Madrid’s PSOE prepares for 2027 local elections amid tensions in key cities

“I accept it, but I do not agree with it.” Enma López’s response to being removed from the leadership of Madrid’s PSOE council group captures the friction already surrounding the party’s preparations for the 2027 municipal elections.

López lost the primary to become the party’s candidate to Reyes Maroto. The regional leadership, headed by minister Óscar López, presents the changes as routine. Yet internal clashes over candidate lists have become public in Alcalá de Henares and Leganés, while the choice of Murcian politician Juana López Pagán in Móstoles has surprised party members. She is expected to challenge Popular Party mayor Manuel Bautista, who is under investigation over alleged harassment offences.

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I accept it, but I do not agree with it.

The Madrid PSOE’s organisation secretary, Pilar Sánchez Acera, says the party intends to defeat the Popular Party in the region and at Madrid City Hall. She argues that the party is entering a period in which it can offer residents new projects across the region’s municipalities, and denies that the organisation is experiencing internal tensions.

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We are going to defeat the Popular Party in the Community of Madrid. We want to defeat the Popular Party at Madrid City Hall. We want to defeat the Popular Party.

Alcalá de Henares presents a sharper problem. The regional leadership says there will be no primary election there. PSOE councillor Miguel Castillejo Calvo and three other councillors have called for an internal vote, saying members learned through the media that the process had been cancelled. Castillejo described the decision as “a deeply discouraging message” and criticised the local branch for remaining under a caretaker body without political leadership for more than six months.

Sánchez Acera says the reasons that led to the caretaker arrangement have not been resolved. She says municipalities with more than 20,000 residents will hold primaries, except Alcalá, and urges the party to focus on offering voters its strongest project rather than turning inward. The caretaker body took control in March 2026 after the resignation of former general secretary Javier Rodríguez Palacios, following an irreconcilable dispute with his organisation secretary, Enrique Nogués. The party’s calendar includes another window for preliminary candidacies in November, although Sánchez Acera says no candidate has yet been confirmed.

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a deeply discouraging message