2015 Madrid City Council election

2015 Madrid City Council election

← 2011 24 May 2015 2019 →

All 57 seats in the City Council of Madrid
29 seats needed for a majority
Opinion polls
Registered2,386,120 Green arrow up3.4%
Turnout1,644,093 (68.9%)
Green arrow up1.7 pp
  First party Second party Third party
 
Leader Esperanza Aguirre Manuela Carmena Antonio Miguel Carmona
Party PP Ahora Madrid PSOE
Leader since 6 March 2015 30 March 2015 6 October 2014
Last election 31 seats, 49.7% Did not contest 15 seats, 23.9%
Seats won 21 20 9
Seat change Red arrow down10 Green arrow up20 Red arrow down6
Popular vote 564,154 519,721 249,286
Percentage 34.6% 31.8% 15.3%
Swing Red arrow down15.1 pp New party Red arrow down8.6 pp

  Fourth party Fifth party Sixth party
 
Leader Begoña Villacís David Ortega Raquel López
Party C's UPyD IUCMLV
Leader since 2 March 2015 9 October 2010 26 March 2015
Last election 0 seats, 0.2% 5 seats, 7.9% 6 seats, 10.7%
Seats won 7 0 0
Seat change Green arrow up7 Red arrow down5 Red arrow down6
Popular vote 186,487 29,812 27,651
Percentage 11.4% 1.8% 1.7%
Swing Green arrow up11.2 pp Red arrow down6.1 pp Red arrow down9.0 pp

Mayor before election

Ana Botella
PP

Elected Mayor

Manuela Carmena
Ahora Madrid

The 2015 Madrid City Council election, also the 2015 Madrid municipal election, was held on Sunday, 24 May 2015, to elect the 10th 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 thirteen autonomous communities and local elections all throughout Spain.

Leading the People's Party (PP) local list was Esperanza Aguirre, former president of the Community of Madrid (2003–2012), president of the Senate of Spain (1999–2002) and minister of Education and Culture (1996–1999), as well as the leader of the regional PP branch since 2004. Mayor Ana Botella, who succeeded Alberto Ruiz-Gallardón early into his term in December 2011, had declined re-election in September 2014. The election was an unexpectedly close race between Aguirre's PP and former judge Manuela Carmena's Podemos-supported Ahora Madrid (English: Madrid Now) platform. The collapse in the PP vote and the loss of its absolute majority allowed Carmena to gain power through an alliance with the Spanish Socialist Workers' Party (PSOE), resulting in the first left-wing government in the city since 1989.

The PSOE suffered heavily from tactical voting to Ahora Madrid after it became apparent throughout the campaign that the left-of-centre vote was coalescing around Carmena's coalition. The newcomer liberal Citizens (Spanish: Ciudadanos) party also entered the City Council for the first time, collecting votes disenchanted with the PP and replacing Union, Progress and Democracy (UPyD) as the main centrist local force. United Left (IU) fell below the 5% threshold and failed to gain any representation for the first time in history.