He directed the transformation of the city of Alicante without debate, moving from district to district. Control was restored in districts considered as the city’s red belt, where the strategy was to gain influence swiftly and decisively.
Popular candidate Louis Barcala and his party secured 28 million votes in the capital, across the eight districts into a map that had historically placed working-class neighborhoods under a socialist influence. With three districts previously won, the two formations ended up with nine councilors each, a margin of just over two thousand votes separating them.
Four years on, the gap between the two major forces widened to more than twenty thousand supporters, with Barcala receiving 40.73% of the vote and the PSOE 25.96%. The strongest support cluster was in district 4, which includes the beachfront area, where Barcala’s slate tallied about 15,095 votes. Four years earlier the tally in this area was 8,991, bringing the share close to half of the ballots cast.
The next strongest region for the popular candidate was district 6, known as PAU 1 and 2, where 9,186 votes went to PP. In terms of share, the center area continued to tilt toward Barcala, securing roughly 57% of the votes and 6,186 ballots in total.
Barcala’s momentum shifts attention in Alicante
In the run-up, Vox and its allied groups saw a surge in support, particularly in the northern districts. The surge increased votes from 8,578 to 21,083, signaling a shift away from the central districts and reducing the ultras’ dominance in the city’s core.
PSOE faces losses across quarters
The Socialists, meanwhile, ceded control of the four territories they had held at the start of the term. Their influence diminished in areas including the environment belt around Carolinas, the Northern Territory, Saint Blaise, and PAU 1 and 2, all while the long-standing red belt near Florida and rebel-related districts remained a stronghold for opponents. The party’s main base in the city continued to be the Northern Territory, which delivered 7,811 votes, a decline of about 13 percentage points from four years prior.
The only notable uptick for the Socialists appeared in the coastal region, where they gained roughly a thousand additional votes, though the percentage share did not rise.
Loyalty remains the central question after these municipal elections mapped the city in blue, a pattern that has proved durable in most constituencies. In particular, the environment around Saint Blaise and PAU 1 and 2 held steady as their principal strongholds. The More coalition, which at one point saw 2,163 votes, roughly 9%, posted a gain of about 400 compared with four years ago. A similar increase occurred in the 3rd district, covering the Pla-Carolinas region, illustrating how political loyalties shifted but did not uniformly move across all areas.
Election results in Alicante: Barcala nears an absolute majority
On election night, the coalition that includes various groups such as the European Union-affiliated allies, Podemos, ERCV and Alianza Verde did not surpass the 6% threshold in the Carolinas, particularly in the central and coastal zones. In several districts, the purple faction crossed the 10% mark, signaling a partial realignment in the city’s political landscape. Manolo Kopeck emerged as a key figure in the mayoral race, though the coalition fell short of broad representation in the city’s broader assembly. A dedicated parliamentary seat in town planning remained in the hands of a conservative-leaning bloc, while the orange-aligned candidates achieved modest results, notably around PAU 1 and 2 and the beachfront precincts, echoing the party’s room for growth.
The overall distribution suggested that the party with the largest bloc of votes did not yet secure a dominant majority, leaving the political map of Alicante in a state of flux. The central districts and the northern sectors continued to shape the balance of power as the city looked toward future elections and policy coalitions across the urban landscape.