Walter Finch
WITH municipal elections looming across Spain, how much exactly do the country’s mayors earn in exchange for making things run in our towns and regions?
The top earning mayors in the country, unsurprisingly, reign over Madrid and Barcelona, in Jose Luis Martínez-Almeida (PP) and ??Ada Colau (Barcelona en Comu) respectively.
In the most recent figures for 2023, both breach the €100,000 mark – leaving even President Pedro Sánchez’s €90,000 salary in the dust.
But in a surprise first place, the highest paid mayor in Spain is Juan Mari Aburto of Bilbao, who earns €115,299 per year.
In the costas, the large cities dominate the salary metrics.
Valencia mayor Joan Ribo (Compromís) takes home €92,442 in 2021; Malaga mayor Francisco de la Torre (PP) snaffles €87,325 and Jose Antonio Serrano (PP) of Murcia pockets €86,787.
In the Balearics, Palma mayor Jose Hila gets paid €62,732; Ibiza mayor Rafa Ruiz earns €59,539 and Caliva mayor Alfonso Rodríguez makes €59,451.
Elsewhere, on the Costa del Sol, second place is held by the mayor of Fuengirola, Ana María Mula (PP), with €69,134.10 and then Velez-Malaga mayor Antonio Moreno Ferrer (PSOE) with €65,114.
A couple of notable absentees from the list are Marbella mayor Angeles Muñoz and Estepona mayor Jose María Garcia Urbano, who both draw their primary salary from other public positions.
Over on the east coast, Luis Barcala (PP), the mayor of Alicante earns €73,564.76; Toni Pérez (PP) of Benidorm is paid €67,013 and in third place is Orihuela boss Emilio Bascuñana (PP), on €66,142.53.
Sevilla boasts a generous €87,463 salary for Mayor Antonio Muñoz, notable for being a 37% pay rise on 2019. This is reportedly explained away as it being the first pay rise in 28 years.
And, bizarrely, little Vitoria – population 252,571 – in the Basque country, makes its mayor, Gorka Urtaran of the Basque Nationalist Party (PNV), the fifth highest paid in Spain with a hefty €93,224 a year.
But he’s not alone; the region is the highest paying overall in Spain.
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