The negotiations between the PP and Ciutadans to find a formula with which to run jointly in the Catalan and European elections have come to an end. The tension generated in Catalonia, where the regional president of the formation, Carlos Carrizosa, rejected the "disintegration" of his party, resulted yesterday in a joint statement in which they regret "not having been able to reach a satisfactory agreement". In this context, Adrián Vázquez, general secretary of the orange formation and MEP, submitted his resignation.
The statement specifies that the reason for the breakdown of the negotiations is due to "internal tensions and the noise they have caused". A reference to the situation in Catalonia, where Carrizosa did not want integration in the popular lists. And where the PP had already sent its opposition to a broad representation of Citizens in view of the fear that during the course of the legislature they could leave the group.
It remains to be seen whether any representative of the orange formation can be incorporated into the PP lists as an individual from now on. Although at the moment the popular Catalans do not foresee it.
The irruption of the parliamentary elections has frustrated the negotiations that the respective general secretaries, Cuca Gamarra and Adrián Vázquez, had been holding for months with a view to the European elections. The 9-J elections were a more likely scenario for the agreement, because there is a higher number of seats at stake and because the two parties belong to different groups in the European Parliament. The idea of the popular, in view of the bad expectations of Citizens on 9-J and, above all, on 12-M, was a symbolic integration that staged the union of constitutionalism. A staging, as the last electoral appointments remain, there have already been many positions of Citizens that have been presented in the lists of the PP.
In the statement the two parties consider that "the political context and the drift of the parliamentary majority that supports the Spanish Government" demanded exceptional measures. Measures that have not been successful due to the aforementioned tensions, "which have made it impossible to reach a solution that combines the will of both parties". The formations are cited to "continue to collaborate" and the negotiating will of the two delegations is appreciated.
Adrián Vázquez also made public his resignation through a statement. A decision of an "immediate nature" so that other members of the party "take the reins". The coordinator, Carlos Pérez-Nievas, will be in charge until the primaries are held.
Vázquez defends in his writing that a "democratic, broad and transversal" opposition should have been formed and says that "everything has been tried". Ciutadans did not run in the last general election, and this spring's electoral scenario forced it to define itself. They have six deputies in Parliament, and polls predict that they could lose them. And seven in Europe, where, always according to the polls, they would be left with one or no representatives.
The breakdown of the negotiation opens, a priori, the scenario for the election of the PP candidate in the Catalan elections. In view of Alberto Núñez Feijóo's doubts about who should be number one, the popular leader had pointed out that the first step was to close the agreement with the orange formation. And speak after the candidate.
