A new earthquake in Ciudadanos just a few days after the party at its general assembly tried to heal the open wounds after a bloody battle for the leadership of the party between Ines Arimada and Edmundo Bal. This time, the trigger was information published this Friday by the newspaper El País, which claims that the deputy mayor of Madrid, Begonia Villachis, told her party representatives that her intention was “an internal move in the PP”.
“I appreciate being the insider at PP.” why The Grupo Prisa newspaper was published this Friday, came out of the mouth of the deputy mayor of Madrid in recent weeks, right in the middle of the assembly for the restoration of Ciudadanos, and they have now met as the new leadership tried to close the wounds. The Madrid leader admitted that this option, as the current integration into the PP, is one of “thousands” being considered given the approach of municipal and regional elections, which could mean the end of the project.
His clarifications came hours later, after he maintained an unnerving silence under pressure from numerous journalists and his party colleagues calling to find out what he had to say. In his address, Vilas admits that the possibility was “on the table and was evaluated,” but he explains that it was done “as thousands of other options were evaluated.”
He also admits that Ciudadanos “is a party that is in the situation it is in” and “they have to be realistic” and given that he and many people are “concerned about the project”, “at the moment there are people who give them a lot of returns” the future of the party.
“We want to make this project of a liberal center viable in Spain, which is why thousands of options have been evaluated,” he asserts. But in the end he admits “that the debate is open”, but there are different positions: “There are colleagues who understand that the best way to do it is with our acronyms”, but others do not. Villacís then implies that the new leadership will give each territory the freedom to do what it thinks is best. In fact, the deputy mayor of Madrid does not believe that his position is exactly to join the PP, which he has ruled out and denied actively and passively in all cases when he was asked, but he says that it was. We need to think about the “survival of the political center” and that the formula for achieving it will be different depending on which places and circumstances.
The leak was met with surprise and some anger in the PP’s national leadership. If last December it was all an invitation to include Ciudadanos values such as Vilasias or Arimadas, to which it was said that “if they ring the bell, we will open their door”, Country Those who are trying to add “talent” to the party are somewhat fed up, he reports Aitor Rivero.
“There is no current in the PP,” the sources of the leadership of elDiario.es claim. “This is not a coalition, this is a government party,” they added. Other sources indicate that the door is not closed for Villacís or others to reunite, but note that they do not intend to comment on “each chapter” of the process. “When it is, it will appear. It is up to him,” he said.
And that Feijo himself has assured in some cases that he is not going to “demand a card” from anyone who wants to participate in his project. But in PP they seem unwilling to negotiate massive inclusions in the package but are selective signings. For example, the Mayor of Badajoz, Ignacio Graguera, who won office as a Ciudadanos candidate and will lead the PP lists in the May elections.
However, Ayuso holds the last word in the municipal lists of Madrid. According to the PP’s constitution, the national leadership chooses candidates from the provincial capitals, but the rest of the list is decided by the regional leadership in the hands of the president in Madrid since last May. Genoa last week confirmed Almeida as the main leader of the city of Madrid, but now Ayuso will prepare the rest of the candidacy and his public statements have always been with the view that Villach is not needed.
Ayuso never wanted to find out about the possible signing of the vice mayor, as it was after Genoa, where they have been opening the door for him for some time. The regional president, on the other hand, has always maintained publicly that Ciudadanos does not pose any threat to the PP. “I don’t know what we are going to do. They tried for me [Ciudadanos] Kick me out of political life. You have to be consistent, see what cases and what they have said all this time, because there must be certain principles and values,” Ayuso said just ten days ago. The vice mayor’s only asset is Culture Minister Marta Rivera de la Cruz, who was brought into the government by the PP leader after the 4M elections and is on good terms with Vilas.
Source: El Diario
