Citizens (Spain)

Citizens-Citizenship Party (Cs or CS; previously, C's), or simply Ciudadanos, is a Spanish political party located mainly in the political center. It was founded in 2006 in Barcelona, with seeds in the civic platform Ciutadans de Catalunya, and refounded in January 2023 in Madrid after its VI General Assembly.

History

Foundation and constituent process (2005)

Ciudadanos was born from the civic platform Ciutadans de Catalunya, created on June 7, 2005 in Barcelona by a group of fifteen intellectuals, university professors and professionals from various fields. On the 21st of that same month they presented at the Center for Contemporary Culture of Barcelona a First Manifesto called For the creation of a new political party in Catalonia, which was also presented in Bilbao and Madrid, in which they committed to promoting the constitution of a new Catalan political force. They declared themselves opposed to what they considered the imposition of Catalan nationalism from various levels of power in Catalonia, which they described as "obligatory nationalism."

The presentation ceremony of the Second Manifesto of the association and the constituent process of the new party took place on March 4, 2006, at the Tívoli theater in Barcelona, with the presence and support of various personalities from the field of culture, education and politics. During the Ciutadans de Catalunya campaign for the referendum to approve the new Statute of Autonomy, on June 5, 2006, Arcadi Espada and other members of the platform were attacked by a group of Catalan independentists. Despite Although the Mozos de Escuadra - accused of passivity by the attacked person - denied the attack at first, all political groups condemned it. The journalist and deputy director of the newspaper El Mundo, Victoria Prego, witnessed all this and captured it in two articles. The platform formalized a complaint before the courts of Gerona and, at the proposal of the Party Popular, the plenary session of the Congress of Deputies unanimously approved a day later an institutional declaration to condemn the aggression of which it was subjected.

Constituent Congress (I General Assembly): leadership of Albert Rivera

The process of creating the party culminated in a founding congress, held in Bellaterra on July 8 and 9, 2006 with the participation of 350 delegates from the approximately fifty territorial and sectoral groups of the organization, where it was defined the organization and internal structure, the representative bodies were elected, the ideological body that defined the new party at that time, the scope of action and the new name with which it would participate in the elections to the Parliament of Catalonia, held on December 1, were approved. November of the same year. The founding congress elected Albert Rivera, a twenty-six-year-old lawyer, as president, and Antonio Robles as general secretary, both heading an Executive Committee of fifteen members.

The new party decided to call itself Ciudadanos-Partido de la Ciudadanía, in Spanish, in order to reaffirm that its scope of action is that of all of Spain, although in the autonomous communities with more of an official language, the name is used interchangeably in both official languages. Later, Albert Rivera stated that they chose the word "citizens" as the name of the party because they would like to be "citizens of the world."

Elections to the Parliament of Catalonia of 2006

After the constituent process, Ciudadanos focused on mobilizing for the elections to the Catalan Parliament that same year the useful vote of many abstentionists and disillusioned with the five formations - Convergència i Unió, Party of the Socialists of Catalonia, Esquerra Republicana de Catalunya, Popular Party and Initiative per Catalunya Verds-Esquerra Unida i Alternativa—with representation at that time. Their expectations were to enter the autonomous chamber and continue growing without agreeing on any alliance of interests with a nationalist party.

On September 16, 2006, Ciudadanos presented its candidacy for the regional elections of November 1 at the Palace of Catalan Music. Before the 2,000 supporters who filled the Palace, the candidates for each province were presented, and a campaign poster, which showed the candidate Albert Rivera naked.

Finally, the party obtained three seats and a total of 89,840 votes throughout Catalonia, thus becoming the sixth political force in the Parliament of Catalonia. Those elected to occupy the three seats, all for the Barcelona electoral district, were Albert Rivera, José Domingo, and Antonio Robles.

The party program avoided any positioning to favor the possible candidates for the presidency of the Generalitat, Artur Mas or José Montilla. Albert Rivera stressed that the party would act only on issues that concerned and affected Catalan citizens, far from any rivalry or competition for power by the big parties such as CiU or PSC, the most voted in the 2006 elections. On the 24th November 2006, during Montilla's investiture session as president, Ciudadanos – Citizenship Party voted against.

2007 municipal elections

After the Catalan elections, the party studied expanding to other autonomous communities. The party ran in the municipal elections on May 27, 2007, giving its groups freedom to decide whether or not to present candidates. As a result, Ciudadanos presented them in various Catalan municipalities, including the four provincial capitals, and outside the autonomous community, in Alicante and Salamanca. For these candidacies, candidates without previous political experience were chosen. In the other places in the country where the party did not appear, Ciudadanos requested a blank vote through an official statement.

During the campaign, there were specific incidents, such as the boycott of an event of the Barcelona candidacy in which its candidate Esperanza García and professor Francesc de Carreras were present. In addition, Ciudadanos denounced an alleged information blackout to which It was submitted to him by the Catalan media, both public and private, during the electoral campaign.

In May 2007 Ciudadanos sent a letter to the president of the European Parliament denouncing the attitude of the Socialists Party of Catalonia. This party had sanctioned several of its members for having maintained contacts with Basta Ya!, a group awarded the European Parliament's Sakharov Prize in 2001 for the defense of human rights and fundamental freedoms, and described by the PSC as a "small group." "extreme right." Ciudadanos described such behavior as "unbecoming of a democratic party" and that it would have "publicly disgraced" Parliament.

Ciudadanos expected to obtain between 30 and 35 councilors and a mayor's office; but, however, in Catalonia they obtained 67,315 votes and 13 councilors - eight in the province of Barcelona (Castelldefels, Gavá, Montornés del Vallés, San Andrés de la Barca, San Baudilio de Llobregat, San Pedro de Vilamajor, Viladecans and Vilanova del Camí) and five in Lérida (the five councilors of Gimenells i el Pla de la Font)—. Outside Catalonia, they obtained 2048 votes (1.41%) in Alicante and 1859 (2.28%) in Salamanca, without obtaining representation in both town councils.

II General Assembly

On June 30 and July 1, the second General Assembly was held, as stipulated in its statutes. On the first day, the reports presented by the Executive and the General Council were rejected by the Assembly. Only the one presented by the Guarantees Commission was approved. As part of the statutes, a system of pure open lists was approved, without voting limitations for the election of the Executive Committee. Also the establishment of primary elections for the preparation of electoral lists and the reduction to five of the number of members of the Executive Committee present in the General Council, among other reforms.

In the ideology, the so-called Carreras Amendment was approved, to the entire text, carried out by Francesc de Carreras and supported by Albert Rivera and his entourage. In the prologue of the new ideology, "the vacuum of representation that existed in the electoral space of the non-nationalist center-left" is mentioned as one of the factors that caused the birth of Ciudadanos. This phrase sparked controversy in congress, since until then the party had been called transversal to all ideology. The approval of such ideology ended up causing the departure from the party of a large part of the militants located ideologically further to the right or opposed to aligning on the left-right axis, as well as most of the members of the list defeated in the election for the Executive Committee, headed by the professor of political science at the University of Barcelona Luis Bouza-Brey, who only reached one of the 20 positions in dispute.

General and Andalusian elections of 2008

Ciudadanos began in November and December 2007, respectively, two simultaneous processes for the general elections of March 9, 2008: the preparation of its electoral program and the election of its candidates. In the process of preparing the electoral program, their groups, their individual members and any Internet user were able to formulate proposals from the website. For the election of candidates, a system of primary elections was established for each constituency. Both processes culminated in January 2008 with the publication on its website of its electoral program and the proclamation of candidates, Fernando Landecho for Madrid and Albert Rivera for Barcelona.

Finally Ciudadanos – Citizenship Party presented lists to the Congress of Deputies in the 52 Spanish constituencies, declaring that they had their greatest electoral expectations in those of the capital and Barcelona. However, the electoral results were in line with the surveys, which in almost all of them did not include the possibility of obtaining parliamentary representation. Ciudadanos obtained 45,750 votes throughout the national territory (0.18%). Likewise, Ciudadanos also ran in the elections to the Parliament of Andalusia, obtaining 6,024 votes (0.13% of the total).

In 2008, the party established the Tribuna Cívica foundation, registered in the Registry of Foundations, and with registered office in Madrid.

The Catalan newspaper Ara published that Ciudadanos had a foundation and that it had not been supervised by the Audit Office of Catalonia. However, since the formation they reported that a letter explaining that the only foundation linked to Ciudadanos was not registered in the archives of the Generalitat but in those of the Ministry of Education, Culture and Sports, as it had its scope of action throughout Spain and, therefore, had to be supervised by the Court of Accounts. They also indicated that the foundation had never received public money or donations. Despite this, Ciudadanos voluntarily sent the accounts to the Audit Office and published them on the party's website.

Elections to the European Parliament of 2009 and pact with Liberties

The first movements of Ciudadanos-Partido de la Ciudadanía consisted of the announcement that it had invited Unión Progreso y Democracia to run together in the European elections, an offer that was rejected. Later they made public that they would run in the elections European elections within a coalition of local and regional parties from all over Spain. Likewise, they announced that their candidate would be their secretary of institutional relations, José Manuel Villegas.

