In a stark way, the draft presentation on values, strategy and political action that the Ciudadanos executive approved on Friday and that will be submitted to the vote of the militancy in the next extraordinary congress puts its finger on the sore spot of the doctrine of pacts only with the PP imposed by Albert Rivera, which is described as a "failure" and which is attributed to the disappearance of the party in the parliaments of the Community of Madrid and Andalusia.
The document, of 19 pages and already in the hands of the affiliates, represents an amendment to the entire Ciudadanos strategy from 2018 to today, so the assumption of errors also extends to the current president, Inés Arrimadas, who inherited the remains of Rivera's shipwreck in November 2019, when the orange ship lost 47 of the 57 seats obtained in April of the same year.
"The erratic, subordinate campaign approaches and the self-imposed limitations of only being able to agree with one party of the many that make up the spectrum has been a slab that has clouded all our political action," reads the text, which does not hide its " cathartic vocation" before the agonizing refounding assembly that Ciudadanos will hold in January.
The exercise of self-criticism is manifest when it comes to recognizing the "strategic and tactical errors" of the formation, which the paper proposes to amend by renouncing the "subalternity" that has characterized the governments in which Ciudadanos has participated as a junior partner of the PP and in which his voice, for "fear of dissent in the pact," it is said, has been blurred. To the point of disappearing by absorption.
To reverse this drift towards extinction, the re-founding team proposes to reformulate the values of Ciudadanos as a liberal party heir to the Cortes of Cádiz and guarantor of the 1978 Constitution, with the defense of individual freedom and equal opportunities as axes ideological elements of a "reformist" program that points to non-Spanish nationalism and populism as the main adversaries.
Assuming the "bad situation" the party is going through, the new strategic plan proposes "starting from scratch" and presenting an "autonomous and ambitious programmatic offer" that is capable of "transcending the left-right axis and breaking ideological blocs." That is, retrace the path that has led Ciudadanos to be associated with the right and reposition it as a potential hinge on both sides of the political spectrum.
However, the document ensures that "the program has been the last of the problems" of the party and vindicates the management developed in the municipalities and communities where Ciudadanos has reached government pacts, so the "exciting offer" with the that will seek to reconnect with society will be based on wresting from "exhausted socialism" and the "unhinged left" the flag of equal opportunities for all individuals without distinction of any kind.
"Among the jaded of that left are voters who supported us at the time, but who moved away in the face of the vetoes of all pacts towards the left and an economic policy based exclusively on reducing the tax burden," the paper states, in which supposes a full-fledged rectification of the discourse that was imposed in the vice-presidencies of the Community of Madrid and the Junta de Andalucía.
As for the "conservative right", which is attributed as the "maximum ambition" to "inherit power" and maintain the status quo of the past, that is, the PP, and the "illiberal and populist right" with "reactionary impulses", that is, Vox, what the speakers propose is "creating a sufficiently seductive alternative" to "attract liberal voters who have been orphaned of a true alternative".
Aware that Ciudadanos "is not going to form governments alone", the speakers are committed to new pact policies "without red lines beyond the principles and values" of the party and based on programmatic agreements "always after" the elections and They therefore renounce proposing pre-electoral alliances with other political forces, which liquidates experiences such as that of Navarra Suma, for example.
Thus, and given the new two-headed structure included in the other presentation approved by the executive on Friday, the taking of positions continues with a view to presenting candidacies to guide the future journey of Ciudadanos. Francisco Igea, who faced Arrimadas in the previous congress and today feels his proposals "reflected", has ruled out leading a list, but he is convinced that there will be an alternative if the current president does not give way to a new political leadership.
