"It was a very sad day." The decision not to attend the general elections in July after the electoral crash in the regional and local elections in May has plunged Ciudadanos into melancholy, a feeling that does not attenuate the indignation of those who do not share the majority criteria of the leadership, who now they believe that the refounding of the liberal party was actually a "recasting"... in the PP.
The debate on Tuesday was constructive and mature, according to executive sources, who point out that all those who took part expressed their points of view in a reasonable manner and with great responsibility. In the end, the thesis prevailed, defended by the general secretary, Adrián Vázquez, that the "civilian war" impulse that will color the campaign does not benefit a formation that aspires to represent the third Spain, so it is better to furl the sails and not be definitively dismounted in a plebiscite scenario.
Vázquez, who is an MEP, bases his strategy on not uselessly wearing out the party in candidacies doomed to failure and rearming it between now and next year's European elections, in which the single state constituency can make it easier for Ciudadanos to repeat as the Spanish branch of Renew Europe , together with the formation of the French president, Emmanuel Macron.
By then, "many things will have happened" and an eventual government of the PP with Vox or of the PP alone "will open a gap for reforming progressive liberalism," say sources from the orange leadership, while other officials question whether human and financial resources are reserved in such a long term: "It was the plan from the beginning, but we believed that they would be ashamed and would show their faces in the generals after selling the motorcycle of the refoundation", they criticize.
"We had no hope", replies another leader, who argues that "it was not for money", and that the decision is due to a strategic withdrawal to "reflect and return in better circumstances", for which, despite everything, it is shown optimistic and sees in the European Parliament a "hot nail" to cling to before the Catalan autonomous communities, which will be the "touchstone" of the project's viability.
Once again, Francisco Igea, Numantino attorney in the Cortes of Castilla y León, and Edmundo Bal, a vehement deputy in Congress, have been the dissenting voices of the official line of Ciudadanos, while the parliamentary spokesperson, Inés Arrimadas, considers that Not attending the general elections is the best possible option.
While the former defy the leadership by pointing out their "cowardice", request their resignation en bloc and threaten to create an alternative electoral platform, in the environment of the former president they bite the bullet: "There is no good decision, and this is the least bad, participating was a quixotada ”, they argue.
Beyond the debatable political expediency, the emotional wound is deep and many militants, like Bal himself, will suffer the heartbreak of not being able to choose an orange ballot on July 23: "They have left me an orphan, I have no one to vote for, I don't I am going to vote for the PP or the PSOE, I want to vote for a center option”, he exclaimed yesterday.