After this agreement, whose candidacy was named Citizens of Spain, it reached an agreement with the European party Libertas, a pan-European organization promoted by the Irishman Declan Ganley, who led in his country opposition to the Lisbon Treaty. In addition, it was announced that the head of the list would be Miguel Durán, former president of ONCE and Telecinco, moving José Manuel Villegas to second place on the list. This agreement, however, was controversial within the party—due to the ultra-conservative affiliation of Libertas and for being carried out to obtain financing from its controversial president— leading, among other effects, to the abandonment of two of the three deputies. that Ciudadanos had in the Parliament of Catalonia, Antonio Robles and José Domingo, who did not accept the decision adopted by an absolute majority of the party's General Council to attend the European elections and attempted to remove Albert Rivera as spokesperson for the mixed group.

Finally, the candidacy obtained 22,903 votes, without achieving representation in the European Parliament. Antonio Robles went to Unión Progreso y Democracia, abandoning his seat, while José Domingo continued to occupy the seat won by Cs, despite having abandoned the game. Robles' seat was occupied by Carmen de Rivera.

Elections to the Parliament of Catalonia of 2010

On October 31, 2009, at the Villarroel Theater in Barcelona, the manifesto Catalonia we are all was presented, which defended the plurality of Catalonia against a nationalist vision of it. The text was supported by numerous personalities such as Pablo Castellano, former historical leader of the PSOE, Francesc de Carreras, professor of Constitutional Law at the Autonomous University of Barcelona, Iñaki Ezkerra, writer and founder of the Ermua Forum, Mikel Buesa, professor of Economics and former president of the Ermua Forum, or Juan Carlos Girauta, journalist.

After a primary process within the party, Albert Rivera was confirmed as a candidate for the presidency of the Generalitat of Catalonia, for the Catalan elections called for November 28, 2010. The party proposed to reform the current Catalan electoral law.

The party positioned itself against the popular legislative initiative that sought to prohibit bullfighting in Catalonia, considering that it was an attack on the individual freedom of people, being, they argued, more than an identity discussion. than defending animal rights.

On the occasion of the celebration of Catalonia Day, the group promoted the campaign "Let's count the days", through which it was intended to disseminate what they consider to be the historical truth of the events that occurred during the War of the Spanish Succession, commemorated on this holiday. On previous dates, events had already been held coinciding with said celebration, such as the conference given in 2007 by Fernando García de Cortázar or in 2006 by the historian Gabriel Jackson.

Already in the campaign for the Catalan regional elections, the party commissioned the musical campaign anthem from DJ Victor Ark. Finally, Ciudadanos increased its electoral support to 106,142 votes (3.4%), revalidating its three deputies obtained in 2006.

2011 municipal elections

The party urged the debate on the reform of the Spanish mortgage law, with the aim of establishing that dación en pago, delivering the mortgaged property, extinguishes the mortgage. Among the candidates for the 2011 municipal elections, highlighted the candidacy of the party spokesperson and deputy in the autonomous Parliament of Catalonia, Jordi Cañas, as mayor for Barcelona and of Víctor Domingo, president of the association of Internet users, for the Madrid Assembly, in tandem with Miguel Ángel Sánchez Domínguez, for the City Council of the capital of Spain.

Finally, Ciudadanos managed to maintain part of its councilors from Catalonia and representation, for the first time, in municipalities outside the Catalan autonomous community, such as Molina de Segura, in the Region of Murcia, or Villanueva del Pardillo, in the Community of Madrid, among others. In view of the 2011 general elections, Ciudadanos proposed for the fourth time to join Unión Progreso y Democracia, being rejected by Rosa Díez's party. As a consequence, the party decided not to present itself for Don't split the vote.

III General Assembly

The third training conclave was held on October 29 and 30, 2011 at the Hesperia Tower Hotel in Hospitalet de Llobregat, as a consequence of the end of the previous mandate. In this congress Albert Rivera was again elected as president with a large majority of 72% of the votes against Mario Ruíz Vegar and it was decided to focus the party's efforts on the Catalan elections and on the municipalities where representation had already been obtained, before the failure in other electoral events. In addition, some of the party's principles were consolidated, such as the defense of individual rights, social rights and the welfare state, the State of autonomies and European unity, democracy and regeneration of political life and empowerment. of the productive economy and employment.

Elections to the Parliament of Catalonia of 2012

Looking ahead to the Catalan elections of November 25, 2012, Ciudadanos once again presents Rivera as a candidate for the presidency of the Generalitat, after a process of primary elections. The electoral campaign slogan, "Better united", It was presented in a room at the Center for Contemporary Culture of Barcelona on October 12. For these elections, the party has the public support of the playwright Albert Boadella, the writers Félix Ovejero, Arcadi Espada and Javier Nart - the latter, candidate of the match in turn—, the journalists Juan Carlos Girauta, Alejandra Alloza, Tomás Guasch, Anthony Tóffoli and César Cabo, the talk show host Carlos Navarro, the businessman and former president of the Real Club Deportivo Espanyol Ferran Martorell, as well as the former leader of the PSC, talking about sports talk and president of the Center d'Esports L'Hospitalet, Miguel García del Valle or the former spokesperson of the PP, Carina Mejías —these two, the last candidates of the party in turn.

The former Minister of the Interior of the socialist government of Felipe González, Antoni Asunción, also showed his support. During the electoral campaign, José Bono, former Minister of Socialist Defense and former President of Congress, also showed his sympathy towards the party, as which was done by the former president of the Community of Madrid Joaquín Leguina or the journalist and broadcaster Javier Cárdenas. In turn, other former leaders and former members of the PSC, PP and UPyD announced their support for Cs, some of them joining.

On October 27, Ciudadanos presented its electoral campaign video. The start of the campaign took place in the Plaza de España, which gave way to its electoral poster with the motto "Better united", under the music of Pink Floyd The Wall. During the campaign, Ciudadanos rescued some writings by Jordi Pujol that forced the former president of the Generalitat to apologize. Likewise, in the middle of the campaign, the party, at an event in Madrid dressed by Javier Nart, Albert Boadella, Arcadi Espada, Félix Ovejero and Albert Rivera himself, presented a video where different personalities recited the lyrics written by Joaquín Sabina for the Spanish national anthem.

Finally, it obtained 274,925 votes (7.58%) and nine deputies —Albert Rivera, Carina Mejías Sánchez, Inés Arrimadas García, José Manuel Villegas Pérez, Carmen de Rivera Pla, Carlos Carrizosa Torres, José María Espejo-Saavedra Conesa, Carme Pérez Martínez and Matías Alonso Ruiz—, increasing their representation by six seats and tripling their votes, being, together with Esquerra Republicana de Catalunya, the party with the greatest growth in these elections.

2014 European Parliament elections

In January 2014 it was learned that the Superior Court of Justice of Catalonia (TSJC) was investigating the Cs deputy, Jordi Cañas, in the Catalan Parliament for allegedly being involved in a fraud that occurred in 2005, before Ciudadanos was founded.. Faced with such a situation, Jordi Cañas abandoned his position as spokesperson for the parliamentary group as well as his record as deputy. However, in November 2014, Juan Carlos Girauta hired him as an advisor in the European Parliament. Ciudadanos justified this decision arguing that Jordi Cañas was not accused of political corruption, but for a crime prior to his time as a deputy.

On February 2, 2014, the General Council approved the solo participation of Cs in the European elections of that year, After a primary process to elect the candidates, where a total of 27 people attended, including independents, Javier Nart, Juan Carlos Girauta and Carolina Punset, leader of the environmental party Ciudadanos por Altea, were elected. The presentation of the candidacy took place on March 22 at the Hotel Auditorium in Madrid before more than a thousand people.

In the 2014 European elections, the candidacy led by Javier Nart was the ninth most voted political force, obtaining two MEPs who joined the ALDE group and obtaining a total of 497,146 votes (3.16%).) throughout Spain, of which 157,948 votes (6.28%, sixth political force) were in Catalonia and 106,807 votes (4.81%, sixth political force) in the Community of Madrid. Extrapolating these results to Congress of the Deputies, Ciudadanos would have obtained four deputies.

The Audit Office maintained in the report Accountability of political parties and related associations and foundations, fiscal year 2013 that two foundations linked to Ciudadanos, Egara Cívica and Associació Catalunya Constitucional, did not present their accounts, and that a third, Tribuna Cívica, did not report its audit. Furthermore, he stated that Cs was the only party that had not provided information about its subsidies and donations or its credits and the Audit Office does not doubt that it had them. A year earlier it fined Cs 450 euros for not properly identifying the origin of some funds in the accounting of the electoral campaign of the regional elections in Catalonia in 2012.

National expansion (2014-2015)

As part of its national implementation strategy, the party sealed alliances with various minor parties. The formations Liberal Democratic Center, Union of the Salmantine People, Regionalist Party of Castilla y León, Independent Citizens of Sanlúcar, Citizens for San Fernando, Citizens of Tielmes, Sanroqueña Independent Alternative, Popular Union of Boiro, Citizens for Alhama, Unión de Centro Liberal, Union of Independent Citizens of Toledo, Party for Democratic Regeneration, Unión del Pueblo Extremadura, and Loreños Independientes, merged with Ciudadanos in 2014.

