Ada Colau lost to former Barcelona mayor Xavier Trias, a conservative.

Pedro Sánchez, the Spanish prime minister, said he would dissolve parliament and call early elections—scheduled for July 23—after conservatives and far-right candidates achieved “strong gains,” Politico reported. The elections were to be held by year’s end.

By JNS and EJP

Barcelona Mayor Ada Colau—who suspended all of the Spanish city’s ties with Israel, including a “twinning” relationship with Tel Aviv, last February—has lost her seat in the 2023 local Spanish elections.

Colau had cited “the repeated violations of human rights of the Palestinian population and non-compliance with United Nations resolutions” for the decision to boycott Israel. (José Luis Martínez-Almeida, the mayor of Madrid who offered his city as a replacement for a Tel Aviv “twinning,” won reelection.)

Colau lost to Xavier Trias, a former Conservative Barcelona mayor. “Thanks for the trust,” the latter tweeted in Catalan. “We will make a better Barcelona!”

Pedro Sánchez, the Spanish prime minister, said he would dissolve parliament and call early elections—scheduled for July 23—after conservatives and far-right candidates achieved “strong gains,” Politico reported. The elections were to be held by year’s end.

Widely seen as a dress rehearsal for a general election that had been expected at the end of the year, Sunday’s polls saw the main opposition Popular Party (PP) chalk up the largest number of votes.

The right-wing PP also scored significant gains at a regional level, seizing six regions that had been under Socialist control, including Valencia in the east and the Balearic Islands which includes the holiday island of Ibiza.

In a televised address, a sombre-sounding Sanchez said he had informed King Felipe VI of his decision to dissolve parliament and  call a general election on July 23 “in light of the results of yesterday’s elections”.