Local and regional elections were held on 22 May 2011 in Spain. Some 34,6 million voters (including half a million foreign residents with voting rights) were called to elect the mayor and city councils of 8.116 municipalities all across Spain. At the same time, elections were held for the provincial councils in the mainland and the island councils, called “Cabildos” in the Canaries. Moreover, 13 out of the 17 autonomous regions (Andalusia, Catalonia, Galicia and the Basque Country have different electoral cycles) plus the Spanish cities of Ceuta and Melilla in North Africa elected their regional parliaments.
The elections were a victory for the centre-right opposition Popular Party (PP), which won its best result in local elections since Spain returned to democracy in 1978. The governing Socialist Party (PSOE) suffered severe losses in every region and lost nearly all the largest cities of Spain.
Both our municipality Mogán and the neighbour town of San Bartolomé de Tirajana gave the absolute majority to the Popular Party too, which will not depend on any other party to form the local government. It might now be possible to approve the new PGOU (General Plan for Urban Organisation), which has long been postponed in both towns due to the lack of a sufficient majority and the impossibility to reach an agreement between the different parties. The approval of that legal instrument is absolutely necessary for the further development of the south of Gran Canaria.
