4 0	–	17.9
Sigma Dos/Antena 3[p 10]	14 May 2023	?	?	20.2 12	41.2 24/25	? 3	18.1 10/11	? 4	[h]	? 3	–	21.0
SocioMétrica/El Español[p 11]	8–14 May 2023	?	?	22.3 14	41.0 27	4.3 0	17.5 11	9.1 5	[h]	4.4 0	–	18.7
Data10/Okdiario[p 12]	9–11 May 2023	1,500	?	21.9 15	38.8 25	4.5 0	18.4 11	10.3 6	[h]	3.6 0	–	16.9
Hamalgama Métrica/VozPópuli[p 13]	3–10 May 2023	?	?	23.1 14	42.1 27	2.7 0	18.0 11	8.4 5	[h]	4.3 0	–	19.0
PSOE[p 14]	27 Apr 2023	?	?	? 14/15	? 24/25	? 0	? 14/15	? 3/4	[h]	? 0	–	?
CIS[p 15][p 16]	10–26 Apr 2023	1,180	?	26.7 13/18	38.0 21/25	4.3 0/3	16.0 8/11	7.4 4/5	[h]	4.5 0/4	–	11.3
GAD3/ABC[p 17]	11–12 Apr 2023	600	?	18.9 12	44.7 28/29	2.8 0	19.3 12	7.6 4/5	[h]	4.2 0	–	25.4
Sigma Dos/El Mundo[p 18][p 19]	7–12 Apr 2023	577	?	23.9 14/15	38.2 22/23	6.2 3	17.5 10/11	7.1 4	[h]	5.8 3	–	14.3
IMOP/El Confidencial[p 20]	21–24 Mar 2023	800	?	23.9 14	38.3 24	6.8 4	17.0 10	8.6 5	[h]	3.6 0	–	14.4
SocioMétrica/El Español[p 21][p 22]	27 Feb–3 Mar 2023	800	?	27.3 16/17	38.2 23/24	4.6 0/3	13.9 8/9	10.1 6/7	[h]	4.4 0/2	–	10.9
Data10/Okdiario[p 23]	9–17 Feb 2023	1,000	?	23.1 15	37.9 24	4.3 0	18.6 12	9.4 6	[h]	4.1 0	–	14.8
KeyData/Público[p 24]	16 Feb 2023	?	67.7	24.9 15	38.6 24/25	5.1 0/2	16.1 9/10	8.7 5	[h]	4.8 0/2	–	13.7
GAD3/PP[p 25][p 26]	4–10 Jan 2023	1,004	?	18.3 11	45.1 28	3.9 0	17.2 10/11	6.7 4	[h]	6.4 3/4	0.5 0	26.8
Metroscopia/Cs[p 27]	4 Dec 2022	1,000	?	? 14/15	? 27/28	4.8 0/3	? 8	? 5/6	[h]	? 0	–	?
Data10/Okdiario[p 28]	14 Nov 2022	1,000	?	27.5 16	32.1 19	7.6 4	13.5 8	11.4 7	[h]	6.4 3	–	4.6
Sigma Dos/El Mundo[p 29][p 30]	25 Oct–3 Nov 2022	996	?	27.0 16	37.9 23	6.0 3	18.3 11	7.9 4	[h]	–	–	10.9
40dB/MM[p 31]	6–13 Oct 2022	?	?	28.5 17	37.7 22	6.2 3	18.1 11	7.5 4	[h]	–	–	9.2
GAD3/PP[p 32][p 33]	6–8 Jul 2022	1,003	?	16.6 10	45.6 28/30	2.6 0	19.4 12	7.9 4/5	[h]	5.2 0/3	0.8 0	26.2
40dB/MM[p 31]	30 Jun 2022	?	?	29.7 18	37.1 22	7.3 4	15.1 9	8.0 4	[h]	–	–	7.4
NC Report/La Razón[p 34]	6–12 May 2022	1,000	71.0	25.1 15	41.6 26	5.9 3	12.5 7	10.0 6	[h]	–	–	16.5
Sigma Dos/El Mundo[p 35][p 36]	9–11 May 2022	1,400	?	26.9 16	35.3 21	6.7 4	15.1 9	11.8 7	[h]	–	–	8.4
SocioMétrica/El Español[p 37][p 38]	26–29 Apr 2022	800	?	26.6 16	40.2 25	7.2 4	11.2 6	9.9 6	[h]	–	–	13.6
Data10/Okdiario[p 39]	19–20 Apr 2022	1,000	?	29.8 18	31.2 19	9.3 5	12.2 7	10.4 5	[h]	5.8 3	–	1.4
ElectoPanel/Electomanía[p 40]	1 Mar–13 Apr 2022	845	?	33.3 21	26.7 16	10.3 6	12.8 8	10.6 6	[h]	3.8 0	1.1 0	6.6
ElectoPanel/Electomanía[p 41]	17–18 Feb 2022	876	?	31.3 20	27.9 17	9.3 5	13.0 8	11.7 7	[h]	4.3 0	1.1 0	3.4
Sigma Dos/El Mundo[p 42][p 43]	3–6 Nov 2021	622	?	25.1 15	35.4 22	8.4 4	12.2 7	6.9 4	[h]	9.8 5	–	10.3
2021 regional election[26]	4 May 2021	—	75.6	17.9 (11)	45.3 (28)	3.7 (0)	16.1 (9)	8.1 (5)	[h]	7.5 (4)	–	27.4
ElectoPanel/Electomanía[p 44]	17 Mar 2021	1,000	?	14.3 9	42.0 26	2.1 0	22.1 14	9.2 5	[h]	8.5 5	–	19.9
ElectoPanel/Electomanía[p 45]	1 Jul–25 Sep 2020	?	?	22.9 14	35.5 21	7.6 4	23.4 14	7.8 4	1.1 0	–	–	12.1
Sigma Dos/Telemadrid[p 46][p 47]	19–22 Jun 2020	?	?	18.6 11	38.5 23	8.2 4	21.6 13	5.7 3	[h]	5.1 3	–	16.9
Hamalgama Métrica/Okdiario[p 48]	8–11 May 2020	1,000	?	18.9 11	34.5 21	10.1 6	17.3 10	8.6 5	[h]	7.9 4	–	15.6
GAD3/ABC[p 49][p 50]	24–29 Apr 2020	631	?	8.2 5	44.7 27	5.2 3	25.9 15	7.0 4	[h]	6.2 3	–	18.8
ElectoPanel/Electomanía[p 51]	26–31 Mar 2020	800	?	16.9 10	30.8 19	10.7 6	25.7 15	12.0 7	1.8 0	–	–	5.1
November 2019 general election[27]	10 Nov 2019	—	74.0	6.3 (3)	27.3 (16)	8.9 (5)	26.4 (16)	16.0 (9)	[h]	13.0 (8)	–	0.9
ElectoPanel/Electomanía[p 52]	10 Oct 2019	1,500	?	8.8 5	25.6 16	13.5 8	25.5 15	12.2 7	[h]	10.9 6	–	0.1
2019 municipal election	26 May 2019	—	68.2	31.0 19	24.3 15	19.2 11	13.7 8	7.7 4	2.6 0	–	–	6.7