For their part, Ciudadanos Portuenses, Platform of the Soriano People, Citizens of Santa Cruz, Platform of Neighbors Amb Trellat de Gilet, Unión do Pobo Ribadense, Alternativa Independent per L'Alocra, Popular Union of Alboraya, Government of the People (GOPU), Initiative for the Development of Soria, Canviem Santa Pola, Grup Independent del Masnou, Civiqus, Grupo Independiente Oropesino and the Platform Encuentro did it in 2015.

In addition, after the 2015 Spanish municipal elections, the Soy de Benejúzar Independientes and Partido Independiente Granja de Rocamora formations were integrated into Ciudadanos.

Ciudadanos also reached agreements with Ciudadanos de Menorca and Unión del Pueblo de Ciudadela to establish itself on the island and begin the transfer of militants, although these formations maintained their own municipal groups until the end of the legislature.

In addition, in this period, the incorporation of politicians from other parties was not without controversy. On November 26, 2014, two councilors from the Party of Socialists of Catalonia of San Vicente dels Horts left their position and their party "due to disagreements with the ambiguity of the PSC on the issue of the independence consultation" and went over to Ciudadanos. José Serna, coordinator of Ciudadanos in Torrevieja, assured in 2015 that in the ranks of Ciudadanos there were "infiltrators of the PP" who sought to "remove" him from the leadership of the party. Immediately, Ciudadanos reacted by dismissing him and expelling him from the party. José Serna accused those responsible Ciudadanos, both at the local and provincial level, of "breaching the statutes of the formation to eliminate him." Miguel Cazorla Garrido, Ciudadanos candidate for mayor of Almería, was charged in early 2015 with an alleged crime of misappropriation, after which he resigned as stated in the party's statutes, which do not allow the accused to be candidates.

He also signed prominent economists such as Manuel Conthe, Luis Garicano And the former secretary general of the Organization of Treasury Inspectors, Francisco de la Torre, to begin to outline his economic program starting in February 2015 and through mass appearances.

Municipal and regional elections of 2015

The Executive Committee of Ciudadanos advocated participating in the Andalusian elections on March 22 so that Andalusians could "vote for change," according to the party's president, Albert Rivera, on his Twitter profile. It obtained four more seats than predicted by the Sociological Research Center survey:

In the following regional elections, held on May 24, he obtained 1,259,524 votes in the 13 communities and two autonomous cities where elections were held.

After the elections, Ciudadanos supported the investiture of the candidates of the parties with the most votes, but which did not have a sufficient majority: The PSOE in Andalusia and the PP in Madrid, La Rioja, Murcia and Castilla y León.

Simultaneously with the regional elections, the municipal elections were held, where already with implementation throughout Spain, it approached one and a half million votes, with 6.55% of the votes and 1,527 councilors, occupying the UPYD space that practically disappeared from the political landscape.

That same May 24, elections were also held for the General Boards of the three historical territories of the Basque Country. Ciudadanos presented candidacies in the three provinces, but only obtained one representative in the General Meetings of Álava for the Vitoria constituency. The results were the following:

On September 27, early elections to the Parliament of Catalonia were held, where it obtained 25 seats, becoming the second political force in the community and the first force in 29 municipalities such as Hospitalet de Llobregat (second most populated Catalan city after Barcelona).:

2015 general elections

For the first time, Ciudadanos ran in elections to decide the President of the Government of Spain. In the general elections held on 20 December 2015, it obtained more than 3.5 million votes and managed to become the fourth political force in Spain with 40 of the 350 deputies that make up the Congress of Deputies. In its debut, of the 52 electoral districts, Ciudadanos obtained representation in 25. Despite having also been the fourth force in number of votes, the party did not obtain representation in the Senate beyond that designated by the regional parliaments. The spokesperson In the Congress it was Juan Carlos Girauta, head of the list for Barcelona. The original party partners José Manuel Villegas and Fran Hervías were chosen, along with the independent signings Toni Roldán, Marta Rivera de la Cruz, Toni Cantó, Patricia Reyes Rivera, Francisco Igea and Francisco de la Torre Díaz, who would go as number two. Rivera in the Madrid constituency. Facing the beginning of the 11th legislature, Ciudadanos signed a pact with the Spanish Socialist Workers Party, known as Pact of Hug, to support the investiture of Pedro Sánchez as president of the Government, however it did not succeed be invested and new elections were held in 2016.

^a Vows refer to the number of preferences given to candidates from Citizens.

Entry into the European liberal family

Despite being part of the Group of the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe in the European Parliament, Ciudadanos was not affiliated with any European party or family. After long negotiations and the opposition of one of the members of ALDE, the Democratic Convergence of Catalonia of Artur Mas, Ciudadanos was admitted as an integral member of the European liberal alliance ALDE in June 2016.

2016 General Elections

After the failure of Pedro Sánchez's investiture, new elections were called for 2016. With the drop in participation, Ciudadanos had a slight decrease, going from forty to thirty-two representatives. Among the novelties, the independent Félix Álvarez, actor and comedian, was chosen. Rivera's trusted team was elected again despite the drop in seats.

This time, Rivera supported the party with the most votes, the PP, obtaining Mariano Rajoy the investiture for a minority government.

Basque and Galician elections of 2016

The communities of Galicia and the Basque Country advanced their elections to September 25, 2016. For the first time, Ciudadanos presented candidates in these regions. However, he did not obtain any representative.

IV General Assembly

The conclave held on February 4 and 5, 2017 at the Nuevo Teatro de Coslada under the motto Together we win the future marked a before and after in the history of the formation. In this, not only did Rivera increase his support among the bases, being ratified as president with 87.7% of the votes against the candidacies of Diego de los Santos and Juan Carlos Bermejo, but the structure and party strategy. References to social democracy were eliminated, defining the party exclusively as progressive liberal, and the logo and acronyms were modified, which produced clashes between the ruling faction and other historical leaders of the party such as Jordi Cañas. Matías Alonso left the general secretary that he had held since 2009 to make way for José Manuel Villegas, Deputy Secretary General since 2015 and Rivera's true right-hand man since he had begun national expansion. Thus, the party intended to elevate its leader to the Presidency of the Government of Spain in a favorable context for training in the face of the crisis in Catalonia and the old parties. Among the internal ranks there was talk of 'the death of Ciutadans and the birth of Ciudadanos'.

Elections to the Parliament of Catalonia of 2017

With the independence challenge of October 2017 and the unilateral declaration of independence after the illegal referendum of October 1, the Government of the Nation, with the support of PSOE and Ciudadanos, applied article 155 of the Spanish Constitution. With this measure, all members of the Government of the Generalitat of Catalonia ceased to hold office, with Mariano Rajoy's cabinet assuming power, with the aim of restoring legality in Catalonia by calling elections to the Parliament of Catalonia. For the first time in democracy, a non-nationalist party won the elections, although it was insufficient to reach a majority of constitutionalist parties to form a government. Inés Arrimadas, the Ciudadanos candidate, did not present a candidacy for the investiture, as she did not have the necessary support to be invested.

Almost a year later, on October 27, 2018, pressure from Ciudadanos caused Carles Puigdemont's Catalan European Democratic Party to be expelled from the European alliance ALDE due to its history of corruption. It remained the only integrated Spanish party in ALDE.

Elections to the Parliament of Andalusia of 2018

In the 2015-18 legislature of Juan Marín he supported the socialist government of Susana Díaz. The socialist candidate dissolved the Parliament of Andalusia to call early elections.

After the electoral results, a coalition government of Ciudadanos was formed with the Popular Party with the support of Vox, obtaining Juan Marín the vice presidency and several Ministries, which marked the end of almost four decades of socialist governments in Andalusia.

2019 elections: general, municipal, regional and European

Given the multiple elections of 2019, PP, Cs and UPN created the Navarra Suma candidacy, to compete with a single list in the general, municipal and regional elections in Navarra. With this candidacy, the aim was to bring together the constitutionalist vote in the area. center-right to avoid the electoral penalty by participating separately and preventing the institutions from being in the power of the nationalist left. In the electoral processes that were held in just one month (general elections in April, regional elections in Spain in 2019, municipal elections in Spain in 2019 and elections to the European Parliament in 2019), Ciudadanos achieved its best results in history. In the general elections, Cs obtained 57 deputies in the Congress of Deputies, with representation in almost all the constituencies, except the three Basque provinces, constituencies with few deputies, Gerona and Lérida. For these elections, lists were drawn up with new candidates, since many of the deputies from the previous legislature were designated candidates for the regional elections. Inés Arrimadas was elected head of the list for Barcelona, leaving the Parliament of Catalonia after the historic milestone of winning the elections, and signings from civil society completed the lists, such as Edmundo Bal, Marcos de Quinto, Sara Giménez, Beatriz Pino and Joan Mesquida. The spokesperson in Congress would be Arrimadas herself. Cs aspired to surpass the PP and become the second political force and the first opposition party, according to the electoral surveys, but it fell just over 200,000 votes and nine seats away from achieving what would have been a historic milestone.

With the proximity of the municipal and regional elections, the parties kept their cards before negotiating the investiture of the President of the Government, waiting for what would happen a month later.

In the regional elections of May 26, Cs obtained representation in all regional parliaments, except in the Canary Islands. Former Congress deputies went to lead regional projects: Félix Álvarez in Cantabria, Toni Cantó in the Valencian Community and Francisco Igea in Castilla y León, while regional barons such as Ignacio Aguado were consolidated in the Community of Madrid, who had already influenced the regional policy of the previous legislature. The orange party chose the PP as a "preferred partner" to achieve government agreements at the municipal and regional levels, marking a general veto of the PSOE. Those of Rivera acceded to the autonomous governments in coalition with the PP of the Community of Madrid, Castilla y León, Region of Murcia.

