The last electoral battle of Ciutadans
In 2022 it obtained a deputy in Castile and León and aspires to keep it even though its previous candidate will vote for United Left
BarcelonaWith Citizens out of institutions, their former leaders have been relocating to the private sector – in some cases in a bizarre way like Albert Rivera–, or in parties, especially the PP. However, there is still a territory where Citizens retains electoral rights and aspires – without much confidence – to maintain them. The oranges are running in the Castille and Leo elections, this time predictably their last regional electoral dance.
Polls do not augur success in their venture. This Monday the last ones before the elections were published, which coincide in placing the PP stagnant, but in the first position (around 31 deputies); Vox on the rise, which could reach 17 or 18 deputies and the PSOE on the decline (26-28) despite having better prospects than in Aragon and Extremadura. The absolute majority is set at 42 deputies, a figure that the right-wing parties would widely exceed, despite the disappearance of Citizens.
In 2022, they obtained one deputy, the regional exception before being wiped off the map. Now they do not repeat a candidate, among other reasons because Francisco Igea – who became vice-president of Castille and Leo in the 2019 legislature – ended up being expelled from the party. Igea, who before Cs had gone through UPyD, has already decided who he will vote for next Sunday: Esquerra Unida.
Citizens faces the campaign with the flag of "moderation", led by the head of the list for Valladolid, Mitzin Mariana Trápaga. Despite electoral rights, they will not appear in television debates – only in news segments –, given that regional electoral law favors the major forces. With one deputy, in recent years the orange party has been integrated into the mixed group, where there was also a coalition between Podem and Esquerra Unida – although both parties will run separately on this occasion.
Sources from the orange party consulted by ARA explain that several members of the state leadership have traveled to campaign, starting with the president, Carlos Pérez-Nievas, despite the slim chances they have of achieving parliamentary representation. There are not many nerves and they have taken these elections with a certain calm: on the day of reflection, Citizens will celebrate a calçotada in Catalonia.
Within the party, greatly diminished in membership after the continuous electoral defeats, Igea's turn towards Esquerra Unida has caused "surprise". "He is very intellectual, he played an important role during covid [in the regional government], but he is very rebellious," say voices who worked with him. At the same time, they recall that Igea, who "loves the spotlight", "had a lot of open files on many issues" and was finally expelled in 2023.
The campaign hurdles
In the last regional elections, Citizens ran in Extremadura, but not in Aragon. In Extremadura, the failure was immense: they obtained 1,324 votes, 0.25% of the ballots, 900 votes less than PACMA. In Castille and Leo, hopes are placed solely in the province of Valladolid, in an almost impossible mission in which no poll gives them representation: four years ago they obtained 54,000 votes in the entire region, 18,800 of which were in Valladolid, which is the objective they should match on paper. Their dream would be to obtain a seat and, by chance, for it to be "decisive" in forming a government – with an eventual union with provincial or regional parties –. However, the real strategy is "to find space for the Congressional elections".
In this context, there are some central points of the campaign that are not particularly comfortable for them, such as Mercosur, in a very rural community where the countryside and depopulation are basic issues. As a liberal party, they defend "the same obligations and rights" for Spanish products as for foreign ones, "in favor of free trade". A position that clashes with the total rejection of Vox and parties to the left of the PSOE. On paper, the strategy is to "address people's problems" and "balance against the extremes at a golden moment for Vox" to "center" politics. Financing is not a "capital" issue, but the candidate has already expressed her anti-Catalanism: "The PSOE takes away our regional financing and gives it to Catalonia", she said, despite the fiscal deficit of 21,092 million that the Principality suffers and which serves, in part, to finance regions like hers.
