You Are in Every Party's Platform. You Are on No One's Ballot.

A correction from Friday: We said visiting family could pre-register via the EU's "Travel to Europe" app before arriving at Malaga. That app currently only works at Swedish and Portuguese border crossings. The EES biometric checks are mandatory at Malaga, but the app shortcut is not available there yet. Thank you to the reader who caught it.

On May 17, Andalucia votes. The regional parliament election will determine who governs healthcare, housing, and education policy for the next four years. The top three issues on voters' minds are healthcare access (38%), housing affordability (22.8%), and unemployment (21.7%). (Confirmed April 2026, CIS/NC Report polling)

You live inside all three of those issues. You use the centro de salud. You pay rent or a mortgage. You employ people or run a business. On May 17, none of that earns you a ballot. Non-Spanish citizens do not vote in regional elections. Not EU citizens. Not British residents. Not Americans on NLVs. Only Spanish passport holders.

This is how regional democracy works when residency and citizenship are different things. The policies that shape your healthcare, your housing costs, and your children's school funding will be decided by an electorate that does not include you.

It also means every party has a position on your presence. None of them needs your approval.

PP (Juanma Moreno, incumbent). If Moreno wins, and polls project roughly 57 seats (an absolute majority), the direction you already know continues. Pro-foreign investment on the surface. Regulation-heavy underneath. His government reduced VPO — protected housing lock-in periods from 30 years to 7, oversaw the ZBE rollout, tightened VUT enforcement, and introduced the NLV 183-day residency checks. His weakness: a healthcare screening scandal in October 2025, where mishandled breast cancer protocols in the Servicio Andaluz de Salud — Andalucian Health Service eroded public trust in the system you depend on.

PSOE (María Jesús Montero). Running on healthcare. Has called the election "a referendum on public healthcare." Her regional platform: 100,000 new protected housing units and a 20% down-payment advance for young Spanish first-time buyers. She has criticised Moreno for allowing 20,000+ illegal tourist apartments in Andalucia. At the national level, the PSOE has proposed revoking 53,000 tourist apartment permits, raising VAT on tourist rentals from 10% to 21%, and introducing a new tax on property purchases by non-EU citizens and foreign non-residents. (Confirmed April 2026, campaign platform and national party proposals) If you own a tourist rental or are buying property as a non-EU resident, Montero's direction targets the transaction, not you personally. Tourist rentals, non-EU property purchases: categories of economic activity she wants to redirect toward Spanish households.

Vox (growing in polls). The clearest platform on foreign residents. A "dissuasive tax regime" on foreign property purchases, with the revenue redirected to housing subsidies for Spanish citizens. "Remigration" of legal immigrants who "decide not to integrate." An "exhaustive audit of all nationality concessions granted in recent years" with the aim of withdrawing some. (Confirmed April 2026, published Vox economic and housing programme) If your Spanish is limited and your community ties are thin, Vox's framing positions you as evidence that the system is failing Spaniards.

The street movement. Malaga para Vivir, no para Sobrevivir — Malaga for Living, Not Surviving. Thirty thousand people marched. In Malaga's Plaza de la Merced, eight in ten homes are tourist rentals. Seventy-two percent of Malaga's roughly 13,000 tourist apartments breach regulations. The movement is anti-gentrification. Not explicitly anti-foreigner, but every policy it advocates (VUT restrictions, rent controls, limits on short-term lets) disproportionately affects foreign property owners and investors. Housing is the number-two election issue because the street made it so.

You appear in all four arguments. As an investor. As a buyer. As a healthcare user. As one in four residents walking down the street. You are a data point in someone else's campaign. And on May 17, you cannot do anything about it.

But May 17 is not the only election on the calendar.

Municipal elections are scheduled for 2027. At the local level, the numbers look very different.

In Fuengirola, roughly 44% of residents were born outside Spain. In Manilva, 40%. In Mijas, 37.6% (34,700 foreign residents out of 92,211). In Marbella, 37%. In Benalmadena, 35,9%. In Estepona, 33%. In Torremolinos, 24.2% of residents are from 121 nationalities. (Confirmed April 2026, INE/padrón data)

EU citizens registered on the padrón — town hall register can vote in Spanish municipal elections. They can also run for office. In 2019, dozens of expats appeared on party ballot lists across Andalucia. EU nationals have served as concejales — town councillors on Costa del Sol town halls.

And British residents: you still have the vote.

Despite Brexit, a bilateral agreement between the UK and Spain, signed in January 2019, preserved municipal voting rights for British citizens. The European Court of Justice ruled in 2022 that Brits in the EU no longer automatically hold these rights. But Spain is one of four EU countries (alongside Portugal, Luxembourg, and Poland) that signed separate bilateral deals to maintain them. If you are a British citizen who has legally resided in Spain continuously for at least three years, you can vote and stand as a candidate in municipal elections.

Before Brexit, British residents on the Costa del Sol were among the most politically active foreign communities in local Spanish politics. British councillors served on town halls across the coast. That right did not disappear with the UK's departure from the EU. What disappeared was the awareness that it still exists.

In towns where foreign residents make up 35-44% of the population, an organised foreign-resident vote could change who sits on the council. That council controls local planning, padrón — town hall registration services, municipal taxes, and the town-level administration you interact with every week.

The regional election on May 17 shows you what political exclusion looks like. The municipal election in 2027 shows you the power you are not using.

EU citizens: Check whether you are on the CERE — Census of Foreign Residents for Municipal Elections. Registration requires being on the padrón and submitting a declaration of intent to vote at your ayuntamiento — town hall. The 2027 registration deadline has not been announced yet, but it will close well before election day. Our guide to registering as a foreign voter walks through the full process.

British citizens (3+ years of legal residency): The same registration process applies under the bilateral deal. If you registered before Brexit and have not moved, confirm your registration is still active at your town hall. If you haven't registered yet, you can. The three-year residency requirement is continuous, starting from your first empadronamiento — town hall registration.

Non-EU citizens (US, Canadian, other): You cannot vote in any Spanish election without Spanish citizenship. The citizenship clock starts from the date of your first TIE. The standard path: 10 years of legal residency, A2 Spanish proficiency, and the CCSE — Constitutional and Sociocultural Knowledge of Spain exam (EUR 85, administered by the Cervantes Institute). For citizens of most Latin American countries, the Philippines, and Equatorial Guinea, it is 2 years. If May 17 makes you think about representation, that clock is already running.

EU citizen, non-EU resident, green certificate, biometric TIE: your residency category determines what you can vote in, how you cross borders, and what the system sees when it looks you up. If you are not sure which box you are in, that is what navigators are for.

WaypointSur Navigator is our bilingual pilot program that tracks your administrative status, handles renewals and registrations, and makes the calls you have been putting off. Real cases on the Costa del Sol now. Flat monthly rate during the pilot.

See what our Navigator will handle for you and your family →

Elecciones autonómicas — Regional elections. What is happening on May 17. You cannot vote in these.

Censo electoral de residentes extranjeros — Electoral roll for foreign residents.

Ask at your town hall: "Quiero inscribirme en el censo electoral para las elecciones municipales" — "I want to register on the electoral roll for municipal elections".

On May 17, Andalucia's parties will debate healthcare, housing, and the role of foreign residents. You are on every platform. The regional election does not include your name. The municipal election in 2027 does. In the towns where most of you live, the foreign-resident vote is large enough to change who sits on the council. The bilateral deal means British residents still have it. The question is not whether you belong here. Every party has answered that differently. The question is whether you use the voice you do have.

Not bad for a Monday — A. and the electorally curious WaypointSur team