He says that the party does not close to agreements with any party after the May elections but refuses to reach them with Sánchez
MADRID, 6 Ene. (EUROPA PRESS) –
The candidate to lead Ciudadanos Patricia Guasp, coordinator of the Balearic Islands of the formation, accuses Edmundo Bal of presenting his candidacy for “personal ambition”, after the deputy secretary general has transferred his intention to present himself in the primaries for a candidate for the general elections if your list is victorious in the Extraordinary Assembly in mid-January. “This is the case of the vice president who wants to be president of the party,” says Guasp, who stresses that his goal is “more personal.”
Guasp heads ‘Reborn your party’, the list endorsed by the current president of the orange formation, Inés Arrimadas, and is running for the position of spokesperson. Under the proposed two-headed model, which will have to be ratified at the meeting on January 14 and 15, the party’s organic and political legs will be separated, so it needs a running mate. He appears together with the spokesman for Ciudadanos in the European Parliament, Adrián Vázquez, who is running for the post of secretary general.
The duo competes against ‘Ciudadanos de nuevo’, the candidacy headed by Bal, for political spokesperson, accompanied by the Madrid councilor Santiago Saura, who is running for the General Secretariat, after the negotiations to put together a list of unity between the two factions of the match resulting from the clash between Bal and Arrimadas have failed. There is a third list in contention, ‘The base of change’, promoted by the affiliate Marcos Morales for spokesperson and the councilor of the City Council of El Álamo (Madrid) Laura Alves for general secretary.
“Bal was the one who left the consensus list, in which he was in the lead,” says Guasp in an interview with Europa Press, where he remarks that the also deputy spokesman in Congress “is only motivated by being a candidate for the Presidency of Spain”, something that causes her “deep disappointment” as an affiliate, position and candidate for primaries.
The ‘orange’ coordinator in the Balearic Islands, who emphasizes that the list she leads is “the one that adds up and the one with consensus”, insists that the moment that Ciudadanos is currently experiencing is “crucial” for their future, so the focus He has to put himself in the municipal and regional elections in May, his “party point”. “We are risking everything for everything, to be or not to be Citizens,” she warns, so for her it is not possible for the moment to think about the general elections.
“Now it perfectly demonstrates what his objective was, what his objective is, that it is not what we need, that it is not changing the model of our party and it is not a renewed list,” he laments. Although his colleagues saw it coming: “We already sensed that he, who is in Congress, who is not in a territory, that his list is not transversal like ours, that his objective was more personal than changing things for the better in our party,” he says.
Thus, she would have preferred that Bal not appear in the January primaries and warns that “presidentialisms” no longer fit in the new Ciudadanos. “The affiliates have spoken, they have asked us for a more open party, far from the Caesarism and that we should focus on the May elections and not on future general elections,” she insists.
Even so, the list that it heads – which has achieved twice as many endorsements as the rival – still has an “outstretched hand” to those it describes as “companions”. He explains that in the candidacy he leads there are three vacancies that, if successful, could include members of Bal’s list. Guasp “begs” Bal’s candidacy to reconsider. “That they think about our positions that risk everything in May,” he asks.
The two lists have launched mutual reproaches on account of the novelty or not of the faces that make them up. Guasp emphasizes in the interview granted to Europa Press that Bal’s has members of the current leadership, alluding to the deputy Sara Giménez. Meanwhile, the deputy general secretary and his team accuse the Guasp-Vázquez duo of being puppets of Arrimadas, who appears in a symbolic last position. Yes, it is planned to keep her as a spokesperson in Congress.
Guasp rejects the criticism and calls it “disrespectful”. “Because they go saying that it is pro-government, it is not going to be pro-government or continuation,” he explains, stressing that “it is obvious that it is not like that.” “Neither I nor Adrián Vázquez are wimps or puppets, we have our own model,” he settles.
The head of the ‘Reborn your party’ list promises that, if they win, the team will give a voice to the people of the territories and that it will “completely” change the party. “Give a 180-degree turn to the party,” she qualifies, committing to do so in the first 45 days of her mandate.
In short, it seeks to “reconnect with affiliates and voters” honoring the refounding process launched after the series of electoral debacles. Guasp was part of the team that led these renovation jobs and gives credit to the process. “Seeing that the other candidacy (Bal’s) was not going to respect those affiliate jobs encouraged us to make the decision (to present his candidacy),” he explains.
Regarding the circumstances that have led Ciudadanos to its current precarious situation, Guasp admits that one of the “big mistakes” was leaning almost invariably towards the PP and closing government pacts with the ‘popular’.
However, he rejects that the new Ciudadanos is “subordinate” to other parties, such as the PP and the PSOE, and advocates imposing his “reformist agenda” and “own issues.” “I am not here to moderate the PP and the PSOE,” he warned.
For this reason, he has transferred his intention to allow the elected territorial positions of Ciudadanos to determine their own government pacts after the municipal elections, stressing that “the only red lines will be the electoral program.” They are not closed, therefore, to reach agreements with the PSOE.
But at the national level it is different and the candidate does not look favorably on the president, Pedro Sánchez. Guasp emphasizes that it is “frankly impossible” to reach an agreement with the head of the Executive, although not “because of a lack of will” of those from Arrimadas, but because of his political decisions.
“It is blowing up the institutions, putting the rule of law in check and we cannot allow it from a party of the center, liberal and constitutionalist,” he stresses.
