The mayor of La Línea will campaign in the metaverse.

Gibraltar & El Campo
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The mayor of La Línea de la Concepción, Juan Franco (La Línea 100x100), has decided to take a new approach in his electoral campaign with the aim of revalidating the mayoralty on May 28th. He has created a website with an avatar or profile to explain to the residents of La Línea his achievements and projects through the metaverse. Additionally, he will hold four virtual meetings.

In the 2019 campaign, the mayor of La Línea relied on the trend of selfies by creating a life-size cutout for citizens to take pictures with. This time, he takes a more technological step and ventures into the metaverse.

Through the dedicated portal, citizens can learn about the electoral program, rehabilitated spaces in the city, and future projects. The mayor himself appears as an avatar on the website, inviting users to "join the live stream." Clicking on the invitation takes users to a virtual representation of the exterior of the City Hall.

Furthermore, once registered on the website, users can also create their own avatar to enter virtual rooms that recreate spaces in the city. In these programmed meetings, up to four in total, the mayor-avatar will explain his projects to the users.

The metaverse is like a virtual reality world composed of synthetic three-dimensional environments where users interact as avatars. It offers a new way to visualize and interact on the internet.

It is worth noting that the mayor's party, La Línea 100x100, holds an absolute majority in the City Hall after the 2019 elections, winning 21 out of the 25 available council seats, leaving the Spanish Socialist Workers' Party (PSOE) with only three councilors and the People's Party (PP) with one.

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The 100x100 Line increases by one councillor, reaching 22, the absolute majority achieved in 2019 with 90% of the votes counted. The party led by Juan Franco gains one more councillor at the expense of the PSOE, with Gemma Araujo as the head, who loses one of the three councillors obtained in 2019. The PP will maintain the single seat obtained in the previous elections, slightly above 5%, which allows them to access the City Council.

With these results, IU, Podemos, Vox, and Another Line is Possible continue to have no representation in the municipal arena, not even coming close to 5%.

The voter turnout in the municipality has been 44.56%, slightly lower than in 2019, when it was 47.33%.

Election Data
Nearly 50,000 people are called to vote this Sunday to elect the 25 councillors who make up the local council of La Línea de la Concepción, with the absolute majority set at 13 councilors. From this website, you can follow the results of the 2023 municipal elections in real-time, with the update of the election outcome, including the number of votes, political parties, and councilors resulting from these elections.

Political parties are entering the municipal elections in La Línea de la Concepción with the challenge of trying to access a Corporation where La Línea 100x100, led by the current mayor Juan Franco, holds 21 out of 25 seats.

Franco, in turn, will seek to validate an absolute majority that in 2019 made him one of the most voted mayors in Spain, with 67% of the votes for the independent party with which he assumed the mayoralty in 2015. Franco highlights the urban transformation, economic recovery of municipal accounts, and improvement of public services as achievements of his administration.

In addition to La Línea 100x100, six other electoral lists will have ballot papers in the voting booths on May 28, with five new candidates, although three of them have previous government experience.

The Socialist Party places its hopes on Gemma Araujo, the current deputy for Cádiz, who previously served as the mayor of the city until 2015. The Socialists currently have three councillors in the Corporation and four years ago ran with Juan Chacón, who was recently expelled from the party for requesting a parking space for councillors without informing his group (he is currently a councilor of the non-affiliated group).

The Popular Party, on the other hand, has entrusted the electoral challenge to Susana González, who was a councillor in Juan Franco's first government (2015-2019) in coalition with the independents. Currently, the Popular Party has a single councillor in the Corporation and they aim to improve that. González has also been the coordinator of the Subdelegation of the Regional Government in Campo de Gibraltar and replaces Juan Carlos Arriaga in her party.

Juan Carlos Valenzuela leads the new local formation "Otra Línea es Posible" (Another Line is Possible), although Valenzuela was also a councillor in Franco's first government, also within the ranks of the PP.

Fran Dorado is the only alternative candidate to Franco who is running again. He will do so under the banner of "Andalucía por sí" (Andalusia for itself), just like in the 2019 elections. Vox, on the other hand, will be represented in the elections by Álvaro Cuadros, while Podemos places its hopes on Cristina Sanz.