In the municipal elections, Cs won the city councils of Madrid, Zaragoza, Málaga, Murcia, Córdoba, Teruel and Alicante, also in coalition with the PP, with Begoña Villacís in the municipal elections of Madrid or Sara Fernández in the elections municipalities of Zaragoza. He also obtained the first mayorships of cities and provincial capitals, thus achieving the baton of command of the cities of Granada, Palencia, Melilla, Valdemoro and Linares, and the mandate shared with the PSOE for two years in the Castilian-La Mancha cities of Ciudad Real, Guadalajara and Albacete. On the other hand, the media signing of Manuel Valls for the Barcelona municipal elections on the Barcelona pel Canvi-Ciutadans list led to the fracture of the municipal group of the six elected councilors, when Valls and two other councilors voted in favor of the investiture as mayor. of Ada Colau as a "lesser evil" to prevent the city from being governed by the ERC independentists, against the thesis of the party leadership.

For the elections to the European Parliament, held at the same time as the regional and municipal elections, Cs already participated as part of the European liberal group Party of the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe (ALDE). It achieved the historic figure of 2,700,000 votes, also placing itself as the third force at the national level with eight MEPs (considering the additional MEP due to Brexit in January 2020), six more than in the previous elections. Along with the economist and head of the economic program of Cs Luis Garicano as head of the list, MEPs Javier Nart, Maite Pagazaurtundúa, José Ramón Bauzá, Soraya Rodríguez, Jordi Cañas, Adrián Vázquez Lázara and Susana Solís were elected, making up a candidacy with independents and former members of PP and PSOE. As a member of ALDE, Cs joined the Renew Europe group, which emerged with the union of ALDE and Emmanuel Macron's La República en Marcha. Luis Garicano became vice president of the ALDE group in June.

With respect to national politics, the negotiations to invest the President of the Government were postponed to the elections of mayors and regional presidents, forming the aforementioned autonomous and municipal governments. Starting in June and facing the inauguration of Pedro Sánchez, Rivera remained firm in refusing to support him. Support for Sánchez with orange votes would have made the participation of nationalist parties unnecessary. Finally, Sánchez did not obtain the votes of either the PP, Cs, Unidas Podemos or nationalist parties, dissolving the Cortes within the stipulated deadlines and new elections being called at the end of 2019. Following the party's decision regarding the veto of the PSOE in the negotiations for the investiture of the President of the Government and for the formation of municipal and regional governments (except in Castilla-La Mancha and some provincial capitals such as Cáceres) and the approach to Vox, deputies such as Toni Roldán or Francisco de la Torre abandoned their positions and the deputy record, and MEP Javier Nart left the party although he remained as an MEP. Francisco Igea, for his part, remained in the party, representing the current critical of the veto of the socialists.

November 2019 general election

Since no candidate had been inaugurated after the April elections, new elections were called for the month of November. Albert Rivera, who refused to negotiate any investiture agreement with Pedro Sánchez until shortly before the dissolution of the Cortes, was harshly punished at the polls, losing 47 of the 57 seats obtained seven months earlier, becoming the fifth political force with only ten seats, losing two and a half million votes compared to the previous elections, 60% of the votes. The representation obtained was reduced to the provinces of Madrid, Barcelona, Valencia, Zaragoza, Seville, Málaga and Alicante.

Given the decadent results for the party, Albert Rivera decided to resign as leader of the orange force. His resignation was presented to the National Executive of Citizens the day after the November 2019 elections. A manager was formed continued chaired by Manue García Bofill and the V General Assembly of the party was convened to decide Rivera's successor.

V General Assembly: leadership of Inés Arrimadas (2020-2023)

Before the election of the new president of the party, regional elections were called in Galicia and the Basque Country for April 5. In none of the regional parliaments had Ciudadanos achieved parliamentary representation. As happened previously with Navarra Suma, Ciudadanos and the PP negotiated a single list, avoiding the dispersion of the vote that would harm them compared to the nationalist parties if they competed separately. The rejection of Alberto Núñez Feijóo, who enjoyed the absolute majority in the Parliament of Galicia and who hoped to renew, as finally happened, resulted in only the "PP+Cs" list being agreed upon for the Parliament of the Basque Country, with Carlos Iturgaiz as head of the list.

In the Ciudadanos primaries held on March 7 and 8, 2020, Rivera's "natural" successor, Inés Arrimadas (who had made the leap to national politics as Albert's number two in the April and November elections) 2019) defeated the rival of the critical sector, Francisco Igea. Igea promoted the end of the veto of the PSOE and the usefulness of Ciudadanos as a party to reach agreements with both the PP and the PSOE.

The new executive was made up of Marina Bravo as general secretary, Carlos Cuadrado as first vice-secretary general, Joan Mesquida as second vice-secretary general and José María Espejo-Saavedra as deputy vice-secretary general. The national spokesperson would be Melisa Rodríguez and the deputy spokesperson Lorena Roldán. The number two and deputy spokesperson for Ciudadanos in the Congress of Deputies would be Edmundo Bal.

Nothing more was premiered as president of the party, Arrimadas had to face in opposition to the COVID-19 pandemic. The Fifth General Assembly of the Party, with the slogan United for freedom it was postponed and finally held telematically, producing few statutory and strategic changes on paper. However, the president printed a new more focused position and proposed to all parties a “National Reconstruction Pacts” to alleviate the economic effects resulting from the economic paralysis of the pandemic. In the absence of support from the rest of the parties, the agreements were reduced to a parliamentary commission. Faced with the veto of his predecessor, Arrimadas negotiated with Pedro Sánchez and supported extensions of the state of alarm, in exchange for socio-economic measures to alleviate the almost total cessation of economic activity during the confinement to reduce the contagions and deaths by the Covid-19.

After supporting successive states of alarm in exchange for economic measures to alleviate the fall and cessation of economic activity, some militants such as Juan Carlos Girauta, who was Cs spokesperson at the Congress, or Carina Mejías, candidate for the Barcelona mayor's office in the 2015 municipal elections, announced their departure from the party to negotiate with Sánchez and support the extension of the alarm state. After these pacts reached and after negotiating with Sánchez to give the good look to another fifteen-day extension of the alarm state, on May 20, 2020, the deputy Marcos de Quinto announced his party march and his resignation from the seat, not without first voting “yes” to the extension of the alarm state for coherence with the party, but not coincidental in his opinions, assuming this the last heavy weight of the Rivera period in Congress and in the party. Only the extension of the alarm state was approved until July 7, 2020, the PSOE announced the pact with Podemos and EH Bildu to repeal the labor reform approved by the government of Mariano Rajoy in 2012, without having informed the parties that supported the state of alarm. Hours later, the government rejected this agreement, killing that only "more harmful aspects" of the reform would be repealed. The entrepreneurs broke the social dialogue. Finally, Cs also supported the sixth and last length of the alarm state, also in exchange for identical measures for all Spain, measures of an economic nature to reactivate tourism and the development by the government of a plan for the end of the alarm state.

In the midst of the health crisis, the regional elections of Galicia and the Basque Country were delayed to July 12, 2020.

Basque and Galician elections of 2020

In the Galician elections, the party did not obtain any representative with its candidate Beatriz Pino, who had been a deputy for the province of Pontevedra. On the contrary, for the first time they achieved a presence in the Basque Parliament, thanks to the PP+Cs coalition, with two deputies (for Álava and Vizcaya) of the six elected in the coalition.

In October, the orange formation obtained incorporations of former members of other parties such as Malena Contestí, ex-deputate of Vox by Baleares, Jesús Cuadrado, ex-deputated by Zamora del PSOE until 2011 and José Miguel Saval del PP. The party re-elected the political center and the "defense of freedom, overcoming the confrontation to achieve concord" during the presentation of its new scores.

In Vox's motion of censorship against President Pedro Sánchez and Santiago Abascal as a candidate for the Presidency of the Government, debated on 21 and 22 October 2020, Arrimadas defended in the debate the party's refusal and Cs then voted against. The motion was rejected by 298 votes compared to 52.

On October 31, another party founder, Xavier Pericay, left the party for the latest executive decisions.

In the processing of the State's General Budgets of 2021 of the Sanchez Coalition Government (the ones approved in 2015 by the Rajoy government) Arrimadas negotiated with the government until the last moment to try to exclude nationalists and independentists and reduce the influence of the mini-rotary partner, Podemos. Despite getting corrections to the budgets that would be approved and the single santiaria card, Citizens finally did not support public accounts in December 2020 by considering that they were bad for Spain and by the counterparts to nationalism.

Once again he voted against the educational reform in December 2020, known as the Celaá Law, for excluding Spanish from the regions where there is a co-official language (it is no longer the vehicular language) and limiting the freedom of choice of parents when choosing public or concerted education.

