Debacle in Citizens. The orange formation certified a result that will place it in the next legislature as an extra-parliamentary force in all the autonomous chambers and in the main cities of the country. From being decisive after the 2019 elections, it has become irrelevant.
Ciudadanos had expectations in several autonomies, such as Murcia, Aragón and Asturias, where the electoral bar is 3%. But it has also been left out of these parliaments. Nor in the Balearic Islands.
In the municipalities, the two main minutes that it will keep will be in Ciudad Real, where the current mayor, Eva María Masías, has managed to enter the city council, and in Palencia, with Noemí Otero. In Palencia, where CS governed, it could not have been.
Nor has it been possible to enter the Madrid City Council, where Begoña Villacís has been deputy mayor. Not even in Zaragoza, Palma, Albacete, Huelva or Almería, where CS had some hope.
The formation barely reaches 1.3% of the votes at the national level, very far from the 8.73% of four years ago.
The Ciudadanos spokesman, Mariano Fuentes, has admitted that tonight's result "is not as expected" and has lamented that "today the extremes have more power." CS, however, considers that it still has a space in Spanish politics and Fuentes added that “since Cs was born, we are going to continue with it; We will continue to fight." "We are convinced that we are needed more than ever, that by continuing with these policies we are going to have the confidence of the Spanish people", he commented on a sad night for the party, with the leadership visibly moved.
The candidate for the Madrid City Council, Begoña Villacís, has assured at the national headquarters in Madrid that she feels “enormous sadness”. "You have to call things by her name and this has been an unmitigated defeat," she acknowledged. “Being deputy mayor is the greatest honor I have ever had in my life”, she added by way of farewell. Before a group of several dozen members, she explained that although "life is not always fair" she leaves with "the honor of representing people like the ones I have here before me"
In 2019, Ciudadanos celebrated significant growth at its national headquarters. That night the atmosphere was one of victory. The results were celebrated by Albert Rivera, who months later left politics after the poor result of the general elections; Ignacio Aguado, who has also returned to the private sector; or Luis Garicano, recent signing of the PP foundation. The only one who continues in the formation is Villacís. CS doubled its number of regional deputies in 2019 compared to 2015 and obtained more than 2,700 councilors. Then he was already governing in Andalusia and, after the elections four years ago, he did so in the Community of Madrid, in Murcia and in Castilla y León.
In the Madrid elections of 2021 he disappeared from the Assembly and in the autonomous elections of Castilla y León in 2022 Francisco Igea was the only attorney. Tonight they disappear from the rest of the parliaments.
