Inés Arrimadas has made it clear this Sunday that the political convention held in Madrid has to be "the starting point" of the recovery of Ciudadanos, and has said it before a lectern and on a stage labeled with the word that has been repeated the most during the weekend: "Liberals."
During a speech of more than an hour, the president of Ciudadanos has insisted on what other leaders —Edmundo Bal, Marina Bravo, even the critic Francisco Igea— have tried to record by fire in the minds of the 300 militants and public officials who attended to meet: “Other parties call themselves liberal, but they are not. We are the only liberal party in Spain. And when, before the convention, we ask ourselves: are we necessary for Spain? We come to the conclusion that we are essential. We have everything to take off, but we will only be able to if the space of the liberal and reformist center is strong ”.
Arrimadas has asked his militants to look back, to remember what they were doing in July 2011, when Spain was going through a serious crisis, the party barely had three deputies in Catalonia and the polls said it was going to disappear. "You know what happened next," he continued, "so flee from the ashes and pessimists, the future is not written." He then went over the successive milestones of the party, stopping at the great electoral result harvested in Andalusia. “That day, Juan [Marín, current vice president of the Junta de Andalucía] and I wept with happiness. And today Andalusia is the locomotive of job creation, it has surpassed Catalonia in the number of self-employed and an anti-corruption law has been approved after the scandals of the Socialist Party… ”.Arrimadas concluded his brief review of the alegrías de Ciudadanos —there was no mention of the electoral bumps or the episodes of transfuguismo or the frightened of Albert Rivera, who declined the invitation to participate in the meeting— assuring that the convention that was to The closing point had been "the most participatory exercise of the party in 15 years of history." And, as a postscript, a wish: “That this be the convention of the conviction of Ciudadanos. A new starting point, a Tivoli II, 15 years after that group of brave men founded the party ”.who declined the invitation to participate in the meeting— assuring that the convention that was about to close had been "the most participatory exercise of the party in 15 years of history." And, as a postscript, a wish: “That this be the convention of the conviction of Ciudadanos. A new starting point, a Tivoli II, 15 years after that group of brave men founded the party ”.who declined the invitation to participate in the meeting— assuring that the convention that was about to close had been "the most participatory exercise of the party in 15 years of history." And, as a postscript, a wish: “That this be the convention of the conviction of Ciudadanos. A new starting point, a Tivoli II, 15 years after that group of brave men founded the party ”.
Otherwise, the usual in this type of meeting. Firewood for rivals - "we have a very brave government with dead dictators and very cowardly with living dictators" - and a series of proposals that are difficult to bring to fruition because they require an agreement between parties that are led to be killed. Arrimadas put on the table a decalogue of state pacts among which he included some of the pending subjects of Spanish politics since the times of the Transition, such as, for example, a great consensus on education that would forever avoid “reforms and counter-reforms of the PP and the PSOE ”. He also spoke of the need for a general agreement on pensions, birth rates, science and innovation, sustainable development, depopulation, housing ...
The party president once again recognized the mistakes made, although she wanted to dismiss her militants with a call to resistance: “We are not going to stop. We never give up, and you can't beat someone who never gives up ”.