In the regional parliaments he supported the accounts of 2021 of the governments of which he is part and of other governments where his support was not necessary as Asturias, Castilla-La Mancha, Aragon, Extremadura, Cantabria and abstaining in the Balearic Islands, Canary Islands and Valencian Community

Elections to the Parliament of Catalonia of 2021

Facing the elections to the Parliament of Catalonia that would be held in 2021, waiting to know the final date, the orange party replaced the until then leader in the Catalan parliament and senator Lorena Roldán with Carlos in August 2020. Carrizosa, without the participation of the members. Roldán had succeeded Arrimadas when she was elected deputy in the Congress of Deputies through a primary process a year earlier, in June 2019. The objective set was to find a leader to cushion the debacle predicted by the electoral polls, in which Ciudadanos would no longer be the winner of the elections to be in fourth place. With the regional elections set for February 14, 2021, Lorena Roldán announced her departure from Ciudadanos to be Alejandro Fernández's number two in the candidacy of the Popular Party of Catalonia. Carrizosa's candidacy was reinforced by signing the journalist as number two Anna Grau from Girona, attacked by Catalan nationalism.

Despite the casualties of militants that occurred with a continuous trickle throughout 2020, in January 2021 the founders of the orange party signed a manifesto calling for the vote for Ciudadanos in the Catalan elections, as a useful political option in Catalonia and Spain, directly approving the political line set by Inés Arrimadas. The manifesto written by Francesc de Carreras was signed by Arcadi Espada, Ferrán Toutain, Albert Boadella, Xavier Pericay (who left the party in 2020), Ana Nuño, Teresa Giménez Barbat, Félix de Azúa, Ponç Puigdevall, Sevi Rodríguez Mora and De Carreras himself, but with the sensitive absence of Félix Ovejero.

In the Catalan elections held within the framework of the pandemic on February 14, 2021, marked by high abstention, Ciudadanos lost thirty of the thirty-six seats it won in 2017, with only 5.6% of votes. the votes (descending from the first to the seventh and penultimate force), opening a new crisis in the orange party.

After the electoral debacle, critical voices from the party called for the resignations of Carrizosa and Carlos Cuadrado and even that of President Arrimadas herself, but the chapter was closed without resignations.

Elections to the Madrid Assembly of 2021

On March 10, 2021, in an unexpected turn, the PSOE and Cs in the region of Murcia presented a motion of censure led by the orange leader Ana Martínez Vidal against the government of Fernando López Miras in the region (which precisely was a member of the orange party in coalition with the popular ones) and in the Murcia City Council (also in coalition with the popular ones), as well as in other city councils in the region, justifying, as the main reasons, the irregularities in the vaccination campaign for the Covid-19 in the region, which involved the early vaccination of 400 positions in the Ministry of Health, bypassing the protocol established at the national level; as well as by Vox's demands in relation to the implementation of the parental pin in the community as a condition to continue its support for the autonomous government. The events were precipitated, and the president of the Community of Madrid Isabel Díaz Ayuso dissolved the Assembly of Madrid suspected that its government partner Cs would present another motion of censure with the PSOE, calling early elections. Simultaneously, the PSOE in Castilla y León presented another motion of censure to the government made up of PP and Cs.

Inés Arrimadas tried to reassure her partner in the rest of the regions and city councils, the PP, and the critical voices led by Toni Cantó, Juan Marín and Begoña Villacís asked for explanations for the decisions taken and the urgent convening of a Committee National executive. Celebrated on the 15th, Toni Cantó presented his resignation for, according to him, having supported Pedro Sánchez and for refusing to join a España Suma coalition with the PP, also abandoning his record in the Valencian Cortes. Ignacio Aguado, Begoña Villacis and Juan Marín entered the leadership of the party, and José María Espejo-Saavedra and Carlos Cuadrado resigned from their positions, Arrimadas remained in the presidency and Edmundo Bal assumed the position of national spokesperson. In addition, Daniel Pérez Calvo He was appointed new Secretary of Communication.

On March 12, 2021, it was confirmed that the motion of censure presented by Ciudadanos and PSOE in the Region of Murcia was likely to fail, given that the Parliamentary Group of Citizens was divided into two after an agreement between the Secretary General of the Popular Party at that time, Teodoro García Egea, and three deputies from the orange formation: Isabel Franco, Francisco Álvarez and Valle Miguélez. Hours after the news was confirmed, Fernando López Miras and Isabel Franco appeared at the San Esteban Palace, headquarters of the presidency of the Region, to confirm the negative vote on the motion of these three deputies and their adherence to the Government of the autonomous community., amid accusations of transfuguismo from the PSOE and Cs to the PP. Franco maintained her powers as vice president and counselor, Álvarez held the Ministry of Employment, Research and Universities, Miguélez replaced Martínez Vidal as counselor and spokesperson for the Government, and a fourth former member of Cs, Antonio Sánchez Lorente, was appointed Minister of Transparency, Participation and Public Administration.

For the Madrid regional elections called for May 4, the leader and former vice president of the Community Ignacio Aguado resigned from being a candidate in the primaries, winning the candidacy headed by Edmundo Bal.

On March 23, the motion of censure against the PP and Cs government in Castilla y León was rejected with the votes of PP, Cs, Vox and the abstention of UPL, Por Ávila and a Cs deputy who abandoned the match.

Facing the early elections, for a term of only two years, Edmundo Bal led the candidacy, with the aim of exceeding 5% of the votes, the minimum to be able to enter the Madrid Assembly, after having reached 19.4% in 2019 with 26 deputies. The polls placed the orange party around this threshold. Despite this, Inés Arrimadas' party obtained 129,216 votes, below the threshold and therefore corresponding to zero seats.

Citizen Convention

After the failure in the Madrid elections, the president of the party Inés Arrimadas promoted the one who had been a candidate in said elections, Edmundo Bal, and the Secretary of Communication, Daniel Pérez, to the positions of Deputy Secretary General, replacing José María Espejo-Saavedra and Carlos Cuadrado, who had been accused of the disastrous motion of censure in Murcia and the latest electoral failures. In addition, a "tour" of the main leaders of the party in the 17 Autonomous Communities to reconnect with the membership and begin a participatory process that should serve to relaunch the party in a space of "liberal center". This process culminated in the Convention held on July 17 and 18, 2021 at the Palacio de los Duques de Pastrana in Madrid, in which speakers such as Pedro J. Ramírez, Dacian Cioloș, Rafael Doménech, David Mejía and other personalities from the scientific, economic, journalistic and European fields. Work was also carried out through a series of working groups from which the conclusions that should mark the party's political roadmap from now on would be drawn.

Elections to the Cortes of Castilla y León in 2022

On Monday, December 20, 2021, the president of the Junta de Castilla y León, Alfonso Fernández Mañueco, unexpectedly expelled his partner from the government, immediately dismissing all Ciudadanos councilors and calling elections for February 13 2022. The decision was so surprising that the vice president, Francisco Igea, learned of it during an interview on the Más de Uno program on Onda Cero, to which he reacted by accusing the President of "not be a good man. According to the popular leader, the call for elections occurred due to the risk of a motion of censure similar to the one that occurred in Murcia, which he suspected due to Ciudadanos' negotiations with the Por Ávila party for the budgets, despite the fact that the Castilian and Leonese executive was in the minority after the departure of a Cs attorney to the Mixed Group. However, these accusations could not be supported with reliable evidence and finally the PP abandoned the accusation.

Faced with the crisis, the party decided to keep Francisco Igea as a candidate, who had the unanimous support of the leaders of the party, including his former rival in the elections for the presidency of Ciudadanos, Inés Arrimadas. He decided to focus his campaign on denouncing the alleged lies of the PP, choosing as his motto The value of the word, which sought to value both the bravery and loyalty of Ciudadanos in contrast to what the President Mañueco. Likewise, other fundamental elements in the campaign were the participation of Verónica Casado, who had been Minister of Health until her resignation in December, and the three-way electoral debates between the PSOE, PP and Cs candidates, with the anecdotal fact that the candidate had to participate electronically in one of the two that were held when he became infected with Covid-19 during the electoral process.

Finally, the party achieved a result of 4.5% of the votes, obtaining the seat for Valladolid corresponding to the candidate, Francisco Igea, managing to maintain parliamentary representation unlike in the previous Madrid elections.

On September 28, 2023, through his Twitter account, Francisco Igea announced that he had been expelled from Ciudadanos. This action occurred as a result of the opening of a disciplinary file against him, derived from his criticism of the party executive for its decision not to run in the 2023 elections. He is currently part of the mixed group in opposition to the Government of the Popular Party and Vox in Castilla y León. Therefore, Ciudadanos no longer has any attorney in the Cortes of Castilla y León.

Andalusian Parliament elections in 2022

On April 25, 2022, the president of the Junta de Andalucía, Juanma Moreno, called regional elections for June 19 of that same year, considering that it was the most appropriate date to achieve a new majority that would allow for the preparation of a budget. before the end of the year due to the blockade caused by the opposition parties. The party based its campaign on trying to emphasize that the change achieved after 40 years of PSOE governments had been possible thanks to Ciudadanos, choosing the motto Andalusia, the change that works. The liberal party obtained a result of 3.3% of the votes, losing all its seats in the Andalusian parliament. After this debacle, Inés Arrimadas, still President of the party at the time, decided to undertake a process of refounding the party to face the party's null electoral expectations.

