The President of Ciudadanos, Inés Arrimadas, visits the workshop of fallero artist Ximo Esteve in Valencia Jorge Gil this Sunday (Europa Press)
One of the most important dates for the founding of Ciudadanos is already marked in the calendar. The party’s leadership intends for the bases to vote for their new leader – or re-elect their president, Inés Arrimadas – in the January 9-10 primary. The name of the pilot of the Ciudadanos, emerging from the renewal process started at the end of June, will be published on the 11th of the same month and finally confirmed by the Guarantee Commission on January 12th. This follows from the regulations drawn up by the team preparing the Re-establishment Assembly, which EL PAÍS agreed to. A document the leadership submitted to the Extended Executive Branch in a telematics meeting this Monday. According to the agenda set by the organization, the most important dates of the election process of the future President of Cs – such as the confirmation of the eligibility of the candidacies and the electoral campaign that the opponents are conducting – will take place in the middle of the Christmas holidays. Whether Arrimadas will be there again is still unclear.
The document was prepared by the team working on the party’s relaunch, together with Cs organizing secretary Carlos Pérez-Nievas and MEP Jordi Cañas. After review by the expanded executive, the regulations must be reviewed and ratified by the General Council, the highest inter-assembly body. The hundred advisors can include changes.
The 32-page document addresses the organizational issues that will set the rules of the game for the inaugural assembly. These include the procedure for electing delegates or how the electoral roll is structured. “The Liberals are not throwing in the towel, we have been decisive on many points and we will continue to be so,” Arrimadas said this Sunday in Valencia, where he attended an event held by Cs to present the candidates for the Autonomous Community’s municipal elections.
Arrimadas has so far avoided commenting on whether or not he will stand for re-election. Extended Executive sources believe the President will present herself again in recent weeks “taking into account her course of action.” Other senior officials assume he will resign. The problem is that whoever shows up assumes they are leading a party that has “everything to lose,” several leaders agree. “Nobody wants to get burned like that,” adds one of them. This circumstance could deter the rest of the potential opponents.
According to the regulations, candidates for the party presidency can be submitted between December 26 and 29, in the middle of the Christmas season. And the final announcement of the names running for the presidency – that is, the candidates in full capacity – will come on New Year’s Eve, December 31. The campaign runs between January 2nd and 8th. Finally, the reincorporation meeting takes place shortly after the primary elections between January 13th and 15th. There they have to agree to the presentations summarizing the founding work carried out during these months, in which about 2,000 members and sympathizers have taken part.
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The chain of electoral debacles – most recently the disaster in the Andalusian elections, which saw the formation plummet from 21 seats to zero – led to a re-establishment process at the end of June aimed at preserving a “tool” that channels the “liberal” space “. The survey created by 40dB. for EL PAÍS, published this Monday, Ciudadanos gives a deputy in a hypothetical general election with a turnout intention of 2.3%, a slight increase of 0.1% compared to October. The study also shows that, according to the survey, only 4% of those polled prefer Arrimadas as Prime Minister, which also indicates that the majority of his former electorate favors the PP candidate, Alberto Núñez Feijóo.
The President of Ciudadanos, Inés Arrimadas (centre), this Sunday in Valencia, together with the National MP, María Muñoz, and the Regional MP and Regional Coordinator, Ruth Merino, both on her left. To his right, the national parliamentarian Juan Ignacio López-Bas and the municipal spokesman Fernando Giner. Ana Escobar (EFE)
Arrimadas has immersed himself in a tour of Spain to show that “there are no problems configuring the municipal lists” of citizens, before internal voices warn that “people are missing” to complete the ballots. The tour started on October 22nd in Lugo together with the Galician regional coordinator Olga Louzao, one of the municipalities with the worst scores for Cs. “It’s a sign that we’re prepared and not afraid,” they say from management. And this Sunday he landed in Valencia, along with the capital’s list leader Fernando Giner, also a member of the executive.