The president of Ciudadanos, Inés Arrimadas, and the party's spokesman, Edmundo Bal, this Thursday, in Congress.JJGuillén (EFE)
The definitive message arrived last Tuesday.
That day, the new secretary of Organization and Institutional Action of Citizens, Carlos Pérez-Nievas, sent a request through WhatsApp to his regional counterparts: the candidates for the local elections must be announced now.
But some members of the party refuse to make appointments until the process of refounding the party is completed, which it intends to culminate in early 2023. This is the case of communities such as Asturias, where Pérez-Nievas' order led to the resignation of the Secretary of Organization Asturian, Sergio García, hours after receiving the message.
“For consistency I stand aside.
It is incomprehensible that we ask the candidates to take a step forward when we do not know what project is going to come out of the refoundation”, explains García.
The Asturian deputy, who will maintain his regional act and membership card, is also a member of the critical platform
SomosCs
, which demands the immediate convening of a general assembly and the resignation of the executive block.
Pérez-Nievas contradicts his version: “he resigned a minute before he was kicked out,” the secretary of the National Organization stated in a local media outlet.
Arrimadas settled the debate on the general assembly by announcing that the conclave will finally take place in December or January.
Management sources maintain that it is not possible to organize an event of such characteristics —and that incorporates the enormous work carried out by the refoundation—, before, as requested by
SomosCs
.
And that whatever Citizens comes out of the renewal process, it will be "a liberal project", so there is no impediment whatsoever for the aspiring mayors to assume the candidacies.
“The refoundation does not paralyze anything.
It is a new parallel route, but it does not affect the party's own processes and the ordinary course of action at all," Deputy Guillermo Díaz explained on Monday, after the executive meeting, in which Arrimadas urged the regional leaders to form the applications.
The national leadership has been ensuring since before the summer that the names would be made public in September.
But this has not been the case in all territories: in some it has slowed down and, in others, it has been directly paralyzed.
Leaders of Ciudadanos from other autonomous communities refuse to appoint candidates now, as revealed by different regional sources.
On the one hand, because they prefer to wait for the fruit of the refoundation.
And, on the other, because Ciudadanos has to hold primaries for the party's presidency before the general assembly, so the new board may not trust the proposed names or because the candidates themselves reject the leaders who come out of the primaries.
More information
On tour with the Ciudadanos refoundation team: “Arrimadas, Sí”;
“Arrimadas, no”
“We will have to see who is in the new project.
A schism can be provoked just two months before the elections.
The damage can be much greater than that of not waiting," says a senior official from Madrid.
"A double act of faith is being asked of the candidates: to present themselves already with a brand that it is not known how it will be defined in January," adds another senior official from the Canary Islands.
Both prefer to delay appointments.
Among those who have given their yes to the match is Fernando Giner, who will repeat as number one for the city of Valencia.
The spokesperson for Ciudadanos in the Valencian Consistory is also a member of the national executive committee.
In Catalonia, several candidates have also agreed to take on the complicated challenge of next spring's municipal elections.
Cs, or the brand that is consolidated with the refoundation, will go to the polls shortly after renewing a formation that has been chaining electoral debacles for months.
The dropouts continue
To these unknowns another problem is added: the abandonment of councilors of Cs.
A bloodletting that continues despite being immersed in the refoundation process.
This is the case of the mayor of Aldeaquemada (487 inhabitants, Jaén), one of the only two municipalities in which Ciudadanos was the most voted party in the Andalusian regional elections;
and that of Cárcheles (1,320 registered, Jaén).
Both have announced that they will attend under the PP logo, a formation in which they began their political career.
The councilor of Los Gallardos (3003, Almería) will also do so.
In Alicante, twenty councilors announced en bloc last week that they were joining the critical platform of
SomosCs
.
A member of the executive underlines: “We have to assume that there will be many municipalities in which there will be no candidates who want to run for Ciudadanos.
And former colleagues who will go to another party or present themselves through independent platforms.
Despite the obstacles, from Andalusia —where Cs went from 21 to 0 seats in the regional elections on June 19—, it is ensured that the lists will begin to be announced from the first half of October and that, despite the serious crisis, there are new names coming from other citizen platforms.
“The ideals are going to remain the same, no matter what happens in the refoundation.
The important thing is the personal brands”, assures the secretary of the Organization of Cs in Andalusia, Andrés Reche.
Meanwhile, the party continues to see how its former Andalusian deputies are diluted in the Government of Juan Manuel Moreno.
The last one, his export spokesman in the regional Parliament Sergio Romero, appointed this Thursday as head of the Andalusian Institute of Youth in Cádiz.
It remains to be seen what decision the former vice president, Juan Marín, takes.
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