Badalona, the historically left-wing city that votes for the right 

The People's Party, the major conservative party across Spain, has never managed to gain much of a foothold in Catalonia but for a major exception: Badalona. 

The coastal city directly north of the Catalan capital was once part of Barcelona's so-called red belt of Socialist cities and towns in the metropolitan area, the party's charismatic Xavier García Albiol put an end to that 32-year trend in 2011. 

Albiol, with his anti-immigrant rhetoric, tough stance on crime, and defense of private property, was mayor until 2015 and then again from 2020 to 2021 when his second term was cut short by a motion of no confidence brought forth after he was named in the Pandora Papers scandal. 

And although the politician is also at the center of an ongoing legal battle - in 2012 he greenlighted the construction of cell phone towers that did not have the appropriate license - that could eventually see him barred from office, his popularity remains high.  

Political instability

One reason these issues have not put an end to Albiol's career in Badalona is that the city is no stranger to political instability. It has had a grand total of four mayors and two motions of no confidence - only one of which was Albiol's - in 8 years. 

In 2018, far-left Guanyem Badalona en Comú mayor Dolors Sabater was ousted three years into her term after failing to get the budget passed. 

Her successor Àlex Pastor's term was even shorter, ending in a far more dramatic manner. The Socialist stepped down in April 2020 after being arrested for breaking lockdown orders and driving under the influence, paving the way for Albiol's second term as left-wing parties were unable to put forth an alternative candidate. 

Candidate over party

Another thing Albiol's sustained popularity suggests is that Badalona is one of the rare Catalan municipalities where the candidate is more important than the party: the politician won 37% of the vote in the 2019 elections, whiles his party won a mere 3.8% in the 2021 Catalan vote. 

A similar phenomenon can be found in Terrassa, which like Badalona, was once firmly part of Barcelona's red belt. In late 2017, the popular mayor Jordi Ballart, then a Socialist, resigned in protest against the party's stance on direct rule from Madrid following the independence referendum. The next year he created a new unaligned party, Tot per Terrassa, with which he won the 2019 local election.    

In any case, although support for Albiol is strong in Badalona, the politician will likely need more than a simple majority to secure his post as mayor after May 28 if he does not want a left-wing post-electoral alliance blocking his way.