Inés Arrimadas has had to face again this Monday a tough meeting of her extended Executive, this time double, since it has also been extended to the General Council, the party’s highest body between assemblies. The objective was to try to analyze the new debacle that Ciudadanos has suffered in the elections in Andalusia last 19J, where they have been left without representation, which has led to the resignation of the candidate and until now regional leader, Juan Marín, to all his positions .
Four electoral debacles that have ended even with the name of Ciudadanos
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The appointment was expected to be tense, given that there have been many voices that these days have asked the leader to leave, but in the end, according to some attendees, “it has not been such a big deal”. The idea was to specify what this “refoundation” that Arrimadas announced last week will consist of. The leader recognized then that the brand is “burned” and is no longer “useful”, so they are considering changing it. But neither this Monday they have come out knowing many details of this process. Arrimadas has made an open intervention, broadcast by streaming, but then he has not submitted to the questions of the journalists, who have not even been able to access the party headquarters.
In his speech before his colleagues, Arrimadas confirmed that he will continue in his position, as will the members of his Permanent Committee, his hard core. However, she herself and all the other leaders of that Sanhedrin have placed their position at the disposal of the enlarged Executive, which has decided to reject resignations and open that announced process. The dilemma that has been raised is “resign and call an Ageneral assembly extraordinary meeting to elect a new leader or continue with the refoundation process. However, he has opined that “resigning is not the right thing to do”, although he has assured that he already had “the speech in his head”. In his opinion, that would be the most “comfortable” decision, so after consulting with the rest of the Ciudadanos leaders, he says that everyone has asked him to “stay strong.”
The refoundation process will last six months and will serve to face the 2023 elections in the best possible conditions. She will pilot all the work and then call a general assembly that will be the one that will endorse the next team. Her “commitment” to her and that of her faithful “will last until that refoundation is completed”, she has pointed out, leaving open the question of her continuity or her withdrawal. “We are not going to be a problem”, she has advanced.
To undertake this refoundation, it has announced the constitution of a political and a technical team. The deputy mayor of Madrid, Begoña Villacís, will play the role of “liaison” between the team and the management bodies, while the spokesperson for that team will be Deputy Guillermo Díaz, one of the parliamentarians most loyal to Arrimadas. Along with them will be the mayor of Ciudad Real, Eva Masías; the candidate from Santa Coloma, Dimas Gragera; the MEP Adrián Vázquez, and the coordinators of the Balearic Islands and the Valencian Community, Patricia Guasch and María Muñoz, respectively. “New blood” as the leader has pointed out. In addition, five working groups will be formed in which the militancy can participate and make programmatic and organizational proposals so that the conclusions can be known on September 16.
This process is very similar to the one they carried out a year ago in what they called the Political Convention. Then, as now, they invited personalities who were not active in the party but contributed their ideas. Now that group is going to be called an external advisory council.
At the moment they set the goal of “reinspiring the electorate” in the next electoral appointments of 2023 because the party, he recalled, “is still here” and has to continue to be “useful”. After acknowledging some mistakes, Arrimadas has warned: “We are going to overturn.”
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