Francisco José Requejo, in one act by Zamora Sí in early February Europa press
Zamora, Almería, Madrid, Barcelona… The cascade of victims in Ciudadanos, which continues despite the re-establishment of the party, not only leads to new signings of the PP, but also to the creation of new parties. Dozens of officials, most of them from the region, are joining regionalist formations that have emerged as a result of the CS crisis. A dynamic that is being reproduced in different parts of the geography, looking ahead to local and regional elections on May 28 and given the dire expectations of the brand they fought for, according to 2019 polls. “We have already confirmed many candidatures. I can assure you that there will be liberal elections in all corners of Spain,” said Patricia Guasp, political spokeswoman for the CS, after the first meeting of the new national committee this Friday in Valencia. But the reality reflects a not very encouraging situation.
Zamora Yes. One of the bloodiest cases is that of the new party called Zamora Sí, created by Francisco José Requejo. President of the Provincial Council of Zamora since 2019 thanks to the election of Ciudadanos, he left the party on the 16th after facing the CS Regional Committee. Requejo has retained his tenure as a councilor and will continue as chief provincial leader pending election. Zamora Yes, which opened its headquarters and website this week, will be present in the polling stations of other Zamora municipalities. Other former members of Wayward Citizens have joined their ranks and will seek the capital city council under their Requejo brand.
Almeria advances. In Andalusia, Pepe Montoya, former CS councilor in Roquetas de Mar, gave birth to Almería Avanza. A province where a trail of membership losses is accumulating as a result of the disaster in the regional elections last June. The still-mayor of the coastal municipality presents his “national political project” as an “independent and non-binding” brand and calls on “all people betrayed by the traditional parties” to put themselves on his lists. The CS exporter in the city council of the capital Almería, Miguel Cazorla, announced this Monday that he is joining the project, the presentation of which will take place on March 1st in the city of Almería. Also in Andalucia, Ramón Martínez, Mayor of Huéscar (Granada) and the rest of his group’s councillors, who ran for Ciudadanos in 2019, will do so this time with a new local brand, Huéscar en marcha.
Pepe Montoya announces the launch of Almería Avanza last April 17.
Valentines and with you. In addition to the recently formed formations, there are other parties that have been formed by former Ciudadanos officials in recent years. Among them Valents, promoted by the councilor of the Barcelona City Council Eva Parera, former right-hand man of Manuel Valls, and emerged as a result of the break of CS in the consistory due to the confrontation between the former French president and the leadership. Since its inception in 2021, Valents has already brought together more than 3,000 affiliates in Catalonia, where it intends to unite “all of centre-right constitutionalism” in a single candidacy. The project initially caused unease in Ciudadanos, who accused it of relying on “transfuguismo”. Parera launched the pre-campaign on January 29 with a great event in Barcelona where he introduced himself as “the Catalan UPN”. Dozens of CS positions have joined its ranks, which in turn included former members of the People’s Party.
For its part, Contigo began in 2017 as a “communalist” platform promoted by former charges of citizens of the Valencian Community who criticized then-leader Albert Rivera. Today they have more than 3,000 subsidiaries and are located throughout the territory. They first stood in elections in the European and municipal elections on May 26, 2019, where they won two mayors and 22 councilors in the consistory of the provinces of Seville, Gualadajara, Valencia and Salamanca. And in late January, the leader of Contigo moved to the Autonomous Community of Madrid to recruit other mayors from municipalities where Ciudadanos achieved widespread representation four years ago and is now unhappy with the new leadership. One of the notable signings is that of the mayor with the most votes in cities with more than 20,000 inhabitants, Jorge Alberto Campos from Paracuellos de Jarama (Madrid), who left the CS on January 26 and is seeking re-election for Contigo Paracuellos.
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Sources from the National Citizens Directorate confirm the difficulties in configuring lists in certain municipalities due to their deep crisis. Also the fear of these new parties that will fragment the vote even more and save some of their personalities who a priori had better chances of surviving, like the mayor of Paracuellos. And especially considering that in local elections on many occasions the person overshoots the mark. Other executive sources indicate that losses will now end in March. Ciudadanos has around 2,500 councilors across Spain. The passing of days will shed light on the path they will take at the end.
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