The PSOE plans to approve a new primary election calendar to prepare for the 2027 regional and municipal elections, which introduces a key novelty: each federation will be able to choose whether to hold its internal processes in July, September, or November.
According to the party itself, the socialists will submit this "roadmap" to a vote at the next Federal Committee, which will take place on June 27 at the headquarters on Ferraz street, with the aim of launching the preparation for next year's electoral cycle as soon as possible.
This Wednesday, the Organization Secretary, Rebeca Torró, presented the plan to the Organization Secretaries of the different federations. The scheme affects regional organizations, municipalities with more than 20,000 inhabitants, and also island councils, insular councils, and general councils of Euskadi.
For the first time, the leadership emphasizes, the calendar will be structured into "three voluntary windows": July, September, and November, so that each territory can join the period it deems most appropriate.
The first window will open on June 29, just two days after the Federal Committee—the PSOE's highest decision-making body between Congresses—and the vote will be held on July 19. Between June 29 and July 1, the deadline for federations to communicate which municipalities and autonomous communities are opting for this first option will be set.
July 2 and 3 will be reserved for the presentation of candidacies, and from July 4 to 11, the collection of endorsements will take place. The information campaign will run between the 12th and the 18th, and on Sunday, July 19, the first round of voting will be held. If a second round were necessary, it would be called for Sunday the 26th, with an information campaign between the 20th and 25th of that month.
A tailor-made calendar for the territories
From Ferraz, they emphasize that this tailor-made calendar model responds to the demand that territorial organizations had been making to the PSOE's Organization Secretariat for the deadlines to be "flexible" and for each municipality, community, or council to be able to adjust them to its own reality.
The details of the dates for the September and November votes will be defined and approved by the Federal Executive Commission "in due course."
In city councils where the PSOE holds the mayoralty, primaries will only be called if more than 50% of the membership requests it and "with the authorization of the Federal Commission on Lists." In autonomous communities governed by socialists, the support of 40% of the affiliates or an agreement from the corresponding regional committee will be required. In these cases, the Federal Executive will set the specific calendar for holding the primaries.
Start of the electoral cycle towards 2027
With the approval of this primary calendar, the socialist leadership aims to "fully enter electoral mode" and "get the machinery moving" for the regional and municipal elections scheduled for the last Sunday of May 2027.
Along these lines, they grant "special relevance" to the Federal Committee in June, which they see as the starting gun for the next electoral cycle, with the aim of reaching that event strengthened, "in many more municipalities and autonomous communities and to revalidate the Government of Spain."