A municipal election was held in Barcelona on 28 May 1995 to elect the 5th City Council of the municipality. All 41 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.

The unveiling of numerous corruption scandals throughout 1994 affecting Felipe González's Socialist government marked the electoral campaign. For the first time in 16 years, a real possibility for change in the local government resulted in a heated race between Socialists' Party of Catalonia (PSC) candidate and incumbent Mayor Pasqual Maragall and Convergence and Union (CiU) candidate Miquel Roca. Another factors influencing the political debate were the People's Party (PP) rise in opinion polls as well as Republican Left of Catalonia (ERC) recovery.

The election resulted in a surprising comfortable win for PSC and Pasqual Maragall, which was elected for a fourth consecutive term in office with 16 seats and 38.4%. On the other hand, CiU suffered from the PP growth and obtained its worst result since 1983, winning 13 seats and 30.6%. The People's Party nearly doubled its 1991 result with 7 seats and 16.6%, while both Initiative for Catalonia (IC) and ERC improved their electoral performances, with the latter narrowly surpassing the 5% threshold to enter the City Council.

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 (), local corporations with independent legal personality composed of a mayor, a government council and an elected legislative assembly.; . The mayor was indirectly elected by the local assembly, requiring an absolute majority; otherwise, the candidate from the most-voted party automatically became mayor (ties were resolved by drawing lots).; . In the case of Barcelona, the top-tier administrative and governing body was the City Council of Barcelona. ( by ).

Date The term of local assemblies 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. The election decree was required to be issued no later than 54 days before the scheduled election date and published on the following day in the Official State Gazette (BOE).. 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 assemblies could not be dissolved before the expiration 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—decide to call a by-election..

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

Electoral system Voting for local assemblies was based on universal suffrage, comprising all Spanish nationals over 18 years of age, registered and residing in the municipality and with full political rights (provided that they had not been deprived of the right to vote by a final sentence, nor were legally incapacitated), as well as resident non-nationals whose country of origin allowed reciprocal voting by virtue of a treaty or within the framework of Community Law.; ; .

Local councillors were elected using the D'Hondt method and closed-list proportional voting, with a five percent-threshold of valid votes (including blank ballots) in each municipality.. Each municipality was a multi-member constituency, with a number of seats based on the following scale:.

Population Councillors <250 5 251–1,000 7 1,001–2,000 9 2,001–5,000 11 5,001–10,000 13 10,001–20,000 17 20,001–50,000 21 50,001–100,000 25 >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 vacant seats; instead, any vacancies arising after the proclamation of candidates and during the legislative term were filled by the next candidates on the party lists or, when required, by designated substitutes..

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 were required to inform the relevant electoral commission within 10 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. In the case of Barcelona, as its population was over 1,000,001, at least 8,000 signatures were required..

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

Candidacy Parties andalliances Leading candidate Ideology Previous result Vote % Seats PSC–PSOE Pasqual Maragall Social democracy 42.9% CiU Miquel Roca Catalan nationalismCentrism 34.1% PP Enrique Lacalle ConservatismChristian democracy 9.8% IC–EV Eulàlia Vintró Eco-socialismGreen politics 7.6% ERC Pilar Rahola Catalan independenceLeft-wing nationalismSocial democracy 2.6%

Campaign Debates + 1995 Barcelona municipal election debates Date Organizer(s) Moderator(s) PSC CiU Audience 22 May Antena 3 Manuel Campo Vidal

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; 21 seats were required for an absolute majority in the City Council of Barcelona (22 in the 1991 election).

Polling firm/Commissioner Fieldwork date Sample size Turnout IC Lead 1995 municipal election 28 May 1995 66.2 38.4 30.6 16.6 7.6 5.1 7.8 Eco Consulting/TV3 28 May 1995?? 37.4 29.7 16.2 8.2 5.7 7.7 Vox Pública/Antena 3 28 May 1995???????? Demoscopia/Tele 5 28 May 1995???????? Sigma Dos/COPE 28 May 1995???????? Marketing Telefónico/Avui 21 May 1995 906? 34.3 36.1 13.7 7.8 4.2 1.8 Vox Pública/El Periódico 18–19 May 1995 800? 34.2 32.0 15.2 10.2 4.4 2.2 Opina/La Vanguardia 17 May 1995 1,500? 37.9 35.3 11.1 8.8 4.0 2.6 Demoscopia/El País 10–15 May 1995 1,000? 31.3 32.6 15.8 10.5 4.8 1.3 CIS 26 Apr–11 May 1995 700 65.7 34.2 34.6 14.7 8.4 5.8 0.4 Sigma Dos/El Mundo 3–7 May 1995 500? 32.0 32.0 17.8 7.7 6.2 Tie Opina/La Vanguardia 18 Apr 1995 1,000? 38.0 40.0 8.5 7.0 5.0 2.0 Vox Pública/El Periódico 29–30 Mar 1995 800? 31.9 37.6 13.1 8.8 4.5 5.7 Atelier-V/PP 20 Feb 1995 800? 32.0 33.0 21.0 8.0 6.0 1.0 Gruppo/ABC 9–14 Feb 1995 400? 32.7 34.8 16.2 7.7 5.2 2.1 Opina/La Vanguardia 12–13 Dec 1994 1,000? 38.1 39.3 9.8 7.8 5.0 1.2 Marketing Telefónico/Avui 6 Nov 1994?? 34.8 35.8??? 1.0 1994 EP election 12 Jun 1994 54.3 23.1 31.7 23.4 11.3 5.3 8.3 1993 general election 6 Jun 1993 77.2 28.9 32.5 21.8 8.1 4.8 3.6 1992 regional election 15 Mar 1992 55.5 23.5 47.5 8.6 7.0 7.5 24.0 1991 municipal election 26 May 1991 55.5 42.9 34.1 9.8 6.4 2.6 8.8

