The Andalusian electoral disaster has given the definitive acceleration to a strategic plan that the team of Ines Arrimadas he had been working for some time to try to survive the next electoral cycle. They looked especially at the general ones, but the times already point to the regional and municipal ones in May. The president of the party met this Monday with her executive committee and the general council (the highest body between congresses) to make her intentions clear: she does not hold on to the position and will be in charge of the formation until she completes this process, always at the disposal of the militancy.
None of the main leaders questions his leadership, but the feeling spreads in the formation that it is the last bullet they have to spend. Now yes, all the meat is put on the grill. The failure in Madrid and Andalusia (and the pyrrhic survival in Castilla y León) will give way to a new stage in which probably the party change acronyms and name. That the change is visible and credible is the most important thing. There will be a change in the program, “a revolution from top to bottom” explain some of those involved, which aims to convert Citizens in a niche partyfocused on some flags and that no longer competes with PP and PSOE as equals.
The strategic plan, to whose content only a few people will have access for now, proposes to focus efforts on very specific proposals, “disruptive & rdquor; in some cases, and that look at a specific target of people. Essentially, one of the targets is the young middle classes, approximately 35 to 45 years old, who are currently suffering the consequences of policies aimed at the rest of the population. Or that in many cases, they recognize in the party, “they continue to feel like orphans & rdquor ;.
There is an example that is repeated in the orange headquarters and that perfectly sums up the idea. The pensions focus at this time the interest of the big parties in Spain. In fact, the PP and PSOE are aware that without the pensioners it will be difficult to win elections. The reform proposed by the Government of Pedro Sánchez, which the PP harshly criticizes (linking pensions to the evolution of the CPI at a time when inflation continues to record highs) must have the final endorsement of Brussels and, above all, leaves many doubts about the sustainability of the system.
The popular ones are against it but, until now, they do not dispute that it is possible to make such a rise. The new Ciudadanos, with this refoundation, could cast doubt on that idea. Putting black on white “things that cannot be and that nobody dares to say”recognize in the Arrimadas environment, recovering the true essence of the party, from its origins in Catalonia to its presence at the national level when, for example, they questioned the Basque quota: “The courage to say things even though there are many sectors that It doesn’t look good to you & rdquor ;.
Arrimadas herself said it in her appearance this Monday: “Many Spaniards want have a brave project and sensible. They have the right to vote for such a party and we have the historic duty to make it possible.”
Limited vote percentage
That is the idea and pensions, one of the examples. But the point is that Citizens will now go for specific flags, without being obsessed with giving them all and counting on the fact that their scope is limited: that of a specific percentage of vote, which can vary between 10 and 20 percent and that aims to return utility to politics.
If Arrimadas was clear about something when he took the reins of the formation after the departure of Albert Rivera, it is that they could not continue thinking about competing with the PP or PSOE and that it could be a lot more useful to have a certain number of seatsalthough it was small but decisive, as it happens with other formations in Congress, to influence more in the policies of each Government.
Villacis, coordinator
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In this refounding process, Arrimadas has created a new committee whose coordination will be in the hands of Begona Villacis. The deputy mayor of the Madrid City Council is currently the party’s main institutional asset, after leaving the formation of all the regional governments in which it entered in 2019.
His role at the head of this new position is not trivial and also implies his total involvement in the project. As for the spokesperson, the Malaga deputy William Diaz, one of the main references of Arrimadas in the match, will take charge. he will be too Mariano Fuentes, councilor for Urban Planning in the Madrid town hall and architect of the Government pact signed by Villacís and José Luis Martínez-Almeida three years ago. The Valencian deputy Maria Munozanother of the main leaders at present and responsible for finances, is part of the committee, as well as the MEP Adrian Vazquezfirm defender of the liberal and critical space in recent times with some decisions.