"What's there?" asks Antonio, 84, while contemplating the doors of the Cs headquarters, in Madrid, where a debate was held this Monday afternoon between the three candidates to lead the party.
When a journalist clarifies it for him, Antonio resumes the questions: “Oh, to see if Edmundo Bal or Inés Arrimadas stay, right?
I do see Edmundo.
Where is the candidate?
And who vote?
Because there are few left now”, says the neighbor looking through the glass of the building on Calle Alcalá.
Behind that glass, this Monday afternoon a harsh debate is held with harsh accusations between the candidates to lead Ciudadanos: Patricia Guasp, Edmundo Bal and Marcos Morales.
One of the three candidates will be the new leader of Cs starting next Thursday.
The three are running for the position of political spokesperson, whose name will be decided by party affiliates with their vote in the primaries that are held between Wednesday and Thursday.
And the three —the Cs coordinator in the Balearic Islands, the spokesperson in Congress and the third, an affiliate without an organic position— have contrasted their party models in the second debate organized within the framework of the internal election process campaign, which started a week ago.
The figure of the outgoing president,
There are three lists that dispute the leadership.
The one headed by Guasp, and MEP Adrián Vázquez —and of which Arrimadas is a part, in last place—;
the one led by Bal, and the Madrid councilor Santiago Saura;
and the one promoted by two barely-known members, Morales and the mayor of the City Council of El Álamo (Madrid) Laura Alves.
"I wanted to apologize for the show we have put on these days in the campaign," Morales began his speech, who hardly has a chance of winning.
Because the attacks that both sides have launched on social networks and in the media have been transferred this Monday to the debate.
“Adrián Vázquez told me that the leadership had to be renewed.
What has happened for you to change your mind and be the official and continuist candidacy?” Bal snapped, who flatly rejects that Arrimadas continue to lead the Cs spokesperson in Congress.
“The word is the most important value that a politician has and you have shown that you do not have it.
The direction you criticize is you.
You are the only one who has not taken a step next to that executive ”, has responded the coordinator of Citizens in the Balearic Islands.
A total of 7,642 affiliates are called to participate in the primaries.
The result of the vote will be announced on Thursday afternoon, shortly after the electronic polls close.
From that moment on, Arrimadas will stop holding both the political representation of Cs and organic power.
But it remains to be seen if the outgoing president appears in the July primaries to compete as
number one
to the general elections.
After the primaries, a new executive will be set up at the controls of Guasp, Bal or Morales, and it will be the future leadership that will have to apply the results obtained during the refoundation process.
Some conclusions that have also been protagonists in the forum, especially on account of whether or not the documents published by the party obey the true will of the bases, since the team that has led the refoundation —known as “G-8 ″ and of which Guasp has been a part—, signed a confidentiality agreement not to reveal the content of the questionnaires.
“A very large space is opening up for us with a reformist agenda.
Especially from the radical principles of the center-liberal that confront an exhausted socialism ", Guasp has continued, who has also revealed that his intention is to present himself, already in the summer, to the primaries to head the list for Congress.
“I will never be in the Popular Party.
We will have to see if you will be in the Socialist Party.
Do not deceive with your falsehoods ”, the candidate has maintained in reference to Bal, who has responded heatedly.
“We are going to fight until the end.
I will present myself to the July primaries for the Presidency of the Government.
We should have governed with the Socialist Party in Murcia and in Castilla y León.
It is necessary to be clear that it is going to be necessary to agree, and we will have to do it under our principles.
We have a great opportunity that may be the last.
We are not going to collaborate with lies or fraud”, the deputy has sentenced, who sees in Guasp's candidacy the list of Arrimadas' “puppets”.
"You do not have to choose between the ruling party and a change that does not change anything," Morales has sentenced.
After the vote on Thursday, over the weekend, the winning list will be presented to the 400 delegates who will attend the general assembly of Ciudadanos, in Madrid, where the new statutes and the values presentation drafted by the refoundation team will also be endorsed. .
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