VI General Assembly: Refoundation and leadership of Adrian Vázquez and Patricia Guasp (2023-current)

Following the Andalusian elections, Inés Arrimadas urged the consolidation of Citizens, for which he appointed a team of eight outstanding members of the party to undertake a deep renewal of the organization. These were: Begoña Villacís as Political Coordinator, Adrián Vázquez as Executive Coordinator, Guillermo Díaz as Portavoz, Patricia Guasp, Mariano Fuentes, Dimas Gragera and María Muñoz. Some of the measures taken were the creation of five working groups in which affiliates could give their opinion on various political and organic issues in a first phase, and the realization of a route through many of the Spanish provinces known as "Destino Refundación" in a second stage. Acts were also held by launching some of the new programmatic flags of the party, specifically on pensions and freedom of expression, in which relevant party positions and members of civil society participated. Finally, two presentations were made to carry out the draft Statutes and Values, Strategy and Political Action, at the head of which Eva Poptcheva and Nacho Martín respectively were located.

On December 2, 2022, then Deputy Secretary General and Deputy Speaker at the Party Congress, Edmundo Bal, announced his candidacy for the party's internal elections. The reaction of the president, Arrimadas, was to breastfeed in the event that her number 2 did not withdraw her candidacy, but finally rested on supporting another "consensual" with the majority of the members of the Consolidation Team and with the support of much of the organization. This list was led by the MEP and head of delegation in the European Parliament Adrian Vázquez and the Cs MP and spokesperson in the Parliament Balear Patricia Guasp. Finally, this last candidacy, known as Renace your game (52.25 per cent) won the victory against those of Citizens again (39.34%), led by Bal, and The basis of change (7.41%), promoted by base affiliates. The participation was reduced, voting only 49.65% of the nearly 7600 members with whom Citizens counted at that time.

Following a campaign, in the Sixth General Assembly of the Party, the aim of which was to complete the consolidation of training under the slogan Radically freethe new bicephalous and more decentralized structure proposed by the team for the consolidation of its statutes was approved, the new strategy was adopted based on the renunciation of bipartisanity and the offer of a reformist agenda and the party bodies were renewed integrating members of the candidacy of Bal in the Guarantee Commission and the General Council of the Party. The new image of the party was also applied, which maintained the name but changed the characteristic snack by a broken semi-circle that refers to the UCD of Adolfo Suárez, a formation in which the party has been inspired on many occasions. This was the beginning of a new phase led by Vázquez as Secretary General and Guasp as a Political Spokesman with the aim of improving the exiguous electoral expectations and renewing the organization of the party after years of electoral debacles and organizational dysfunctions. Patricia Guasp resigns and leaves politics in August 2023.

Municipal and autonomous elections of 2023

In the face of the 2023 electoral cycle and the upcoming local and regional elections, the party held primary candidates for the 12 Autonomous Communities with elections scheduled for 28 May 2023, as well as for the cities of Madrid and Barcelona for having both a number higher than the 150 members required statutoryly and no candidate nominated before the VI General Assembly. The exception occurred in Aragon and Zaragoza, where despite initially planned the holding of primarys it was decided to delegate the relevant decision to a manager in the face of the fear that the People's Party would attempt to influence the process as part of its strategy of "OPA hostile". The party presented its candidates at an event held in Madrid on February 18 of that year, throwing its motto of pre-campaign For yours, appealing to families, middle classes and young people, voters in which the party focuses its electoral offer.

In the regional elections of May 28, 2023, all their regional parliamentarians lost, leaving only 8, distributed between the Basque Country, Castilla y León and Catalonia, which was not part of this electoral process. In the municipal elections of the same That day, Ciudadanos lost 2,395 councilors of the 2,787 it had, obtaining 1.3% of the votes. The poor results of Begoña Villacís were especially notable, vice mayor of Madrid, who lost her council seat, and Patricia Guasp, who was left out of the Balearic Parliament.

After the poor results achieved and the announcement the following day (May 29) of the call for early general elections for July 23, 2023, the party's National Committee announced on May 30 the party's decision to not stand for elections. The formation then begins a restructuring process in view of the 2024 European elections.

Ideology and situation in the political spectrum

Self-determination of the party

In its second congress, in June 2007, the party defined itself as center-left, aligning itself within the left-right axis, in which the party had initially avoided positioning itself. In this way, the ideology of the party, as of 2015, stated that the formation was born "to address the suffocation that nationalist identity policies represent for the whole of Catalan society" and "due to the vacuum of representation that existed in the non-nationalist center-left electoral space", position taken - the center-left - by some sources as the self-definition of the party in the political spectrum, although some members continue to reject the classic political spectrum that defines the parties on a left-wing axis. right.

Apart from the classic left-right spectrum, Citizens self-define themselves as a constitutionalist, post-nationalist, liberal and progressive party. At the congress held in 2017, he eliminated the social-democracy of his political ideology and adopted progressive liberalism, in coherence with the 2016 entry into the European liberal familila of the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats Group in Europe.

In 2017, Ciudadanos stopped being a "secular party" and began to define itself as a "non-denominational party", justifying that it aligned itself with the Constitution, which defines Spain as a non-denominational State.

Citizen perception

The barometer of the Center for Sociological Research (CIS) in January 2016 questioned citizens about the ideological position of the Spanish political parties with a question in which the respondent had to place the party on a scale from 1 to 10, where one referred to the political left and ten, to the right, with 5.5 being the center of the scale. On average, respondents placed Ciudadanos at 6.65, in the center-right. 19.3% placed them in left-wing positions (between 1 and 5), and 57.6% in right-wing positions (between 6 and 10). 23.2% did not know where to place them or did not answer.

In the autonomy of origin of the party, Catalonia, in 2013, 75% of Catalans placed the party between the center-right and the right and on a scale from 1 (left) to 10 (right), at 7, 5 (almost one point above Convergència i Unió, which obtained a 6.6). Left-wing nationalist or independence voters placed it on the extreme right. According to CIS surveys, its own supporters in the community mostly rated it as a right-wing party (47%), followed by those who placed it in the center (34 %) and left (19 %).

In a SocioMétrica survey for the newspaper El Español in September 2022, it was estimated that the Spanish population placed Cs at 5.8 on a scale from 0 to 10 where zero is the extreme left and 10 is the extreme left. extreme right, having thus evolved more than one point towards the center since 2019, at which time the party became closer to the PP.

Expert and media opinions

In 2014, Vicenç Navarro, professor of Political and Social Sciences at the Pompeu Fabra University and collaborator of Podemos, associated Ciudadanos with behaviors related to the political right, stating that the party intends to present itself as centrist for the "great discredit that the right has acquired historically", while the political scientist Juan Carlos Triviño placed it in the center-right. The analyst Ignacio Martín Blanco stated in 2015 that Ciudadanos "flees from traditional labels and presents itself as a center party without adjectives, because it understands that this is the best way to broaden its electoral base", defining the party as "a catch-all-party, a “catch-all-party” party that aspires to attract voters of diverse ideology, using For this purpose, support banners such as political regeneration or opposition to the dominant nationalism in Catalonia, attractive to both left-wing and right-wing people." Jordi Molina, political scientist and professor of the International Business Program at the Abad Oliva CEU University, considered that Ciudadanos-Citizenship Party "is situated in the center-left", which is the position that the party initially took as its own at its founding. Professor of Sociology at the University of Zaragoza Pau Mari-Klose declared that "Ciudadanos is a markedly liberal party, historically located between the center-right and the center-left." For Sebastián Lavezzolo, doctor in Political Science from New York University, "Albert Rivera's objective would seem to be to convey that the ideology of Ciudadanos—a despite being framed in the left-right axis—is that of moderation and pragmatism.

Various sources, among which the Spanish think tank Real Instituto Elcano and the British newspaper The Guardian stand out, positioned the training at the political center in 2015. The latter, however, would go on to classify it as "center-right" in 2019, 2020 and 2021. Likewise, others such as the doctor in Constitutional Law David Delgado Ramos, The Economist, El País, 20minutes, Directe.cat and the Barcelona City Council placed it in the center-left between 2010 and 2015. Later, however, both 20 Minutos and El País would position it within the center-right in 2018 and 2021, respectively. Some authors such as Roberta Medda- Windischer and Andrea Carlà already placed him on the center-right in 2015.

Ideological traits

Oriol Bartomeus, professor of Political Science at the Autonomous University of Barcelona, considered that if only the party's proposals are analyzed, «Ciudadanos is a party close to the right with regard to the economy (liberalism, closeness to the business world), but close to the left in values (abortion, same-sex marriages).

The sociologist Helena Béjar classified Ciudadanos in its early years, 2007, within "neo-Spanishism", an ideology that, distanced from traditional Spanishism, would try to defend the unity of Spain from positions close to a "republican language", in a position that Molina Aparicio described as "confusing." Later, other authors have highlighted, on the contrary, features such as "non-nationalism", the "opposition" to nationalism or the defense of the State of autonomies, in addition to the secularism. The liberal libertarian economist Juan Ramón Rallo has described the party as part of the "social democratic consensus." Likewise, at first some media such as El Mundo or Reuters included the definition of Ciudadanos - currently eliminated from the party's statutes― as a social democrat. In various general media and internet pages it has been associated with constitutionalist, liberal, autonomist, anti-nationalist, anti-independence or federalist traits, the latter in a European level.

Federico Finchelstein identifies Ciudadanos with a "neoliberal and light populism."

