Elections in Andalusia 2026: who is who among the candidates aspiring to govern the Junta

The countdown begins for the Andalusian elections on May 17. This Friday, May 1, the electoral campaign opens, which for two weeks will serve the Andalusians to determine whom they place their trust in.

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Additionally, they will serve as a grand finale to this electoral cycle inaugurated in December in Extremadura and which will conclude on May 17. One year before the municipal and regional elections of May 2027.

There are 25 candidacies and three coalitions running in the elections, but only five lists out of the total 28 have real chances of obtaining representation. Among the PP, PSOE, Vox, Por Andalucía, and Adelante Andalucía, the 109 seats in the Andalusian Parliament will be divided – if there are no surprises.

Juanma Moreno Bonilla (1970) has already led the Junta de Andalucía for two legislatures and aims to achieve a third. Born in Barcelona, he spent his first three months of life in the Catalan city before his family returned to Málaga.

He has dedicated his entire life to his party, the PP. He started in the youth wing – Nuevas Generaciones – of which he became president. In his youth, he was also a vocalist in pop-rock bands, being the singer of the groups Lapsus Psíquico and Falsas Realidades.

Beyond his musical beginnings, he has been a councilor in the Málaga City Council and a deputy in the Andalusian Parliament and the Congress. Until in 2014 he returned to Andalusia to lead the regional PP and contest the presidency of the Junta against Susana Díaz.

In his second attempt in 2018, he managed to reach the San Telmo palace supported by the votes of Ciudadanos – which entered the coalition government – and Vox. For the first time in democracy, the PSOE lost the presidency of Andalusia.

Moreno stands out for his calm tone and usually distances himself from the most ultra positions of his party. He has been one of the few to criticize the pact in Extremadura and to question the legality of the national priority.

That attitude earned him his first absolute majority in 2022, which he now hopes to repeat so he does not have to negotiate with Vox, his potential sole ally in the chamber.

However, his career has also been tainted by the breast cancer screening scandal. The Health Department did not notify more than 2000 women of the results of preventive oncological detection tests, which generated large social mobilizations and cost two health ministers their positions.

Despite everything, polls again place him on the edge of an absolute majority – 55 deputies – and he is the favorite to renew the position.

The only female candidate for the presidency – among the five main parties – returns to her community. After being a minister in all Pedro Sánchez governments and reaching the first vice presidency of the Executive, María Jesús Montero (1966) returns to Andalusia, where she was already Minister of Health and Finance. In the pre-campaign, she claimed to be “the most powerful woman in democracy.”

She left regional politics in 2018 when she moved to Madrid, coinciding with the years of PP government in San Telmo. She still holds her seat in Congress, waiting to resign it when she takes office as a deputy in Andalusia.

Graduated in medicine from the University of Seville, she is a specialist in health management and financing, thanks to all these years leading the Finance portfolio. Precisely, health and financing are the main axes of her campaign with which she hopes to provide solutions to Andalusians and highlight the poor management of the current government’s screening crisis.

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In her youth, she belonged to grassroots Christian movements but quickly shifted towards the Communist Youth. After closing her most militant stage, the polls will determine if her decision to return to her land has been worthwhile. For now, surveys predict poor results for the PSOE, which would remain around the 30 deputies it currently has.

Manuel Gavira (1966) is the third candidate to lead Vox in Andalusia since the party has run in the elections. Only Francisco Serrano – 2015 and 2019 – has managed to repeat as the head of the list for Abascal’s party. Gavira took the Andalusian baton from Macarena Olona, who was another victim of the party’s internal power struggles.

A lawyer by profession, this will be his third legislature in the regional parliament, in which he hopes to be key in forming the government. In 2022, the PP’s absolute majority prevented them from having greater weight in the chamber, but now they trust in influencing that right-wing sum.

They have already warned that if the PP lacks even one deputy, they will demand to enter the government and propose measures similar to those in Extremadura and Aragón.

As in the rest of the electoral calls of this cycle, Santiago Abascal will be very present in his party’s campaign and events alongside his candidate.

The current general coordinator of Izquierda Unida (IU) combines his position with that of leader of Por Andalucía. This coalition led by Antonio Maíllo (1966) brings together IU, Movimiento Sumar, Podemos, Iniciativa del Pueblo Andaluz, Verdes Equo, Alternativa Republicana, and Alianza Verde.

The purples were the last to confirm their participation in the alliance; in fact, the agreement between parties was reached just hours before the deadline to ratify electoral coalitions closed. The national leadership of Podemos favored running separately in the elections, but the Andalusian federation and poor results in other electoral calls led them to unite.

In 2018, Maíllo and Teresa Rodríguez were the visible faces of Adelante Andalucía, which obtained 17 parliamentarians. However, they parted ways, each militating in a different party.

Trained as a teacher, he has worked as a Latin teacher in several public institutes in Andalusia. Ten years ago, he suffered cancer, which forced him to temporarily step away from political life. Now, a decade later, he aims to double his current representation and reach ten deputies. And to prevent Adelante Andalucía – the regional left-wing force – from taking the fourth place from them.

José Ignacio García (1987) is the youngest of the candidates and the only one under 40 years old. García is the heir of Teresa Rodríguez, who founded Adelante Andalucía in 2018, achieving a historic result – with IU and Podemos among others.

Graduated in psychology, he is the visible face of the left-wing formation that claims “Andalusianism,” seeking to differentiate itself from Por Andalucía – the other formation to the left of PSOE.

García has been a deputy in the Parliament since 2019, but with a one-year break when he had to leave the position because after passing the competitive exams, he was granted a position as a counselor in a Cádiz institute. However, in 2022, he returned to political life and until now was one of the two representatives of his formation in the regional chamber.

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