Ciudadanos finalizes its lists for 28M on a black stage after giving up primaries, leaking and losing charges

The new leadership admits that it will not give time for its speech to claim the political center to sink in

MADRID, 23 Abr. (EUROPA PRESS) -

Ciudadanos will make public this Monday their lists for the municipal and regional elections on May 28, some key elections for the 'orange' formation because their survival is at stake, with all the polls against and after a stampede of charges that have left the party , have joined forces with others or founded their own brand. In this context, the party has not even been able to undertake a generalized primary process.

According to the electoral calendar, the deadline for presenting municipal and regional candidacies ends at midnight this Monday with the idea that the lists will be published on Wednesday in the corresponding official bulletins. Once the possible claims have been resolved, the definitive candidacies, already proclaimed, will be published on May 2.

Ciudadanos has opted to maintain the expectation until the end and, in the case of the municipal ones, few details are known. The 'orange' formation has faced the problem of the lack of names in the localities and autonomies and those that have been known do not even seduce their militancy.

The Ciudadanos regulations require municipal primaries to be held in those towns with more than 150 affiliates, such as Madrid, and applicants had to meet the endorsement of a minimum of 15% of the census. However, voting was only used in Barcelona and there were no primaries in Madrid or in the eleven autonomies because none of the applicants had reached the minimum number of guarantees required to contest primaries. In Aragon, this procedure was temporarily suspended due to the lack of candidates.

And it is that some of the best-known names of Ciudadanos at the municipal level have chosen in recent months to join other parties or found their own projects.

The case of the mayor of Badajoz, Ignacio Gragera, stands out, who has gone over to the PP when he held office with the Citizens Act and will be the 'popular' candidate for mayor of Badajoz in May; or that of the deputy mayor of Zaragoza, Sara Fernández, who will go on the PP list to the city council.

For his part, the most voted mayor of the 'orange' formation in Madrid, Jorge Alberto Campos, from Paracuellos, left the party and will run in May with Contigo, a "municipalist" formation. The president of the Zamora Provincial Council, Francisco José Requejo, has also founded the Zamora Sí party and that is how he will run in the elections.

Another case is that of the mayor of Alcobendas, Aitor Retolaza, who is presenting himself again to the city council but with the initials and the logo of the party hidden behind the Futuro brand, all without abandoning the 'orange' formation.

The recently released Executive led by Patricia Guasp and Adrián Vázquez began to designate candidates in towns as early as February, in municipalities where it was not necessary to hold primaries. In the middle of that month, Vázquez reported that the leadership had approved more than 300 candidates in towns and stressed that the leadership "had not rested" so that in the May elections "there would be a free and reformist option" on the ballots.

The heads of the Ciudadanos list for the regional elections in May are known and the training will take place in all the communities that hold elections.

80% of the headliners are different from those who competed in the 2019 elections, a renewal consequence of the succession of internal crises after the march of Albert Rivera, the permanent trickle of casualties from the ranks of formation and politics of transfers deployed by the PP in view of the serious situation that the party is going through.

Of the twelve autonomous communities in which Ciudadanos is running for the May elections, there are only two repeat candidates: that of Cantabria, Félix Álvarez, regional coordinator of the 'orange' formation, and that of Castilla-La Mancha, Carmen Picazo , president of the party in the community.

Several heads of the 2019 list have left the formation, such as that of Asturias, Juan Vázquez, who left due to the turn to the right of Ciudadanos; and others have changed parties, such as that of the Canary Islands, Vidina Espino, who switched to the Canary Islands Coalition (CC) in March 2022.

It is worth noting the case of Aragón, which will finally run in the municipal and regional elections in coalition with Tú Aragón. The president of the formation in that autonomy, Carlos Ortas, pointed out that the objective is "to be decisive" and that "the extremes are not the ones that will decide the next governments."

The truth is that Ciudadanos is sailing towards May 28 with troubled waters. Added to the lack of names is the fact that practically all the surveys refer to training outside of all the autonomous parliaments.

Of all the communities, the Balearic Islands is particularly important because the party's leader, Patricia Guasp, is the candidate for the Presidency of the Government. His predecessor, Marc Pérez Ribas, headliner in 2019, has just left the party to return to private activity. According to the polls, the 'orange' formation would not obtain representation in the archipelago either.

However, in Ciudadanos they are optimistic and point out that internal surveys predict better results for them. According to them, a paradigm shift is taking place by virtue of which the negative news and the ignorance of the management are already being overcome, which is why there is a sustained increase in the polls.

Party sources indicate that the formation would obtain representation in Albacete, Palencia, Murcia, Aragón, Ciudad Real, Asturias and the Balearic Islands. Also in some places in Catalonia, such as Santa Coloma, Sant Cugat or Terrasa, while there is a rise in Valencia.

The party highlights a slight change in discourse in which they have chosen to vindicate the position of ideological center that they defend and also avoid terms used by the previous leadership, such as 'la banda' or 'sanchismo'. However, he acknowledges that this change does not arrive in time to penetrate the electorate before 28M, but he hopes that it will do so for the general elections in December.

Ciudadanos plans to focus its campaign on the problems that afflict families, the middle classes and young people and intends to put housing measures or measures to promote birth at the center.

The new management approved at the beginning of March the team that will lead the electoral campaign, which is headed by the Secretary General himself, Adrián Vázquez. Patricia Guasp will act as spokesperson, while MEP Eva Poptcheva will be director of programs and the national coordinator, Carlos Pérez-Nievas, the regional campaign director.