Flurry of resignations in Ciudadanos: the flight of councilors in Madrid adds to the casualties in Zaragoza, Asturias and the Balearic Islands | Spain

The trickle of dropouts in Ciudadanos has given way in recent days to a tsunami. With the formal call for the next municipal and regional elections on May 28, the number of positions in the party that renounces the initials multiplies as the time for the registration of candidacies runs out. A factor that further aggravates the situation of the party, which already had difficulty strengthening after the appointment at the polls, according to most surveys. Internal sources even speak of “overbooking” of membership cancellations in recent weeks. So much so that the technicians —in turn accused of a reduction in staff due to recent layoffs— cannot cope, and the requests take longer to resolve than normal. But the new direction of Ciudadanos downplays the leaks of charges with the elections on top. “What bothers citizens about the parties is corruption, let them reach into the box,” Patricia Guasp, national spokesperson for Cs, confirmed this Tuesday in an interview on TVE.

The leader of Ciudadanos thus threw the ball out shortly after EL PAÍS published that there are already six councilors of the Madrid City Council who will not continue as members of Ciudadanos. The sit-in for the deputy mayor, Begoña Villacís, is in turn a blow to the leadership, with hopes pinned on the Madrid capital to consolidate afloat despite the foreseeable drop in the number of votes, assumed within the party. But the Madrid crisis is not an isolated case.

Last Wednesday, the municipal block group of the Zaragoza City Council (6 councilors) announced in a statement that they were all renouncing the initials of the formation by which they managed to enter the government in coalition with the Popular Party. Also the vice mayor of Zaragoza, Susana Gaspar, of Cs. The national leadership canceled precisely in Aragon and Zaragoza the primaries to choose its regional and municipal candidate due to fear of “a PP takeover from within”, for fear of the transfer of positions to the popular ranks. “Everyone is free to go, but turncoat is a form of corruption. I don’t know why it has been normalized ”, Guasp has censured. Executive sources describe those who renounce the “principles” of Ciudadanos as “faces” for making sure they continue to hold public office now that Cs is in his lowest hours. Nor are they surprised by the marches, already expected, and they focus their efforts on the “renewed leadership” that took the reins of the formation in January after primary tensions. “We are prepared. We have great teams. The polls say that they continue to be decisive in Madrid ”, confirmed Inés Arrimadas, spokesperson for Cs in Congress, this Tuesday.

This Tuesday, the mayor and two councilors of San Juan (Alicante) have also left Cs. But to the flight of councilors is added that of several regional deputies who have recently requested the withdrawal of the party. Among them, the Asturian parliament Sergio García, who announced his march on the 3rd, and the Balearic deputy and candidate for the regional Parliament for Cs in 2019, Marc Pérez-Ribas. “Unfortunately Ciudadanos is no longer the party that I joined seven years ago and I do not want my ideas and approaches to be conditioned by a party that no longer counts on me,” Pérez-Ribas wrote on his social networks on the 5th.

To them is added the march as an affiliate of the former Secretary of Organization Borja González, confirmed this Monday to this newspaper. “The act of kneeling before Bolaños and accepting his order to support Montero and Belarra’s Podemos is not only compromising the fundamental values ​​of a centrist party, but also a sign of humiliation,” González criticized on Twitter, referring to a Information published in EL PAÍS, in which it was announced that Ciudadanos is trying to rebuild the bridges blown up with the PSOE as a strategy to survive.

Up to now Ciudadanos had some 2,800 councilors throughout the country and around fifty regional deputies. And the year started with 7,642 affiliates up to date with payment. The barrage of casualties would now leave these figures below.