2015 saw a large number of cities in Spain vote in new municipalist governments that sprang from social movements, notably the 15M movement of 2011. After four years of experimentation and struggle within and around city institutions, a new round of elections in May 2019 saw many of these candidacies decline in votes: only a few cities maintained the same municipalist mayors (Cádiz and Barcelona are examples of big cities; there are too many small cities and villages to list here). The reasons for this are manifold, complex, and locally specific: from political conjunctures to internal divisions and beyond. Below we share a few articles of analysis from Málaga, Madrid and Barcelona from June 2019 that we have used in our research (there is a myriad more places, viewpoints and texts, and much analysis to follow too, of course):
- Madrid/Interview with Pablo Carmona: “El bloque del cambio ha entendido, de manera irracional, que madurar es hacerse más conservador“ [ES]
- Barcelona/Interview with David Harvey: “Els ajuntaments no canvien si no hi ha moviments socials pressionant” [CAT]
- Málaga/Juan Díaz, Crisis del Municipalismo democrático [ES]