Seville wants to be as capital as Madrid, Barcelona, ​​Santiago or Zaragoza

"It's enough that the one who is the most beautiful has to be continually justifying herself."

This is how a resident of Seville addressed her mayor, the socialist Antonio Muñoz, to show her support in her claim that the one that appears in the Statute of Autonomy as the capital of Andalusia has that singularity recognized in a norm.

Muñoz, endorsed by a plenary session that voted unanimously for the initiative last July, has dusted off a historical demand from the city of Seville: to have a capital law that protects it from greater financing, provides it with more skills and investment capacity to face the inconveniences of being the headquarters of the institutions of the Junta and leading one of the most populated metropolitan areas in Spain, with 1,

"Being the capital of Andalusia is not a wish of this mayor, it is included in the Statute of Autonomy," says Muñoz.

"I claim to have the same special legal framework that other Spanish capitals enjoy, where their autonomous communities have developed regulations that collect what it means and means to be the capital," he maintains.

The mayor of Seville wants to follow the path that Vitoria began in 1980, which Barcelona consolidated in 1998 and which has been joined by other cities such as Palma de Mallorca, Santiago de Compostela, Santas Cruz de Tenerife, Mérida or Madrid itself, among others .

They all enjoy a special legal status developed by their respective Parliaments, which guarantees them autonomy in the management of certain powers, but, above all, specific financing.

The last to join this club of capitals recognized by law has been Zaragoza, in 2017. Valencia is working on it, but the negotiations for the development of its standard are at a standstill.

“In Spain, the local regime has always been very uniform.

The 1985 Local Regime Bases Law, in fact, did not differentiate between municipalities”, explains Silvia Díez Sastre, professor of Administrative Law and director of the Local Law Institute of the Autonomous University of Madrid.

“The local differentiation movement began to change at the end of the 1990s and is reflected in the 2003 law on large cities, where it is realized that a large city, by population, by need for services and by the political composition of its government bodies, it must have a different organization from that of other municipalities”, he points out.

Large cities, and also some provincial capitals, have become global players in recent times and localities with a certain weight, not only institutional, but also economic, long for differentiated recognition that paves the bureaucratic path for them when it comes to directly exercise certain powers over essential services, such as transport, social services, housing, employment or education, have greater direct management of security, be able to host large events, but, above all, have a legal guarantee of access to resources own economics.

This status is what Barcelona has guaranteed with its Municipal Charter granted in 1998. "It is an essential instrument for the governance of the city, it is like our own Statute of Autonomy," says Jordi Martí, Councilor for the Presidency of the City Council of the capital Catalan.

The norm, explains Martí, contemplates four obligatory consortia with the Generalitat in matters of social services, housing, health and education.

“These are powers that in the Spanish legal system should be attributed to autonomous governments, but whose management is recognized by the Charter,” indicates the mayor, who points out that the text proposes more transfers, such as local justice, which has not yet been They have developed.

Unlike other capitals of communities that have this singularity recognized by law, in Barcelona the agreement to determine the financing and its powers is not exclusive to the Autonomous Government, but also includes the central Executive, a three-way body that It is only replicated in Madrid and which Seville would also like to have "to speed up the coordination of large events or visits by heads of state or senior officials," Muñoz explains.

Friction in Zaragoza and Santiago and deadlock with Valencia

Valencia Town Hall Square. MÓNICA TORRES

"The problem of recognizing a specific capital status is legal, but it is also largely political," warns Roberto Galán, professor of Administrative Law at the University of Seville, who points not only to "the possible comparative grievances with other cities ”, but to the agreements and balances that must be reached between City Councils and regional governments to agree on financing.

"If there is no political will there may be a law, but it will not be enforced," he warns.

It is

what has happened in Aragon, where its current president, the socialist Javier Lambán, approved the Zaragoza special regime law in 2017, when it was governed by Zaragoza en Común, but it was not developed until 2021, when pressure from the new mayor, the popular Jorge Azcón, to provide it with content, led to the signing of an agreement to legally guarantee the Aragonese capital an annual financing of 20 million euros.

In Santiago de Compostela, the disparity of political colors between the consistory and the Xunta has also generated tensions on account of financing.

The Galician capital has just celebrated the 20th anniversary of its capital status by which the autonomous government grants the City Council annual funding, the amount of which currently amounts to 2.39 million.

In Valencia, the Municipal Charter project, an old aspiration of all municipal governments, regardless of their color, was promoted almost definitively in 2018, when the coalition of Compromís, PSPV and Podem that governed in the City Council presented a draft to the president of the Generalitat, the socialist Ximo Puig, where more powers, more autonomy and special financing were requested due to its status as capital.

The negotiation was parked, according to municipal sources, due to the proximity of the 2019 local elections and later due to the pandemic.

However, Mayor Joan Ribó, from Compromís, sent a letter last May reminding the Generalitat of the need to address, among other issues, the uniqueness of the city.

There is, therefore,

Misgivings from other municipalities

Facade of the City Hall of Malaga. GARCÍA-SANTOS

"The capital status can go as far as politics wants to go," says Professor Díez.

In Andalusia, the Board has cooled Seville's expectations of developing a capital law in this legislature.

They allege that their commitment to the city is evident by the investments made in the last four years and they also do not want, at the gates of municipal elections, to inconvenience one of their great assets, Francisco de la Torre, the mayor of Malaga, considered as the economic capital of the region, which has always opposed Seville having additional funding shielded by law, even when that initiative was raised by his party colleague, Juan Ignacio Zoido, when he was mayor of the Andalusian capital.

“The other municipalities of Andalusia would not understand that Seville received an added preferential treatment, to a certain extent selfish, for being the capital when being the capital already supposes an enormous preferential treatment.

I have said it many times, I would pay to be capital”, explains De la Torre.

The Malaga councilor considers that being a capital, without the need for any regulation that recognizes it, entails more advantages than disadvantages and points out that in Seville "there are at least 50,000 more civil servants than in Malaga who raise their average income and boost their economy, a economy that in Malaga is propelled by the economic dynamism of the private sector, not by the administrative apparatus of the Junta”.

The suspicion is not exclusive to Malaga.

Bilbao at the time was also opposed to Vitoria being recognized as the capital of Euskadi.

But, precisely, since 1980, the Law on the Headquarters of the Institutions of the Community of the Basque Country has granted the city of Alava a status that guarantees specific financing through agreements that now amounts to 10 million euros per year, and that many City Councils of capitals with laws of capital status in force, put as a model of collaboration and efficiency.

Political interest to have more privileges or an effective mechanism to be able to develop essential skills to attend to needs that are multiplied by the size of its population, the presence of institutions, of demonstrations or so that the capitals can develop their full potential —in many sometimes much greater than that of their own communities—in a global context of brutal urban competition.

"The tool can be useful as long as it fits in with reality," says Díez.

With information from

The exception of Madrid

Not all capital laws contemplate financial issues.

This is the case of Madrid, approved in 2006 when Alberto Ruiz-Gallardón was mayor, which does not contemplate any chapter to provide more income to the city nor does it include any increase in powers, although it does incorporate procedures to speed up decision-making.

As in the case of the Barcelona Charter, the Madrid norm also constitutes the Capital Commission in which the General State Administration, the Community of Madrid and the City Council are represented. 

"The case of Madrid is very interesting because of the coordinating body of the three administrations", underlines the professor of Administrative Law and director of the Institute of Local Law of the Autonomous University of Madrid, Silvia Díez Sastre.

Madrid's capital law focuses on security issues related to official State acts that are held in the capital or demonstrations in which the security forces intervene.