Citizens dissociates itself from 29-N despite being part of a candidacy

BarcelonaCiutadans is running in the general elections in a coalition with UCIN and Democràcia 21, under the candidacy led by the lawyer Miriam González, who had already been flirting for over a year with the possibility of taking the step into politics. It does so with the difficult challenge of making headway in the upcoming elections with a centrist option that bets on democratic regeneration and the fight against corruption as its pillars. The early election call and the polarization of the elections between left and right make it almost a miracle for it to achieve representation.

Ciutadans, which continues to exist despite having a minimal structure, is not getting involved in the campaign. The candidacy is only running in Madrid, with González as the head of the list, and in Barcelona, with David Andrés Díaz, who was number 3 for Cs in the 2024 Parliament elections, behind Carlos Carrizosa and Marina Bravo. In June 2025, he was appointed communications manager for Cs Catalonia and also sits on the party's general council.

Both leaders will be the main speakers at the central event that Democràcia 21 will hold in the Eixample district of Barcelona this Saturday. However, none of the historical Catalan leaders of a party that achieved the feat of winning the 2017 elections in the midst of the 'Procés' with 25.35% of the votes and 36 deputies—and which in 2019, in the general elections, won 57 before dropping to 10 in the repeat elections—will intervene.

Neither the social media accounts of Ciutadans in Catalonia and Spain are promoting the election list's events, nor have the party's top leaders, such as the secretary general of the party in our region, Héctor Amelló, or in Spain, Carlos Pérez-Nievas, made any posts about the candidacy. The party has limited itself to sharing the link to the new group created by Democràcia 21 in the WhatsApp press group, where information about the candidacy's events is provided.

On the Ciutadans X account, there is only one post related to November 29th, dated October 21st, which informed about the collection points for endorsements to be able to run in the general elections. Almost a month later and with the campaign already underway, Ciutadans has not posted any more news about the elections on the account. And on Instagram, Ciutadans has also stopped at the signature collection and only shares the occasional story about the candidacy.

Ciutadans knows full well that its goal of refloating the reformist space this November 29th is an impossible mission and the party has adopted a low profile in this electoral contest. Only Carlos Carrizosa, who assumed the party's leadership in 2019, has publicly announced that he would vote for this list. In contrast, the former party leader, Albert Rivera, has criticized the new formation, stating that now "the vote must be concentrated" and avoid it going "to the trash."

In any case, on the electoral list in Barcelona, half of the members come from the orange party. Thus, 16 of the 32 members of the candidacy have an organic link or have been part of previous Cs candidacies, the majority in the last elections to the Parliament. These are, however, little-known leaders who are part of the leadership, but have not been councilors or deputies.