Rob Horgan
WOMEN still take a back seat in Spanish town hall politics.
Yes, the boss of Andalucia’s Junta is a woman – Susana Diaz is also pregnant – and Marbella’s mayor is also female. But in Malaga Province, for example, only 26% of candidate lists are topped by women, while 32 municipalities have no female mayoral runners at all.
In total, 430 candidates are standing for mayor in the province with an alarming 318 (74%) being men.
Although the PP and PSOE are standing in all 103 of Malaga’s municipalities, they are only presenting 30 and 27 female mayoral candidates respectively.
The IU is fielding 31 female candidates (out of 96 municipalities) and Ciudadanos has five women challengers in the 18 towns it is contesting.
In Malaga city, there are just three female candidates out of 15 parties running.
While in Marbella, current PP Mayor Angeles Munoz and Inma Munoz of SIMA are the only two women among 11 parties in the running.
There are currently 21 female mayors in Malaga Province – less than a quarter of the total number. This will probably increase in this election, but there is a long way to go before gender equality rules within Spain’s local political sphere.
