Government and politics in Barcelona

Barcelona is managed by the City Council which consists 41 councillors, elected for 4-year term in the general elections. As one of the two largest cities in Spain, Barcelona is a subject of individual act specified in Carta Municipal. The first version of that bill was created in 1960 and later few times changed. The most current version was approved in March 2006. This bill gives the city council special rights for its relation with the central government, and also the wider range of rights for the Mayor. It also widen the City Council's authority in fields, such as: telecommunication, traffic, traffic security and public security.

The City Council's headquarter is located at Plaça Sant Jaume, in opposite to head office of Generalitat de Catalunya.



Since Spain introduced the democracy, Barcelona was ruled by PSC, party which won the first elections by a majority of votes, and later by PSC which comes to coalition with ERC and ICV. Since May 2007 PSC is in minority coalition just with ICV, because ERC decided to came out against renewal the previous term coalition. The second political power in Barcelona is CiU, and the third PP - both are in opposition to PSC and IC coalition.



Main politic parties:

PSC - Partit dels Socialistes de Catalunya - Socialists' Party of Catalonia

ICV - Iniciativa per Catalunya Verds - Initiative for Catalonia Greens

ERC - Esquerra Republicana de Catalunya - Republica Left of Catalonia campaigning for the independence of Catalonia from Spain.

CiU - Convergencia i Unió - Convergence and Union, conservative and centrist party.

PP - Partido Popular - People's Party - the main right political party in Spain.