Madrid (EFE)
After an intense debate, the National Committee has agreed not to stand in the elections after the party has been erased from the twelve regional parliaments that held elections on Sunday and from almost all the municipalities.
It has been the general secretary of Cs, Adrián Vázquez, who has reported this decision at a press conference at the headquarters of the oranges.
This shift in their strategy has been adopted by a vast majority, according to party sources, although there are leaders who disagree, among them Edmundo Bal, still a deputy in Congress, who on social media has claimed to feel “a great shame”, in addition to describing this decision as “outrage”.
Igea, against not presenting himself to the generals
Also the only deputy they maintain in Castilla y León, Francisco Igea, has expressed his disagreement by pointing out that not running for the generals is admitting “that the party is unfeasible.”
Igea’s opinion was shared at the meeting held by the party on Tuesday, in which other orange leaders, members of the General Council, also spoke out against not attending 23J, considering that for that, it is better to dissolve .
According to other sources consulted by EFE, among those who have most defended the option of not having a ballot on 23J are Inés Arrimadas and Begoña Villacís, the big loser on Sunday in the municipal elections.
There are those who have proposed to propose to the PP some type of alliance, but it has not prospered.
In fact, Adrián Vázquez has settled the issue by insisting that in the meeting they have focused on how to recover the space of the liberal center “and be decisive again.”
A great national gathering in July
To do this, they have scheduled in July “a great national meeting” with the almost 600 positions they have to reset the counter and try to find the instruments to recover the pulse of the electorate.
Vázquez has recognized that the message from the polls on Sunday “has been very clear” by highlighting that the Spanish do not see Ciudadanos “to this day as a transformative political alternative.”
For this reason, they believe that the “smartest” way to defend that liberal center that was born in 2006 is to let the elections on July 23 run and prepare for the following electoral appointments, starting with the European ones in 2024.
“We are not giving up,” stressed the general secretary of Cs, also an MEP, stressing that they are going to prepare to be decisive again.
A complicated mission today taking into account the result of the 28M elections, in which they have not obtained any seats in the regional elections and have barely obtained 300,000 votes in the municipal elections (1.35% of the votes and 392 councilors ).
In the previous municipal elections of 2019 they obtained 8.25% of the votes and 2,788 councilors. In addition, they only have one deputy left in the Cortes of Castilla y León and six in the Parliament of Catalonia, which they retain from previous elections.
Bal and other Cs leaders support dismissing the leadership
The deputy spokesman for Ciudadanos (Cs) Edmundo Bal and other leaders of the orange formation, however, support the holding of an extraordinary Assembly to vote for the dismissal of the National Committee after Tuesday’s decision.
In order for an extraordinary conclave to be held, at least the signature of a third of the affiliates is needed (it would be about 7,000 according to the last census made public last January).
One of the members of the General Council of Cs, the highest government body between Assemblies, Juan Carlos Bermejo, is one of those who are promoting this initiative by providing the form to collect signatures.
The still deputy in Congress Edmundo Bal will support any measure that is adopted against the current leadership, since he sees “intolerable” and an “outrage” that, on their own, they have decided not to attend the elections and make a parenthesis until the next electoral cycle.
Although Cs sources have assured that this step back has been agreed by a large majority, leaders who have attended the National Committee on Tuesday have shown their total opposition.
Among them, the deputy of Castilla y León Francisco Igea, who has indicated that not running for the generals is admitting “that the party is unfeasible”; or Senator Miguel Sánchez, who has affirmed that a party cannot not stand in an election “no matter how ugly the panorama is. That’s why you close blinds.”