Results

← Summary of the 28 May 2023 City Council of Madrid election results →

Parties and alliances		Popular vote			Seats
		Votes	%	±pp	Total	+/−
	People's Party (PP)	729,304	44.49	+20.24	29	+14
	More Madrid–Greens Equo (MM–VQ)	313,712	19.14	−11.85	12	−7
	Spanish Socialist Workers' Party (PSOE)	274,786	16.76	+3.01	11	+3
	Vox (Vox)	148,994	9.09	+1.42	5	+1
	United We Can (Podemos–IU–AV)1	80,219	4.89	+2.26	0	±0
	Citizens–Party of the Citizenry (CS)	47,429	2.89	−16.28	0	−11
	Animalist Party with the Environment (PACMA)2	8,530	0.52	+0.02	0	±0
	Professionals for Madrid–Recover Madrid (Profesionales)	6,442	0.39	New	0	±0
	For a Fairer World (PUM+J)	2,647	0.16	+0.09	0	±0
	Blank Seats to Leave Empty Seats (EB)	2,496	0.15	New	0	±0
	Feminist Party of Spain (PFE)	2,069	0.13	New	0	±0
	Seniors in Action (3e)	1,632	0.10	New	0	±0
	Cannabis Party–Green Light (PC–LV)	1,436	0.09	New	0	±0
	Communist Party of the Workers of Spain (PCTE)	1,140	0.07	+0.03	0	±0
	Spanish Phalanx of the CNSO (FE–JONS)	970	0.06	+0.01	0	±0
	Humanist Party (PH)	815	0.05	+0.01	0	±0
	Communist Party of the Peoples of Spain (PCPE)	742	0.05	±0.00	0	±0
	Castilian Party–Commoners' Land (PCAS–TC)	733	0.04	−0.05	0	±0
	Madrid Capital Coalition (CMC)	396	0.02	New	0	±0
	Union for Leganés (ULEG)	335	0.02	+0.01	0	±0
	Progress of Cities (Progreso de Ciudades)	307	0.02	New	0	±0
Blank ballots		14,093	0.86	+0.43
Total		1,639,227			57	±0
Valid votes		1,639,227	99.25	−0.39
Invalid votes		12,333	0.75	+0.39
Votes cast / turnout		1,651,560	69.21	+0.98
Abstentions		734,733	30.79	−0.98
Registered voters		2,386,293
Sources[28]
Footnotes: 1 United We Can results are compared to United Left–Municipalist Stand Up Madrid totals in the 2019 election. 2 Animalist Party with the Environment results are compared to Animalist Party Against Mistreatment of Animals totals in the 2019 election.

Popular vote PP   44.49% MM–VQ   19.14% PSOE   16.76% Vox   9.09% Podemos–IU   4.89% CS   2.89% Others   1.87% Blank ballots   0.86%

Seats PP   50.88% MM–VQ   21.05% PSOE   19.30% Vox   8.77%

Notes

1. José Manuel Calvo and Luis Cueto, former Más Madrid councillors.^[4][5]
2. Marta Higueras, former Más Madrid councillor.^[6]
3. Results for IU–MpM in the 2019 election.
4. The slogan makes a reference to the Spanish proverb "Que lo haga Rita [la cantaora]" in reference to Rita Giménez
5. The slogan plays with the surname of the candidate, Villacís, as "Villa" is the title given to the city of Madrid.
6. The slogan plays with the name of the candidate, Reyes, meaning also "Monarchs" in Spanish.
7. The slogan plays with the meaning of corriendo, which in English translates both as "quickly" and "by running", the later being a reference to the candidate's background as an athlete.
8. Within Unidas Podemos.