The current national direction of Citizens continues with the fifth gear engaged and focused on completing, between December and January, its refoundation process that will culminate with an extraordinary general assembly. A transformation with which it aspires to cover the multiple leaks that have appeared in recent times and, with this, face the municipal and regional elections of May 2023 with certain guarantees of turning around the gradual decline experienced in recent electoral cycles.
Inés Arrimadas has shown her desire for this assembly to be "as participatory" as possible of all those held by this party and trusts that it will be "a turning point to restart" the Ciudadanos project, understanding that "the political space continues to be the same" and the values as well. "There will be no surprises there," she said.
It is assumed that there will be primaries to elect the leadership of the party, but the date will be determined these months in a coordinated manner between the experts of the refoundation and the party leadership. The last time it was done before the assembly, which, if repeated, would mean opening the contest in November.
Distancing herself from internal criticism, the Catalan leader on Monday ruled out any alteration to the calendar after a group of elected officials, mostly with responsibilities in Aragon, Asturias and the Valencian Community, made public a manifesto accusing the Andalusian leader of to be "a president detached from reality".
The determination outlined by Arrimadas is total and for this reason it does not contemplate advancing deadlines in any way "because the refoundation process must be taken seriously, listening to the militancy and detecting talent."
Asked, however, if this listening process should delay the formalization of municipal and local candidacies while waiting to know the articulation of the new members of the party, the orange president has been blunt in ruling it out: "The process of municipal authorities is not being interrupted because a new public instrument is not being established, but rather a renewed one", he underlined.
After the poor results harvested by Cs in Andalusia, Arrimadas made his position available to the executive as an alternative to the refoundation proposal undertaken. "And there was not a single voice against it," he remarked, recalling that some of those who are now showing their criticism of the open process were present at that meeting.
Arrimadas, who admits that the party's situation is "very serious" as it accumulates many "very bad" electoral results, appeared at a press conference after proposing to the party's executive that the refoundation process in which they are immersed concludes with a extraordinary general meeting, to be held at the end of 2022 or beginning of 2023.
In what has not been so explicit, it has been when it comes to advancing his political future. The Jerez-born leader does not want to confirm, or deny, if she will lead a candidacy for her re-election, understanding that now is "the moment of what and not of who" and that any manifestation in this regard would only cloud the process.
"We must not forget that our militancy" -very diminished with so much electoral setback (about 12,000 of the around 30,000 that came to join)- "is very participatory and is asking us to respect the deadlines and open channels. They ask us to work together and they ask us to focus on what happens outside the party headquarters and not on what happens inside an office", he added in a direct message to his critics who, party sources, place in a kind of race for save themselves, "without ruling out the jump to the PP", and not committed to redirecting the situation after the bad electoral results.
