2023 Spanish local elections
The 2023 Spanish local elections were held on Sunday, 28 May 2023, to elect all 67,031 councillors in the municipalities of Spain and all 1,038 seats in 38 provincial deputations. The elections were held simultaneously with regional elections in twelve autonomous communities, as well as local elections in the three foral deputations of the Basque Country, the four island councils in the Balearic Islands and the seven island cabildos in the Canary Islands.
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All 67,031 councillors in 8,131 municipal councils All 1,038 seats in 38 provincial deputations | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Opinion polls | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Turnout | 22,704,374 (63.9%) 1.3 pp | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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The elections took place following a period of instability dominated by the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic in March 2020 and its political and economical consequences, including the worst worldwide recession since the Great Depression resulting from the massive lockdowns enforced to reduce the spread of SARS-CoV-2, as well as the economic impact of the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine.
The People's Party (PP) emerged as the first force and, despite winning the popular vote to the ruling Spanish Socialist Workers' Party (PSOE) by just three percentage points, was able to flip the control of a large number of major cities. This outcome prompted Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez to call a snap general election.