The PSOE will hold primaries in only four city councils to choose candidates for the 2027 municipal elections

The PSOE will face the first phase of its internal process for the 2027 municipal and regional elections with primaries only in four city councils. After concluding the collection of endorsements, only Madrid, Oviedo, Ferrol, and Torrelavega will have to hold votes to decide who will lead the socialist candidacies, while in the rest of the territories in this first phase, the candidacies have already been defined.

The consultation with the party members will take place next July 19 and is part of the calendar approved by the Federal Committee, which foresees the periods of July, September, and November for the designation of candidates. The procedure affects municipalities with more than 20,000 inhabitants, as well as cabildos, insular consells, general assemblies of the Basque Country, and autonomous communities. Territories where the PSOE already governs are excluded.

Among the candidacies that have already been confirmed is that of Minister Óscar López, who will head the party's list for the Community of Madrid after lawyer Silvia López Quivira failed to gather the necessary endorsements. Minister Diana Morant in the Valencian Community, Rosario Sánchez Grau in the Balearic Islands, Pedro Casares in Cantabria, and Paco Lucas in the Region of Murcia have also been designated without the need for primaries.

The collection of endorsements leaves four open contests

Attention will be mainly focused on the Madrid City Council, where former minister Reyes Maroto and councilwoman Enma López will compete to become the socialist candidate for Mayor.

There will also be a vote in Ferrol, where former mayor Ángel Mato and former councilwoman Eva Martínez Montero will face each other, as well as in Torrelavega, where the local party general secretary, José Luis Urraca, and the former mayor of Cartes, Agustín Molleda, are running.

The most open case will be that of Oviedo, where three aspirants are vying to lead the candidacy: Sergio Llera, Enrique Rodríguez Nuño, and Almudena Cueto. If none reaches an absolute majority of the votes cast, the regulations provide for a second round on July 26 between the two most supported candidates.