Ciudadanos has already set a date for an internal primary to renew the party’s leadership. They will be held from January 9 to 10, 2023, a few days before the extraordinary general assembly on the 13th, 14th and 15th of the same month, in which the process of re-founding the party began last June. It remains unknown whether Ines Arimadas will be re-elected. This Monday, the leader of the formation remained silent on future plans when asked about it during a press conference held after an electronic meeting with members of the national executive.
The party’s leadership campaign will catch candidates in the middle of the Christmas break, as nominations open on December 26 and close on December 29. The regulations stipulate that they have one week to submit. projects. The said internal regulations – approved today by the expanded executive – which will regulate both the primary process and the work of the general assembly, must be approved by the General Council, the party’s highest body, before it can be changed. corrections. On January 11, the winner of the primary will be announced, and on January 12, the Committee of Guarantees, which must first open the mandatory period of challenges.
Most of the leaders in the party still do not know whether Arimadas wishes to continue as party leader or if he decides to hand over the baton to someone else. Those who know do not want to confirm or deny anything, although there are those who bet that the leader will not appear again and will remain only the president of the parliamentary group until the end of the legislative body. If so, the only alternative Ciudadanos has for survival is Begoña Villacís. The deputy mayor of Madrid actively and passively reiterated that he does not intend to join the PP, much less to join the electoral candidacy of Mayor José Luis Martínez-Almeida in the upcoming municipal elections. The siren songs that make him leave the ranks of Feijo’s party these days, he avoided them all, insisting that he will continue to defend the “liberal” project.
Some recently published polls give Ciudadanos hope of survival, which could remain in the capital’s city council with three councilors headed by Vilas. The Madrid leader is the last hope for a party that is facing its worst moments in Andalusia, Castilla y León and, before that, in Madrid and Catalonia.
The problem facing the leadership now is the selection of autonomous candidates, given that the party has practically disappeared in several autonomies. This weekend, Arimadas tried to deny that he is struggling to recruit candidates. In Valencia, it was “taken for granted” that the formation would have a list to present in the regional elections to the Generalitat Valenciana. However, when asked who will lead this list, he refrained from naming names and limited himself only to the fact that the “procedures established by the charter” of the party would be scrupulously implemented.
“We are ready and I believe that we are going to create an autonomous list in the Valencian community, because it is also necessary: we have had 40 years of bipartisanship, 40 years when PP and PSOE have. had an absolute majority and in which the community of Valencia was abandoned,” he said. Arimadas, who also predicted that he will continue to participate “both in the municipal elections and in all the regional elections scheduled for the same date”.
Source: El Diario
