Edmundo Bali terminates Arimadas and declares his candidacy as head of Ciudadanos

Ciudadanos spokesman in the Congress of Deputies, Edmundo Bal, has announced that he will present his candidacy for the leadership of Ciudadanos. “I am going to introduce myself as the head of this project. I want to lead this re-establishment process,” he told the press this Friday.

Bali’s gesture comes after tensions arose over Ciudadanos’ vote in favor of the “only yes is yes” law. Support, which the party suddenly rushed to withdraw, citing “legal loopholes” that allowed some pedophiles or sex offenders to have their sentences reduced or walk the streets, depending on the criteria. Judges. The decision to vote in favor of the law was made by a group that trusted his deputy, Edmundo Bal, who is a state lawyer, and with the approval of Arrimadas. However, now the party leader is reprimanding him for not studying the articles better to foresee the consequences of using it. And a split was created between them, as other deputies of the formation also recognized.

A spokesman for Ciudadanos in Congress this time announced his decision a week after unanimously approving a change in the party’s structure to pave the way for a two-headed model in which organic and political functions would be separated. However, the death of Edmundo Bali explodes any previous consensus and the party breaks with the current leadership, the results of which are so far unpredictable.

The idea of ​​both Bali and the large number of leaders and MPs who support him is that Ines Arimadas is not a candidate in next year’s general election, a position they defend based on the trajectory that has almost wiped out the party. Based on polling prospects for most constituencies in which elections have been held in recent years and also for general elections.

At the moment, in Ciudadanos they are now waiting expectantly for Arrimadas’ next move and no one excludes any scenario, among which there is a real power struggle that could further divide the party or even that the current president, Inés Arrimadas, decides to take a step away from the party due to the lack of support conditions. As this newspaper has been able to confirm, virtually the entire parliamentary group supports today’s move by its speaker, Edmundo Bali, except for Guillermo Díaz, who will remain with Arimada.

“I want to lead this re-process. I want to be hand in hand with the militants of my party, together with the branches of the assembly, which should be held in the middle of January, from which we should all come out united, all stronger,” said Bal at the gate. In a statement from the Congress of Deputies showing his break with Arrimadas.

In a statement, Bal acknowledged that Ciudadanos is “going through difficult times,” which he said “no one misses.” “Polls say so every day,” he emphasized. In fact, the latest CIS figures give them 2.5% of the vote, down from 6.8% in November 2019.