Patricia Guasp leaves the direction of Cs and pours the party founded by Albert Rivera into primaries to decide who will be its new leader. Guasp returns to the private company and will be responsible in the Balearic Islands for a consulting, audit and tax advisory firm. The leader of the formation has sent a letter to the militancy in which she details that she is leaving the position on September 1 due to work incompatibility. Guasp has been the leader of Cs since December 2023, when she replaced Inés Arrimadas after a turbulent primary process that pitted her against the party's parliamentary spokesperson, Edmundo Bal. He won by majority, with 53% of the votes, but the formation was split with various allegations by Bal.
Ciutadans decided not to stand in the general elections of July 23 and Guasp announced that he had abstained. This decision caused a new clash between both sectors of the formation, as Bal's wing considered it a mistake not to show up and accused the management of having the party hijacked and bunkered. In his letter, Guasp assures that this is a "difficult" decision and points out that Spain is experiencing "moments of democratic collapse". "I am firmly convinced that bipartisanship, backed by extremists and exclusionary nationalists, will never be the solution," she says. He insists that Spain needs a transformative, reformist liberal and progressive project "that defends itself from the political center, so that our democratic system stops dividing and collectivizing Spaniards".
"They will never be able to buy our principles and we will never sell them", he adds. Guasp assures that, sooner or later, "from the liberal center we will once again be decisive for the future of our country". The leader of Cs assures that she is leaving with "consistency, honesty and the commitment that have always guided me in political life". The imminent resignation of Guasp aggravates the situation of a party that lost the little power it still had in the last regional elections. His decision not to run in the July 23 elections has also left him without a presence in Congress. Cs will have to call new primaries to resolve this training crisis and elect a new leader.
The leader of Cs has already informed the general secretary of Ciutadans, Adrián Vázquez, of her decision. She will leave the group's political representation and will also cease to be coordinator in the Balearic Islands. Guasp has been the leader of the formation in the islands and was a Cs candidate in the Balearic Parliament, but the party was left without the five deputies it had obtained in the 2019 elections. Before Guasp, the party was led by l writer Xavier Pericay, one of the founders of Cs, with an interim leadership between two with Marc Pérez-Ribas.
