1995 Madrid municipal election

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1995 Madrid municipal election
Bandera de la ciudad de Madrid.svg
  1991 28 May 1995 1999  

All 55 seats in the City Council of Madrid
28 seats needed for a majority
Opinion polls
Registered2,529,476 Increase2.svg 0.2%
Turnout1,801,310 (71.2%)
Increase2.svg 12.0 pp
 First partySecond partyThird party
  (Alvarez del Manzano) Jose Maria Aznar recibe al alcalde de Madrid. Pool Moncloa. 19 de junio de 1996 (cropped).jpeg (Juan Barranco) Felipe Gonzalez pasea con el alcalde de Madrid por los jardines del palacio de la Moncloa. Pool Moncloa. 2 de mayo de 1986 (cropped) (cropped).jpeg Portrait placeholder.svg
Leader José María Álvarez del Manzano Juan Barranco Francisco Herrera
Party PP PSOE IU
Leader since10 October 198619 January 19867 June 1990
Last election30 seats, 47.2%21 seats, 34.3%6 seats, 9.6%
Seats won30169
Seat changeSteady2.svg 0Decrease2.svg 5Increase2.svg 3
Popular vote945,634499,435279,090
Percentage52.7%27.8%15.6%
SwingIncrease2.svg 5.5 pp Decrease2.svg 6.5 pp Increase2.svg 6.0 pp

Mayor before election

José María Álvarez del Manzano
PP

Elected Mayor

José María Álvarez del Manzano
PP

A municipal election was held in Madrid on Sunday, 28 May 1995, to elect the 5th City Council of the municipality. All 55 seats in the City Council were up for election. It was held concurrently with regional elections in thirteen autonomous communities and local elections all across Spain.

Contents

People's Party (PP) incumbent José María Álvarez del Manzano again won an absolute majority of seats, improving his position relative to others as he obtained nearly 250,000 votes more than four years before. In contrast, the Spanish Socialist Workers' Party (PSOE) plummeted to one of its worst historical results, obtaining only 16 seats, to the benefit of United Left (IU) which scored its best result to date. Turnout was one of the highest in the history of the city, at 71.2%.

Overview

Under the 1978 Constitution, the governance of municipalities in Spain—part of the country's local government system—was centered on the figure of city councils (Spanish : ayuntamientos), local corporations with independent legal personality composed of a mayor, a government council and an elected legislative assembly. [1] [2] In the case of Madrid, the top-tier administrative and governing body was the City Council of Madrid. [3]

Electoral system

Voting for local assemblies 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 (provided that they were not sentenced—by a final court ruling—to deprivation of the right to vote, nor being legally incapacitated), as well as resident non-nationals whose country of origin allowed Spanish nationals to vote in their own elections by virtue of a treaty or within the framework of Community law. [2] [4] [5]

Local councillors were elected using the D'Hondt method and a closed list proportional voting system, with an electoral threshold of five percent of valid votes (which included blank ballots) being applied in each municipality. [6] Each municipality constituted a multi-member constituency, entitled a number of seats based on the following scale: [7]

PopulationCouncillors
<2505
251–1,0007
1,001–2,0009
2,001–5,00011
5,001–10,00013
10,001–20,00017
20,001–50,00021
50,001–100,00025
>100,001+1 per each 100,000 inhabitants or fraction
+1 if total is an even number

The law did not provide for by-elections to fill vacated seats; instead, any vacancies that occurred after the proclamation of candidates and into the legislative term were to be covered by the successive candidates in the list and, when required, by the designated substitutes. [8]

The mayor was indirectly elected by the local assembly. [2] A legal clause required candidates to earn the vote of an absolute majority of councillors, or else the candidate of the most-voted party was to be automatically appointed to the post. In the event of a tie, the appointee was to be determined by lot. [9]

Election date

The term of city councils in Spain expired four years after the date of their previous election, with election day being fixed for the fourth Sunday of May every four years (as of 2025, this has been the year before a leap year). The election decree was required to be issued no later than the fifty-fifth day prior to the scheduled election date and published on the following day in the Official State Gazette (BOE). [10] The previous local elections were held on 26 May 1991, setting the date for election day on the fourth Sunday of May four years later, which was 28 May 1995.

Local councils could not be dissolved before the expiry of their term, except in cases of mismanagement that seriously harmed the public interest and implied a breach of constitutional obligations, in which case the Council of Ministers could—optionally—agree to call a by-election. [11]

Elections to local councils were officially called on 4 April 1995 with the publication of the corresponding decree in the BOE, setting election day for 28 May. [12]

Parties and candidates

The electoral law allowed for parties and federations registered in the interior ministry, alliances and groupings of electors to present lists of candidates. Parties and federations intending to form an alliance 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. [13]

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

CandidacyParties and
alliances
Leading candidateIdeologyPrevious resultGov.Ref.
Vote %Seats
PP
List
(Alvarez del Manzano) Jose Maria Aznar recibe al alcalde de Madrid. Pool Moncloa. 19 de junio de 1996 (cropped).jpeg José María Álvarez del Manzano Conservatism
Christian democracy
47.2%30Check-green.svg [14]
[15]
PSOE (Juan Barranco) Felipe Gonzalez pasea con el alcalde de Madrid por los jardines del palacio de la Moncloa. Pool Moncloa. 2 de mayo de 1986 (cropped) (cropped).jpeg Juan Barranco Social democracy 34.3%21Dark Red x.svg [16]
IU Portrait placeholder.svg Francisco Herrera Socialism
Communism
9.6%6Dark Red x.svg

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.

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; 28 seats were required for an absolute majority in the City Council of Madrid (29 in the 1991 election).

Voting preferences

The table below lists raw, unweighted voting preferences.