Voting preferences The table below lists raw, unweighted voting preferences.

Polling firm/Commissioner Fieldwork date Sample size IC Lead 1995 municipal election 28 May 1995 25.4 20.2 11.0 5.0 3.4 33.8 5.2 CIS 26 Apr–11 May 1995 700 31.9 22.1 4.6 4.4 3.9 22.1 7.9 9.8 1994 EP election 12 Jun 1994 12.5 17.1 12.7 6.1 2.9 45.7 4.4 1993 general election 6 Jun 1993 22.3 25.0 16.7 6.3 3.7 22.8 2.7 1992 regional election 15 Mar 1992 13.0 26.3 4.8 4.2 3.9 44.5 13.3 1991 municipal election 26 May 1991 23.8 18.9 5.4 3.6 1.4 44.5 4.9

Victory preferences The table below lists opinion polling on the victory preferences for each party in the event of a municipal election taking place.

Polling firm/Commissioner Fieldwork date Sample size Other/None Lead CIS 26 Apr–11 May 1995 700 43.5 30.9 – 25.5 12.6

Victory likelihood The table below lists opinion polling on the perceived likelihood of victory for each party in the event of a municipal election taking place.

Polling firm/Commissioner Fieldwork date Sample size Other/None Lead CIS 26 Apr–11 May 1995 700 47.0 27.8 – 25.1 19.2

Preferred Mayor The table below lists opinion polling on leader preferences to become mayor of Barcelona.

Polling firm/Commissioner Fieldwork date Sample size Other/None/Notcare Lead CIS 26 Apr–11 May 1995 700 52.4 28.1 4.7 14.8 24.3 CIS 20 Feb–6 Mar 1995? 53.3 27.5 2.5 16.7 25.8

Results + ← Summary of the 28 May 1995 City Council of Barcelona election results → Parties and alliances Popular vote Seats Votes % ±pp Total +/− Socialists' Party of Catalonia (PSC–PSOE) 347,083 38.39 −4.56 16 −4 Convergence and Union (CiU) 276,276 30.56 −3.50 13 −3 People's Party (PP) 150,284 16.62 +6.83 7 +3 Initiative for Catalonia–The Greens (IC–EV)1 68,813 7.61 +0.03 3 ±0 Republican Left of Catalonia (ERC) 46,272 5.12 +2.55 2 +2 Ecologist Alternative of Catalonia (AEC) 3,304 0.37 New 0 ±0 Democratic and Social Centre (CDS) 1,256 0.14 −0.70 0 ±0 Revolutionary Workers' Party (POR) 726 0.08 +0.01 0 ±0 Civic Platform–New Socialist Party (PC–NPS) 571 0.06 New 0 ±0 Workers' Revolutionary Party (PRT)2 376 0.04 −0.13 0 ±0 Platform of Independents of Spain (PIE) 320 0.04 New 0 ±0 Humanist Platform (PH)3 298 0.03 −0.77 0 ±0 European Nation State (N) 181 0.02 New 0 ±0 Blank ballots 8,263 0.91 −0.01 Total 904,023 41 −2 Valid votes 904,023 99.78 +0.08 Invalid votes 2,015 0.22 −0.08 Votes cast / turnout 906,038 66.22 +10.71 Abstentions 462,110 33.78 −10.71 Registered voters 1,368,148 Sources

Aftermath Government formation Investiture Ballot → 17 June 1995 Required majority → 21 out of 41 Absentees Sources

1997 investiture Investiture Ballot → 26 September 1997 Required majority → 21 out of 41 Abstentions/Blank ballots Absentees Sources

Notes

References Opinion poll sources

Other

Bibliography