The party is classified as European federalist, as it is a strong defender of the political and economic unity of the European Union. At the European level, Ciudadanos is a member of the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe and of the group in the European Parliament; Renew Europe.

Program

The basic ideology of Ciudadanos is nourished by progressive liberalism:

State Model

Since the founding of Ciudadanos, its minimum ideology has been articulated in the following five main axes:

• Inter-territorial coexistence and equal rights and duties between all Spanish regions, and, above all, among all Spanish.
• The State should promote equal opportunities so that neither ethnicity, language, sex, or the economic position of the family determine privileges.
• Neutrality of the public administration in both religious and identity aspects, and defence of democratic and illustrated values. Feelings and identities (national, regional, religious, etc.) are respectable as private activities, but cannot be allowed to impose themselves in front of the public rights of individuals.
• Defense of bilingualism. They point out the concept of “self-language” as a nationalist concept. In Catalonia there are two official languages, which are used indistinctly by its citizens, which will oppose any kind of institutional discrimination on the basis of language.
• Defense of the Spanish Constitution of 1978, seeking to close the autonomous model and competences transferred to the autonomous communities, and particularly to maintain sovereignty in the whole of Spanish citizenship and not in the autonomous communities.

Ciudadanos criticizes any type of nationalism, "including the Spanish nationalism that Mr. Ynestrillas defends", and also sentimental patriotism.

Cs defends the current State of Autonomies as a territorial model.

He opposed the new Catalan Statute of Autonomy, which was approved in a referendum on June 18, 2006, as it said "repudiate the identity politics that in his opinion permeate it", as well as the concept of "historical rights" that, always according to Ciudadanos, "have been used to justify "asymmetrical" and unequal policies between territories." As such, he advocates a return to the 1979 Statute, repealing the current text, which they consider imposed without a majority of more than 50% of the electorate in 2006, being in favor of autonomy in accordance with the constitutional limits set in 1978 in the current Constitution.< sup>[citation required]

The party respects and does not want to eliminate the regional regimes of the Basque Country and Navarra because it considers that "they are not discriminatory in themselves", although it does criticize "the miscalculation of the quota or contribution that, negotiated between governments, has been producing important differences that have become scandalous", so he proposes a review and a new calculation of the Basque quota and the Navarrese contribution so that the Basque Country and Navarra stop being "net recipients".

Economic policy

His 2015 economic program was aimed at central people, approaching Scandinavian models. It is divided, according to his statements, into two large sections.

The first, which focuses on the fight against the crisis, is in turn made up of three axes. Its first axis, conceived to fight against unemployment and precariousness, was presented on February 17 at the Círculo de Fine Arts of Madrid by Manuel Conthe, Luis Garicano and Albert Rivera and proposed:

• Unique contract with an indefinite character and increasing antiquity compensation.
• Austrian backpack. Individual account for each worker, which would include business inputs and eventual public subsidies for training or against long-term unemployment. The worker could dispose of this fund when he is fired or is retired.
• Bonus on social security contributions for companies that fire less or contract long-term unemployed.
• Training checks for long-term stops.
• European plan against unemployment with a common fund.
• Second opportunity for debtors and payment.
• Annual supplementary income for lower wages (Earned Income Tax Creditin American terminology.

Its second axis, presented on April 7 at the Goya theater, is designed to promote business and innovation and the last one focuses on tax reform.

The second section of the economic program would be that of sustainable growth, also composed of three axes: educational reform, reform of the State and fight against corruption and end of clientelistic capitalism.

During its refoundation process, the party flagged the denunciation of the alleged unsustainability of the pension system, warning that from 2035 all income collected from work income should be used to cover this expense. In an event held On October 27, 2022, at the Plaza de Castilla interchange, they demanded that the revaluation of pensions be linked to the salary of young people and that it be progressive according to the income of pensioners. The event included the participation of economists Javier Díaz-Jiménez, professor at IESE, and Ángel Martínez Jorge, member of the EsadeEcPol think tank.

Social policy and civil liberties

On the issue of gender equality and women's rights, Ciudadanos' position has varied over the years in some aspects. In its 2015 program, the party was against the Gender Violence Law, demanding an end to the "penal asymmetry". However, in the following legislature it refused to accept VOX's conditions, which requested the repeal of this norm as a condition to support the PP and Cs government in Andalusia. Regarding abortion, the party has always been voluntary in its decriminalization, although it has gone from defending in 2015 that this was not a right but of "a failure of society" to subsequently maintain that the PP's indecision on this issue is due to the fact that it is a conservative party. He has also criticized the PSOE, which he accuses of hypocrisy and, again, conservatism for defending abortion but wanting to abolish prostitution and being against surrogacy, practices that the party defends as long as they are carried out voluntarily and/or altruistically. Furthermore, the party opposes gender quotas, alleging that they mean considering women as an "inferior being." These proposals are part of Ciudadanos' defense of liberal feminism, criticizing the patrimonialization of this movement for part of the left and its radical drift. Although the organization voted in favor of the 'Yes is Yes Law', it has subsequently considered this position a mistake in the face of reductions in sentences for sexual offenders, but defending that the norm has positive aspects.

Regarding sexual and gender diversity, since its inception the party has expressed its support for LGBT people, attending the Pride marches, with the notorious incident that occurred in the 2019 demonstration in Madrid, when the Cs members who attended this were rebuked and expelled by other attendees upset with their policy of pacts. Apart from the defense of altruistic surrogacy, a proposal focused largely on homoparental families, the party defends homosexual marriage, advocating for "shielding it" legally, and equal adoption, defending a reduction in the obstacles to overcome this. As for trans people, the training also has a favorable position on the protection of their rights, supporting laws in this direction. However, the party voted against the Trans Law promoted by the Ministry of Equality led by Irene Montero, considering that it lacked guarantees.

Expert analysis

The program launched by Ciudadanos in 2015 sparked controversy. According to the professor of Political and Social Sciences Vicenç Navarro, the economic proposals of Ciudadanos were related to the Foundation for Applied Economic Studies, an institution financed by "the large companies of the IBEX 35."

In relation to the single contract proposal, the reactions among the experts were diverse. Juan Ramón Rallo, doctor in Economics and director of the Juan de Mariana Institute, stated that "it is still a social democratic proposal." Among those who were favorable, Ángel de la Fuente, economist and director of the Foundation for Economic Studies, stands out. Applied, who pointed out that this system also has some danger, since "if the dismissal costs are paid in advance, the marginal cost of dismissing, if necessary, is zero," or Javier Santacruz, economist and researcher at the University of Essex. However, Fernando Lezcano, of the Comisiones Obreras union, stated that "the central part of the solution to temporary employment is not in labor regulation."

Regarding complementary income, Rallo highlighted that "it is infinitely more sensible than basic income", but, in his opinion, it would make "more sense to lower taxes." Santacruz stated that "complementary income can generate [...] a reduction in salaries equal to the complementary income or that a mass of wages goes to the underground economy." Fernando Lezcano was unfavorable, since, in his opinion, the solution is for businessmen to "pay good salaries." Jorge Galindo, from Politikon, said that "the priority is to change the Spanish welfare system, which is extremely unredistributive."

Regarding the second chance for debtors, Iñigo Sagardoy, president of a law firm, was favorable, as well as De la Fuente, with nuances, and Santacruz. In the opinion of the Workers' Commissions, the measure would be insufficient.

Anti-corruption pact

In January 2011, Cs presented to the rest of the political parties an anti-corruption pact summarized in a decalogue of measures that, through a series of legal modifications aimed at prevention, deterrence and economic control, aims to "restore among all the trust of citizens in their politicians. Among the main novelties that this decalogue proposes is the subsidiary patrimonial responsibility of the parties, a measure that requires "the commitment of the parties to assume the responsibility that corresponds to them of repairing the evil caused after a case of corruption in their ranks, through of the return of money stolen from the public treasury. It also commits to a reform of the Penal Code, so that irregular financing is classified as a crime and has its own penalty, and to the exclusion of political corruption from the political debate so that corruption is not used as a political weapon and all cases are treated equally. This proposal also includes a system of economic control in parties aimed at transparency: public declaration of assets, control of the accounts of parties and institutions, transparency of financing of political parties and foundations and the regulation of donations and limitation of the electoral spending. None of the parties joined the pact, which forced Cs to propose two years later an anti-corruption summit with all the parties.^{[citation required]}

Structure and organization

Democratic deliberation bodies

The Groups are the basic body of participation, integration and relationship of the members. Ciudadanos members may participate in any group, regardless of the group to which they are affiliated. The collegiate governing body of the group is its Board of Directors, composed of a minimum of three and a maximum of seven members, elected by the group's members through closed lists. Currently, the party has numerous groups spread throughout Spain.

Territorial bodies

Ciudadanos is structured at the territorial level through Committees that cover different areas. Thus, Cs has autonomous committees, provincial and island committees and local committees. These coordinate in their respective areas the activities necessary to carry out the resolutions, agreements, programs, documents and other decisions adopted by the highest bodies of the party. They can also make proposals within the scope of their competencies to the competent party bodies. Each committee is chaired by its respective President, who in turn acts as its spokesperson.

The Presidents of the Autonomous Committees are ex-officio members of the National Committee of Citizens, and may appoint a substitute if they are already members of said body as non-ex-officio members.

