"I would like to have a constructive Citizen who really supports what matters," said the first vice president, Nadia Calviño, during the last session of control of the Government in Congress.
A request that the also Minister of Economy included in her response to Edmundo Bal, with a "calmer" and "conciliatory" tone compared to others face to face with the CS deputy spokesperson, according to Ciudadanos sources.
In the background, two months in which the new leadership of the party has initiated contacts with the Socialists to achieve a better understanding, while trying to replace the label of a dead party with that of a useful tool to "flee from extremes".
A goal that involves rebuilding the bridges blown up in the past with the PSOE.
The new leadership of Ciudadanos, confirmed in mid-January after some muddy primaries, sealed in its reformed statutes that there will be no preferences between PSOE and PP in electoral pacts.
But what the new executive does try is to demonstrate a predisposition to facilitate negotiations in legislative matters with the PSOE of the Government.
“We can build majorities on the issues that concern citizens, we do not represent blocs.
I understand that there is a change.
You have to sit down and talk, ”say CS management sources.
Along these lines, the new leadership has activated contacts with the Socialists in recent weeks.
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The first direct meeting took place on March 8.
That day, Edmundo Bal made it easy for the Minister of the Presidency, Félix Bolaños, and the Secretary General of CS, Adrián Vázquez, to meet in person.
It was inside the Congress, and Bal, the one in charge of presenting them.
In the 15-minute meeting, Vázquez transferred that the systematic rejection of the pacts with the Executive were a thing of the past, according to sources familiar with the meeting.
The interest of Ciudadanos is now focused on recovering its status as a pivotal party, in line with the parties of the progressive liberal center, and therefore it was open to pacts with the Government.
"If you are from the center, start voting as such," Bolaños replied, aware that the vote on the animal welfare law, which was debated that same day in the Senate, was going very fair.
The new leadership of Ciudadanos was
ipso facto
presented with the opportunity to break away from the bloc of the right and redirect the relationship with the PSOE.
CS complied and helped the Government with its unexpected support in the Senate.
Miguel Sánchez López, his only representative in the Upper House, abstained from the four vetoes of the animal welfare law despite the fact that he had been very critical of his speech in plenary session.
“We are committed to regulating animal welfare, but not in this way.
The minister [Ione Belarra] only knows how to confront.
They always navigate against the current: once again they have bypassed the experts, the professional associations and the scientists, ”she lashed out.
However, a few hours later, he voted blank by order of the new leadership.
"Since it is in our power to destroy something, we do not destroy it," say CS sources, who confirm the premise given by the new executive to the parliamentary group to be favorable to understanding with the Socialists in the future.
Of course, with the limits of not going hand in hand with ERC and Bildu.
And draw itself as the best alternative when the nationalist formations do not row in favor of the Government.
The vote in favor of Ciudadanos was decisive for the labor reform, for example, to go ahead more than a year ago.
The idea is to promote this strategy, as well as return to a situation of greater proximity, such as the one experienced during the negotiation of the states of alarm, when Ciudadanos was on the side of the Executive.
Bal is the reference figure in CS for the socialists, who also see in Vázquez a more moderate politician than Arrimadas,
The general secretary, Adrian Vázquez, and the national spokesperson for Ciudadanos, Patricia Guasp, after the first permanent committee, in mid-January. Daniel Gonzalez (EFE)
Regarding the animal welfare law, the Government avoided with the abstention of CS the rejection of the Senate to the norm for the minimum.
The Moncloa thus saved a very hard political blow even though, for practical purposes, it would have meant that the bill returned to Congress just as it came from there.
In the Executive they appreciate the gesture, while downplaying the abstention of the only senator from Ciudadanos.
“If that scenario had not turned out for us, we would have looked for life in a different way.
In the Senate there is a lot of returned vote and you always have to have a plan a, a plan b and a plan c”, say Executive sources.
“The change they intend to make comes too late.
Our perception is that that day there was no turning point with Ciudadanos”, add other authorized voices of the Government.
“Varies depending on the interlocutor”
A member of the Executive concludes: “Unlike what happens to us with the PP and Vox, who are always in front, with Ciudadanos we do not start from that premise.
It depends on factors such as whether a law is in commission or goes to plenary.
And it varies depending on who the interlocutor is.
It's not the same to talk to [the deputy] Guillermo Díaz than it is to talk to Sara Giménez.
And Edmundo Bal, a state lawyer with whom you can sit down to talk, is not the same as Inés Arrimadas, who has a speech that is somewhere between those of the PP and Vox”.
It was after the failed vote of no confidence in Murcia, two years ago, when Arrimados blew up the bridges with the PSOE.
Accused at that time by members of the “sanchista” party, the former president of Ciudadanos clung to a speech of frontal opposition to the president of the Government.
A dynamic dragged on since then, except in specific debates such as the labor reform or the
law that only yes is yes
.
The free verse of Arrimadas
Arrimadas and Díaz supported the list with the most votes in the primaries to lead the party, while Giménez and Bal formed the opposite candidacy.
However, the return to the center-left that the deputy spokesman for Ciudadanos intended in his program is materializing in turn in the new executive, which yielded in the general assembly to the requests of the opposing candidacy and maintained its "progressive" character. in the new statutes.
"Inés Arrimadas is absolutely informed of everything," they warn from the management.
But the interventions of the CS spokesperson in Congress continue to show iron opposition to the coalition government, as was made clear during her speech in the vote of no confidence in Vox, which complicates this shift towards a party more predisposed to understanding.
The mandate is to change course,
Several laws remain on the horizon in which Ciudadanos could play an important role, such as the bill creating the Financial Client Defense Authority, in which Bildu and ERC believe that the rules are too lax, or the procedural efficiency bill, regarding which Esquerra also shows its reservations considering that it loses powers due to the disappearance of justices of the peace.
In both rules CS would be willing to be the key.
And there are still months of legislature in which to consolidate this change of direction.
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