Mazón breaks the strategy of Mamen Peris and Cs bleeds to death and will present half of the local lists

The new president of Ciudadanos in the Valencian Community, Mamen Peris, entered with a clear slogan: "Neither fold to the PP nor fold to the PSOE; Ciudadanos has its own space"; a desperate attempt to distance themselves from the popular to try to survive a few months before the elections that could mean the political death of the formation.

Oliver Thansan
Oliver Thansan
17 March 2023 Friday 21:27
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Mazón breaks the strategy of Mamen Peris and Cs bleeds to death and will present half of the local lists

The new president of Ciudadanos in the Valencian Community, Mamen Peris, entered with a clear slogan: "Neither fold to the PP nor fold to the PSOE; Ciudadanos has its own space"; a desperate attempt to distance themselves from the popular to try to survive a few months before the elections that could mean the political death of the formation. However, her strategy has been boycotted from within by important officials who have responded by approaching the PP with the excuse that Peris was turning to the Botànic.

And all this while Carlos Mazón managed to shore up coalition governments such as the Alicante Provincial Council and, above all, give his electoral rival a final blow by stirring up the rout. After the well-known departure of the former trustee in Les Corts Ruth Merino (now signed by Mazón) only in one week, three provincial deputies (two in Alicante and one in Valencia) have announced that they are leaving the party with harsh criticism of the leadership. Neither ultimatums nor visits by officials from the national executive have managed to stop the bleeding.

A loss of cadres that will be seen in the next 28M elections. Yesterday the general secretary, Adrián Vázquez, assured during his visit to Valencia that they would present "more than 90 municipal candidacies." A figure that must be put in context. Just four years ago, in the 2019 elections, Cs presented up to 184 candidacies (77 in the province of Valencia, 67 in Alicante and 42 in Castellón) with which it reached 314 councillors. In 2015, with the party still growing, the orange formation already presented 139 candidacies (50 more than now). The fact that now the half that four years ago are going to present themselves denotes the moment of weakness that the formation is experiencing and does not bode well for the future of the party.

Even more so, when in this case the local ones once again have an important relevance to prop up the regional candidacy because, once again, both calls will coincide on Sunday, May 28. Although it may seem like a very distant scenario, it cannot be ignored that, in 2019, Cs achieved 466,000 votes in the regional elections that both the PP (the best placed) and the PSPV now want, as well as the PSPV, which aspires to the profile of President Ximo Puig can convince a part of the orange voter.

Judging by the movements of the Cs charges, the PP plays with an important advantage. We will have to see how this translates in the coming days and how many of those who have left Peris's party in recent days find a place on the PP lists. A situation that is beginning to bother popular cadres who see how the lists have not been presented and there are more and more candidates to occupy them.

The lack of control in the formation is such that it is not even known how many deputies of the parliamentary group are willing to follow Peris's orders. With the reform of the electoral law ruled out, PP sources encouraged the parties that govern the Botànic to vote without agreement on the renewal of the statutory bodies, insinuating that perhaps Cs could not ensure the favorable vote of the eight parliamentarians that the oranges need ( of the 13 that they now have) to carry out the renewal of expired organs.

Ana Serna, spokesperson for the PP in the Alicante Provincial Council, assured yesterday that "what remains of Ciudadanos has been handed over to Ximo Puig, the Catalanists and the extreme left of Podemos in order to destabilize the Provincial Council." And she affirmed that this "is the toll that the new management of Cs has to pay to Puig to try to lower the electoral bar from 5 to 3% two months before the elections."

Serna described the work of Julia Parra and Javier Gutiérrez as "exemplary" and added that "they have not changed, what has changed is the leadership of Ciudadanos who, in order to serve Ximo and his partners, must pay the toll of trying to destabilize to this institution.

The popular spokesperson confirmed that Parra and Gutiérrez will maintain their powers "because the figure of the non-attached deputy is absolutely legal", although they will only receive compensation for attending committees and plenary sessions. In the case of advisers, the technical services of the Provincial Council are studying their situation "and as soon as we have the reports, we will take them to the plenary session to inform and adopt the pertinent agreements, complying with what is established by law and regulation."