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Ciudadanos will not attend the general elections that the Prime Minister, Pedro Sánchez, has decreed to advance to July 23. This was decided this Tuesday by the National Committee of the party in a meeting called “urgently” after yesterday the Executive Committee already considered that possibility so as not to face another electoral bacatazo like the one they have just suffered in the municipal and regional elections held The last Sunday. The news was confirmed at the end of the meeting by the general secretary, Adrián Vázquez, who offered a press conference in which he was supported by Patricia Guasp and the members of the so-called Permanent Committee of the party. “The message has been clear. The offer of the liberal center in Spain has not been strong”, he lamented, concluding that “the Spanish do not see us as a good transformative alternative”, the Secretary General acknowledged.
28M: the double appointment with the polls that places Ciudadanos before the abyss
Further
They are not showing up, Vázquez said, but later clarifying that they are not “giving up” either, so they will “wait for the next electoral cycle”, that is, next year’s European elections, to “rearm”. Meanwhile, the party will organize in July, coinciding with the date of the generals, a “meeting”, a kind of Political Convention, where they will discuss their future.
One of the few who has not aligned himself with the official decision has been Francisco Igea, who has gotten up from the meeting before it ended, as this newsroom has learned. The procupardor in Castiila y León, one of the critical leaders of Ciudadanos, has called for political responsibilities from both Vázquez and Guasp for the tremendous defeat in the municipal and regional elections and has opted to end the party. But the majority has supported not showing up and waiting, among others, Inés Arrimadas.
The setback of 28M
The results of the 28M have been a tremendous setback for the party that failed to obtain representation in any of the autonomies in which elections were held, losing all the seats that they obtained in 2019. The worst thing was that it was also left out of the Madrid City Council, where Begoña Villacís held the vice mayor’s office and governed in coalition with the PP of José Luis Martínez-Almeida. To this bad news was added that the national spokesperson, Patricia Guasp, was not able to revalidate her seat in the Balearic Islands, an autonomy where she was fighting for the Presidency of the Government.
The Ciudadanos statutes stipulate that the candidate for the Presidency of the Government of Spain must be chosen through primary elections, an internal process that the party would have to convene in haste.
The idea that the new leadership was determined to throw in the towel before the unexpected advance of the next generals spread this Monday among the leaders of the party and was transferred by some of them to the media. Last night, the former secretary of Organization of the party, Fran Hervías, one of the main architects of the hostile takeover bid of the PP against Ciudadanos in the Pablo Casado stage, stirred up the internal waters more by commenting on his Twitter profile than “reliable sources” of the party had assured him that “relevant Cs positions will support tomorrow [por hoy, martes] not present themselves to the general elections in exchange for the PP guaranteeing them a position”. “Those same who maneuvered to break governments with the PP to give them to Sánchez, who voted in favor of laws such as the ”Only yes is yes” and have presented this #28M to take space from the PP and hand it over to the PSOE, now they are asking a plate of lentils because they have no life beyond politics”, he added. Vázquez I have not made reference to that comment and when asked if they will give freedom to vote to their affiliates or some leader will ask that in the general elections support for a candidacy of another political formation, he has limited himself to saying that in Ciudadanos “there is freedom so that everyone votes for whoever they want, there would be more to go”.
The decline process
Given the speculation that was being made, the general secretary of Ciudadanos, Adrián Vázquez, came out this morning to assure on his Twitter account that the party “yet” had not adopted a decision and that this “solely and exclusively” could be taken by the National Committee, which at that time was already meeting at the headquarters on Calle Alcalá.
The National Committee is chaired by Vázquez as general secretary and is made up of the party’s extended leadership, a total of 30 people. Begoña Villacís and former president Inés Arrimadas are on this committee, set up after the party’s refounding process.
The decline of Ciudadanos has been meteoric since Albert Rivera left the party at 10 deputies in the general elections in November 2019 when just a few months before he had 57. Little by little, and from defeat to defeat, the formation has been losing strength until reaching practically disappearing now. The data is revealing: of the 2,787 councilors they had, they have been left with less than 400 councilors in the municipal councils and they have not managed to stay in any regional parliament. The total number of votes in all of Spain has been a meager 1.35%, when just five years ago Ciudadanos was even able to govern.
For its part, the leadership of the PP sees it as “responsible” that Ciudadanos does not attend these generals and this is what the party’s parliamentary spokesperson considered in an interview on Telecinco, in which she added that they will seek to ensure that their voters are not left “orphans ”. The idea that all the leaders of the PP have been repeating is that they want to “unite the center-right vote” and thus be able to materialize “the change” in the political cycle that would mean “the end of sanchismo.”
