Patricia Guasp (Palma, 1977) is a deputy in the Balearic Parliament and regional coordinator of Ciudadanos. Together with MEP Adrián Vázquez, who aspires to be the new general secretary of the party, she heads the list that Inés Arrimadas closes, in which she appears as the candidate for political spokesperson in the new two-headed structure. "This candidacy combines the origin of Ciudadanos with the future of Ciudadanos," says Guasp, for whom in the refounding process there was never any talk of a change in leadership in the parliamentary group in Congress.
Your candidacy is the one supported by Inés Arrimadas, is it, therefore, a list of continuity?
Not at all. Quite the opposite. We are a renewed candidacy, a team of new faces. It is a new generation. Of the first fifteen positions, which are those of the permanent executive, none is in the current executive. On the other hand, Edmundo Bal is currently vice-secretary and spokesman. We put the focus on the municipal and regional elections in May. While others have all their capital located in Madrid, in Congress, we cover the entire territory. Our candidacy thinks more about the May elections than the general ones.
But even if they do not occupy the top positions, there are many current leaders, in addition to Arrimadas, who appear on their list. It has been said that it is a protected list...
I refer to the tests. Our president has stepped aside. A very generous gesture on her part. For the majority of our party, Inés Arrimadas is an important reference that we have to continue preserving, as are Edmundo Bal, Begoña Villacís, Carlos Carrizosa and many others. This is a candidacy that combines the origin of Ciudadanos with the future of Ciudadanos. It is a unit candidacy, Arrimadas is on a list of thirty like other colleagues, but she will not be in the leadership.
In any case, the confrontation has come about the leadership in Congress and the future candidacy for the presidency of the Government...
Arrimadas has already stated that he does not want to lead the party. To be a candidate for the presidency of the Government there will be primaries and any position of the party may attend. That is a speculation that is made. But now the focus is on the May elections. There will be time in due course to see who is the best to stand in the general elections.
Even so, Arrimadas could not have opted for any candidacy and have presented himself to primaries later...
She has always advocated for a unit list. She asked to all work together on a consensus list in which Edmundo Bal was also on until she decided to take the road on her own. Both are referents, but Arrimadas is our spokesperson in the Congress of Deputies and the best parliamentarian we have. No one doubts that. And in the process of refounding, at no time was the leadership and spokesperson in Congress questioned. The refoundation does not have to go through a change in that sense.
What party model do you propose?
With our list we have tried to give a voice to the affiliates, whom we have listened to during the extensive process of interviews of the refoundation group, in the working groups, in telematic surveys, following in the footsteps of other European liberal center parties. And it is in this process that they have asked us, and this is reflected in the presentation that is brought to the general assembly, for a more transversal, less centralist, less Caesarian and less presidential party leadership. Our candidacy is the reflection of those demands.
In what does this transversality materialize?
Our candidacy is headed by a MEP like Adrián Vázquez, a regional deputy like myself or a Madrid councilor like Mariano Fuentes. That is so, because we want that transversality. The regional and municipal scale has a very important role. What the affiliates have not asked us is what Edmundo Bal is asking for, to continue with presidentialism. What we contribute is a team leadership, a choir, that will give a voice to the municipalities and the autonomous communities. Therefore, from official and continuation supporters, nothing.
Why are the party leaders confronting each other in this stark manner if they all say they are running away from personalism?
I feel disappointed by this division. It is obvious that it is not good to face the elections in May. For this reason, when Bal's candidacy was announced, many affiliates asked us, the members of the refounding team, to seek consensus. We began to negotiate, thinking about the candidates who are risking their faces in the municipalities, and our candidacy was born from there, when it was seen that a unity candidacy was not possible, but it is the one with the most unity, the most renewed possible, thinking of the regeneration of Citizens.
His candidacy is presented as a liberal center while Bal's adds the term progressive. Is that the great ideological difference that confronts them?
No, no, I always speak of the progressive liberal center. There is nothing more progressive than liberalism. But the ideology is not going to be marked by the new leadership of the party, but by the affiliates in the January assembly. I feel very comfortable in the progressive liberal center.
In the new two-headed structure, it is proposed that organic and political positions are not compatible, so that if Adrián Vázquez were elected Secretary General, he would have to resign from his position in Brussels...
Amendments have already been introduced so that you can have an elected position and organic responsibility. In the two major candidacies there are public offices, the general secretary who proposes Bal's candidacy is a councilor in Madrid. I don't think it's incompatible with leading a party. We are not a manager, but a general secretary. But it will be the affiliates who decide with their vote.
So, trust that Adrián Vázquez will continue as spokesperson for Ciudadanos in the European Parliament...
It is a very important value. It has been a key piece in the re-foundation. He has been working in Brussels for fifteen years in direct contact with the European liberal center parties. Who better than him to strengthen that space in Spain.
Do you consider integrating members of the rival list in the direction if your candidacy is successful?
Undoubtedly, my personal commitment and that of this team is that these three gaps in our candidacy serve to integrate the members of the other list. We have spoken with Bal and we have told him so. Our offer is sincere, because we believe that a stronger Citizen must come out of this assembly and be as united as possible.
What country model do you propose?
We want to develop our reformist agenda after forty years of bipartisanship. With an electoral reform and an educational reform and a review of the pension system: pensions cannot be increased by 8.5% when they are not guaranteed for the young and not so young. Or the recentralization of health, with serious problems such as primary care. You have to question everything, the status quo of our country, and that Ciudadanos is the only one who is going to dare to do it, telling the truth.