Preferred Mayor

The table below lists opinion polling on leader preferences to become mayor of Madrid.

Results

Summary of the 28 May 1995 City Council of Madrid election results
MadridCouncilDiagram1995.svg
Parties and alliancesPopular voteSeats
Votes%±pp Total+/−
People's Party (PP)945,63452.71+5.4830±0
Spanish Socialist Workers' Party (PSOE)499,43527.84−6.4716−5
United Left (IU)279,09015.56+5.849+3
The Greens–Green Group (LV–GV)13,0130.73New0±0
Platform of Independents of Spain (PIE)11,7340.65New0±0
The Alternative Greens (LVA)16,0730.34+0.050±0
Madrilenian Independent Regional Party (PRIM)2,2280.12−0.060±0
Humanist Platform (PH)1,4500.08New0±0
Spanish Phalanx of the CNSO (FE–JONS)1,2440.07−0.060±0
Revolutionary Workers' Party (POR)1,0970.06±0.000±0
Workers' Revolutionary Party (PRT)26220.03−0.170±0
Independent Spanish Phalanx (FEI)6150.03−0.010±0
Coalition for a New Socialist Party (NPS)34870.03−0.020±0
Blank ballots31,4671.75+0.54
Total1,794,18955−2
Valid votes1,794,18999.60−0.03
Invalid votes7,1210.40+0.03
Votes cast / turnout1,801,31071.21+12.06
Abstentions728,16628.79−12.06
Registered voters2,529,476
Sources [17] [18] [19] [20]
Footnotes:
Popular vote
PP
52.71%
PSOE
27.84%
IU
15.56%
Others
2.15%
Blank ballots
1.75%
Seats
PP
54.55%
PSOE
29.09%
IU
16.36%

Aftermath

Government formation

Investiture
Ballot →17 June 1995
Required majority →28 out of 55
30 / 55
Yes check.svg
16 / 55
X mark.svg
Francisco Herrera (IU)
  • IU (9)
9 / 55
X mark.svg
Abstentions/Blank ballots
0 / 55
Absentees
0 / 55
Sources [17] [21]

References

Opinion poll sources
  1. "El PSOE se hunde en las principales ciudades". El País (in Spanish). 21 May 1995.
  2. 1 2 "El PP cree que la encuesta publicada por un diario madrileño tiene como objetivo alarmar a los electores e impulsar el voto de izquierda". ABC (in Spanish). 22 May 1995.
  3. 1 2 3 "Preelectoral Municipales Madrid (Estudio nº 2159. Abril-Mayo 1995)". CIS (in Spanish). 10 May 1995.
  4. "Estudio CIS nº 2159. Ficha técnica". CIS (in Spanish). 10 May 1995.
  5. "El Partido Popular reforzará su mayoría absoluta". ABC (in Spanish). 2 May 1995.
  6. "Encuesta de Gruppo para ABC/Resultados municipales". ABC (in Spanish). 6 May 1995.
Other
  1. Constitution (1978) , art. 140.
  2. 1 2 3 LBRL (1985) , art. 19.
  3. LBRL (1985) , add. prov. 6.
  4. Constitution (1978) , art. 13.
  5. LOREG (1985) , arts. 2–3 & 176.
  6. LOREG (1985) , arts. 163 & 180.
  7. LOREG (1985) , art. 179.
  8. LOREG (1985) , arts. 46, 48 & 182.
  9. LOREG (1985) , art. 196.
  10. LOREG (1985) , arts. 42 & 194.
  11. LBRL (1985) , art. 61.
  12. Real Decreto 489/1995, de 3 de abril, de convocatoria de elecciones locales y a las Asambleas de Ceuta y Melilla (PDF) (Royal Decree 489/1995). Official State Gazette (in Spanish). 3 April 1995. Retrieved 26 November 2025.
  13. LOREG (1985) , arts. 44 & 187.
  14. Ruiz de Azúa, Victorino (11 November 1994). "Seis mujeres en las candidaturas del Partido Popular a las alcaldías de las principales ciudades". El País (in Spanish). Madrid. Retrieved 29 November 2025.
  15. Casqueiro, Javier (23 January 1995). "Ruiz Gallardón y Álvarez del Manzano aseguran que sus futuros gobiernos darán paso al de Aznar". El País (in Spanish). Madrid. Retrieved 29 November 2025.
  16. Romero, José Manuel (17 January 1995). "Barranco optará por tercera vez consecutiva a la alcaldía de Madrid". El País (in Spanish). Madrid. Retrieved 29 November 2025.
  17. 1 2 Lozano, Carles. "Elecciones Municipales en Madrid (desde 1979)". Historia Electoral.com (in Spanish). Retrieved 4 November 2025.
  18. "Elecciones al Ayuntamiento de Madrid y a la Asamblea de Madrid de 28 de mayo de 1995" (PDF). City Council of Madrid (in Spanish). Retrieved 26 November 2025.
  19. "Elecciones celebradas. Resultados electorales" (in Spanish). Ministry of the Interior . Retrieved 5 November 2025.
  20. "Acuerdo de la Junta Electoral Central de 19 de julio de 1995, de publicación del resumen de los resultados de las elecciones locales convocadas por Real Decreto 489/1995, de 3 de abril, y celebradas el 28 de mayo de 1995, según los datos que figuran en las actas de proclamación remitidas por cada una de las Juntas Electorales de Zona" (PDF). Official State Gazette (in Spanish) (173 (Supplement)): 1–1166. 21 July 1995. ISSN   0212-033X . Retrieved 26 November 2025.
  21. Otero, Lara (18 June 1995). "Álvarez del Manzano se compromete a dar mayor protagonismo a los ciudadanos". El País. Madrid. Retrieved 29 November 2025.

Bibliography