The PP bites the urban power of the PSOE by the hand of Vox

The demoscopy predicted excitement, draws and victories by a handful of ballots in the main municipalities and the municipal count has confirmed it. The PP has managed to bite hard the urban power of the PSOE and its candidates are emerging as mayors in fundamental places such as Seville, Valencia or Valladolid; yes, from the hand of Vox, which does not stop rising. The popular have overwhelmed with absolute majorities in Madrid, Malaga, Cádiz or Granada. The party of Pedro Sánchez loses Palma de Mallorca and Murcia and in Barcelona his expectations of making Jaume Collboni councilor are in the air: Xavier Trias, of Junts, who already wielded the baton of command between 2011 and 2015, has won, although everything will depend on the pacts. Ada Colau has been left without a third term by harvesting the third position by just 140 votes of difference.

The shift to the right of the most populated Spanish cities is resounding. The race to the 28-M started with the Socialists at the head of 4 of the 10 cities and at the moment only Las Palmas remains, with the former Minister of Health Carolina Darias as a candidate. The PP has gone from controlling three to seven: in addition to maintaining Madrid and Malaga with absolute majorities, it continues to lead Zaragoza (it is only one councilor away from adding more than all the other parties together) and is done with Seville, Murcia and Palma, in addition to Valencia. The parties of the Sumar area have lost the two large cities they led, Barcelona, with the commons, and Valencia, with Compromís, which is a blow to the project of Yolanda Díaz just a few months before the general elections. The PNV maintains the City Council of Bilbao, although with a significant rise of Bildu. The Basque capital has always been in the hands of the party of Iñigo Urkullu, with councilors who came to remain in office for long periods, up to 14 and 16 years.

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28-M elections: the results and reactions after the votes

The blue wave, which has swept Ciudadanos, has reached medium populations and in some cases with great force. In Badalona, the popular Xavier García Albiol has snatched the mayor's office from the PSOE with a result well above the absolute majority. The socialist Núria Parlón does retain her absolute majority in Santa Coloma de Gramenet (Barcelona), where Gabriel Rufián has presented himself as a candidate of ERC and has only risen one seat. To the right its rise in the Valencian Community has brought them more trophies apart from the government of the capital: in Castellón, the PP becomes the most voted and takes the mayor's office from the Socialists with Vox, which rises from one to four councilors. In Alicante, the popular, who already govern, also rise and surpass alone the left bloc without needing Vox.

Less than a year after its absolute majority in the regional elections, the PP takes over the local governments of seven of the eight capitals of Andalusia. The popular win by absolute majority in Malaga, Almeria, Granada and Cadiz and are the most voted in Seville, Cordoba and Huelva. The PSOE only manages to retain the first place in Jaén, but it may not be enough: the party of Alberto Núñez Feijóo could obtain the mayor's office with Vox and the independent candidacy of Jaén Deserves More. The popular one that has lost the absolute majority is Ángeles Muñoz in Marbella (Málaga), although it will be enough to agree with the extreme right to continue governing. The socialist candidate for re-election in Maracena (Granada) has also been left without her, who was splashed in the middle of the campaign by the kidnapping of a colleague of the government team by her ex-partner.

In Galicia, however, the first elections without Feijóo are settled with discreet results for the PP of Alfonso Rueda. In the seven cities, where until now they did not hold a single mayor's office, the popular have had a single joy: they have reached an absolute majority in Ferrol and will govern the city that was now in the hands of the PSOE. The Socialists return to sweep in Vigo and maintain A Coruña and Lugo. In Santiago, one of the surprises of the night, the BNG, which continues its upward trend, has snatched the hegemony of the left from the party of the fist and the rose and could lead a tripartite. In Ourense, the independent González Pérez Jácome overcomes the scandals that have dogged him throughout the legislature and, passing over popular and socialists, ascends to the first force.

In Euskadi, the controversy that the PP stirred so much in the campaign for the inclusion in its lists of candidates who have served a sentence for terrorism has not damaged Bildu, quite the opposite. The formation of Arnaldo Otegi eats ground to the PNV and the 28-M predicts for next year a hard autonomic battle between the Basque nationalists. The retreat of the Lehendakari's party is general. EH Bildu could even govern in Vitoria, the theoretically less nationalist capital, where it has been the most voted force. In Pamplona, the struggle for mayor is fought between Unión del Pueblo Navarro (UPN) and Bildu.

It was the exit polls that began to smile on the popular leaders. In addition to sweeping Madrid, they predicted their rise to first place in Valencia and in Andalusian capitals such as Seville, Granada, Huelva or Cádiz. The votes now give way to another frantic stage: that of the pacts. The parties have until June 17, the day on which the local corporations will be constituted, to negotiate the investiture or coalition agreements with which the mayors of the vast majority of the municipalities will be elected, those in which no one has achieved an absolute majority. Predictably, it will also be the time for surprises, both in alliances and in ruptures.

Receive the bulletin 'Diario electoral' written by the deputy director of EL PAÍS Claudi Pérez. And here, all the live information about the 28M.

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