Start the campaign for local and regional elections in Spain

USPA NEWS - The campaign of local and regional elections in Spain on May 24 starts this Friday, May 8. Candidates have fifteen days to convince voters in an election in which more than mayors or regional governments is played.

In this election year that began with European elections and end with the legislative, the meeting of May 24 serves to gauge the capacity of the two major parties, the conservative PP and the Socialist Party, to maintain the status quo, and the ability emerging parties to come to power. Local and regional elections called to the polls to 36,016,031 citizens entitled to vote. For local, to be held in all municipalities in Spain, 34,925,499 voters are summoned. To regional, to be held in 13 regions, citizens with voting rights are 19,840,597. Of these, 911 045 are Spanish residents abroad.

Of the nearly 35 million who will elect their mayors and councilors are 34,521,871 Spaniards and 463 628 are foreigners resident in Spain and have voting rights under EU law. These voting foreigners come mainly from Romania, United Kingdom, Italy, Germany and France, and are concentrated in the Spanish provinces of Alicante, on the east coast of the country; Malaga and Almeria in the south coast and the Balearic Islands.

The elections of May 24 will have a double meaning. In addition to the election of mayors and councilors, ministers and presidents of the autonomous communities, the polls will throw a political map that, if forecasts are met, open a new period in the history of Spain. For many, these elections will certify the end of bipartisanship and reflected a sharp fall of the conservative Popular Party (PP), which supports the Government of Spain, and the Socialist Party (PSOE), which has not taken advantage of the social discontent with economic crisis and the austerity policies of Mariano Rajoy. Of those falls emerging parties take advantage, especially Citizens (C's in its acronym in Spanish), center-left will, and the populist Podemos.

Until then, the campaign that starts at midnight on Friday, May 8 promises intensity and a flurry of promises on the issues close to the citizens: those affecting municipalities. The Spanish prime minister, Mariano Rajoy, and all his cabinet ministers will be dumped in the campaign in order to improve the image of the Executive and highlight the economic gains achieved. Not surprisingly, these local and regional elections will also be a preview of what may happen in November in the legislative.