National collegiate bodies

The party has four national collegiate bodies: the General Assembly, the General Council, the National Committee and the Permanent Committee.

The General Assembly is the supreme governing body of the formation and is made up of all its members, acting directly or through delegates.

The General Council is the highest body of the party between General Assemblies. Among its functions is to establish the main lines of political action of Ciudadanos, within the framework and resolutions of the Assembly. It is made up of 125 members elected by the General Assembly through open lists and the members of the National Committee. The General Council is led by the co-presidents, who will be assisted by a table, one being elected by the Council from among its members and the other one of the Presidents of the Autonomous Committees on a rotating basis every six months.

The National Committee is the collegiate body in charge of the administrative management and direction of the political activities of the party, within the framework of the guidelines, programs and resolutions adopted by the General Assembly and the General Council of the party. It is made up of 22 ex-officio members, up to 3 members appointed by the Permanent Committee and between 15 and 30 ex-officio members including the Secretary General, Political Spokesperson, Deputy Secretary General and National Coordinator.

The Standing Committee is the permanent leadership body of the party. It is made up of the Secretary General, the Political Spokesperson, the Deputy Secretary General, the National Coordinator and up to 12 ex-officio members of the National Committee.

Unipersonal national management bodies

The Secretary General holds the political and legal representation of the party. He chairs the National Committee and the Standing Committee. He directs, manages and administers the party through the presidency of the previous bodies, without prejudice to the powers that correspond to the Political Spokesperson. The current Secretary General of the party is Adrián Vázquez since January 12, 2023.

The Political Spokesperson regularly exercises the political-institutional representation of the party, in the Spanish and international spheres, as well as within the European Union. In these areas and on an ordinary basis, he will also disseminate the Party's political positions. He will also be the candidate for the Presidency of the Government of Spain after passing the corresponding primary process.

The Deputy Secretary General holds the political representation of the Party, replacing the Secretary General, when necessary. He accompanies the Secretary General in his functions by advising and participating in the National Committee and the Permanent Committee. Carries out, jointly and coordinated with the National Coordinator and under the superior direction of the Secretary General, the supervision of the designated secretariats, within the Permanent Committee and, where appropriate, adopts the appropriate instructions and guidelines for the correct execution of what was agreed.The current Deputy Secretary General of the party is Mariano Fuentes since January 12, 2023.

The National Coordinator is the person in charge of promoting and executing the agreements, resolutions and decisions of the highest bodies of the party, as well as the national implementation of the party. He carries out, under the superior direction of the Secretary General and in coordination with the Deputy Secretary General, the supervision of the secretariats designated within the Permanent Committee and, where appropriate, adopts the appropriate instructions and directives for the correct implementation of what has been agreed.. The current National Coordinator of the party is Carlos Pérez-Nievas since January 12, 2023.

Guarantee bodies

The Guarantees Commission is the body responsible for ensuring the democratic functioning of the party and for acting as the guarantor of the rights of members. The Guarantees Commission consists of nine members, four of them elected by the General Assembly through open lists, two appointed by the National Committee and three elected by the General Council through open lists. He has a president and an elected secretary from among his members.

The Disciplinary Regime Commission is the competent body to initiate, process and resolve, in the first instance, disciplinary proceedings. The Commission is made up of five members, two appointed by the National Committee and three elected by the General Council through open lists.

The Compliance Cabinet is the permanent body, delegated by the General Council, in charge of deploying, with autonomous powers of information, inspection and control, the supervision of the organization and management of the party, to prevent, identify and manage any possible crime within or on behalf of the party, as well as to ensure and supervise compliance with the legislation, internal regulations and commitments voluntarily acquired by the party in order to prevent crimes. It is directed by a director appointed by the General Council.

Financing

Ciudadanos publishes its bank accounts and credits publicly on its website and has an internal control body, the Compliance Commission. To finance its electoral campaigns, in the past it made available to members and sympathizers the possibility of acquiring returnable bonds and micro-donations.

National leaders

Image

Logo

The Ciudadanos logo is a C formed by 17 lines in a semicircle located to the left of the party name. It symbolizes, according to the party itself, a 'C' that expresses the value of each citizen and that also represents national sovereignty in the form of a parliamentary chamber. This logo, along with the color green that was added to the party's image, They are also a reference to that of the former Democratic Center Union.

The CS logo until 2023 represented a speech bubble, which was the initial logo of the formation. This sought to symbolize that "the party is born from civil society to give a voice to people on the street" and that "your voice reaches Parliament", in the words of the former Secretary of Communication of Cs, Fernando de Páramo. According to the original designer of the logo, Rafael Celda, the main idea he sought to convey is that "citizens speak", not only in Spanish but also in the rest of the co-official languages to which the logo is adapted. Furthermore, the apostrophe that the logo had in its first versions tried to indicate "the plural of the name and also, as in English, the belonging", so that if the capital C symbolized "the citizens" #34;, the apostrophe and the "s" They meant "of the citizens". The color orange was chosen because it had not been patrimonialized by any other party and had connotations of health, vitality, strength or joy. Since the first Ciudadanos logo was created in 2006 with the founding of the party, it has evolved over the years. the years, undergoing modifications and redesigns in 2009, 2013, 2017

Ciudadanos has used other logos that have complemented its main brand. The most famous and oldest of them is the so-called "tribandera heart", initially created for the Catalan elections of 2012 as part of a message that sought to "break the cliché of the resistance of the non-nationalism" in Catalonia and "fight the cultural battle". The aim was to create an image system that was capable of building a narrative and an "alternative, positive, constructive and inclusive" that broke with the "constructions of Catalan nationalism". In this way, Jordi Cañas, a historical member of the party, proposed the isotype in order to normalize the use of flags as a form of an identity that represented "the positive values of freedom, equality and rights and duties. of the citizens". Its use became popular among supporters of the permanence of Catalonia during the mobilizations against the independence referendum of 2017. Subsequently the party has extended the use of the symbol to the rest of the Autonomous Communities of Spain, adapting it to each one's flag. Additionally, it has created a 'bi-flag' version, only with the flags of Spain and Europe for use at the national and European level.

Since its 2021 Citizen Convention, which had among its objectives associating Ciudadanos with liberal ideology, the party has begun to use a new logo with the word "liberals" as a brand that accompanies and even replaces its traditional symbol on many occasions.

At the beginning of 2023, on the occasion of the "refoundation" of the party, Ciudadanos officially replaced its logo with a new design that incorporates the color green in addition to orange, changing the party's colors for the first time since 2006. This includes the same acronym of Cs with the inclusion of a grated half circle at the beginning.

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  Citizens' Logo from 2006 to 2009.

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  Citizens' Logo from 2009 to 2013.

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  Citizens' Logo from 2013 to 2017.

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  Citizens' Logo from 2017 to 2023.

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  Imagotype of Citizens from 2017 to 2023.

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  Current Citizens Logo from 2023

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  Current Citizen Imagotype since 2023

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  Cs Logo in Catalan from 2017 to 2023.

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  Logo of Galician Citizens from 2017 to 2023.

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  Logo of Basque Citizens from 2017 to 2023.

Complementary brands

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  Tribank heart used in Catalonia.

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  Tribank hearts used in the rest of the CCAA.

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  Bibank heart used at national and European levels.

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  Logo brand "Liberals" used by Citizens from 2021 to 2023.

Relations with Union Progreso and Democracy

Since the creation of Unión Progreso y Democracia (UPyD) was announced in 2007, there has been speculation about the possibility of an agreement with Ciudadanos – Citizenship Party, either a merger or a coalition, due to the similarity of their purposes and discourses.^{[citation required]} In January 2008, Arcadi Espada declared himself "frankly pissed off" by the appearance of UPyD, and described the fact that they had not reached any agreement as "regrettable" and "grotesque."

Facing the 2008 general elections, a request was formalized to UPyD to consolidate a union between both formations, which was rejected by its spokesperson Rosa Díez. The same thing happened with the 2009 European elections and with the elections Catalan autonomous elections of 2010, where UPyD did not obtain representation. Already on October 2, 2010, Xavier Pericay had warned of the danger that UPyD could entail in dividing the non-nationalist vote in Catalonia and that it would be "unforgivable" if the "non-nationalist voice were left outside the Parliament of Catalonia due to UPyD's participation in the Catalan regional elections.

During the 2011 general elections, Ciudadanos proposed for the fourth time to join with UPyD; the proposal was rejected again and, therefore, Cs decided not to appear so as not to divide the vote.

On November 1, 2013, at the second congress of UPyD, the philosopher and writer Fernando Savater stated that "We must not flee, by personalisms, to join other parties", in clear allusion to joining with Citizens. Rosa Díez, in an interview at Onda Cero three days later, rebuffly rejected any kind of pact with the party: "It's over, there's nothing else to talk about."

In 2014, UPyD politician Francisco Sosa Wagner advocated for a rapprochement with Ciudadanos, which generated internal debate within the party led by Rosa Díez. After the Andalusian regional elections in March 2015, several members of UPyD left the party. training to join Ciudadanos. In 2015, after the Andalusian regional elections of March 2015, the Encuentro Platform was created with members of UPyD who agreed to join Ciudadanos.

Looking ahead to the 2019 European Parliament elections, Ciudadanos and UPyD agreed to the integration of several positions in the Cs lists, without this implying the creation of an electoral coalition or the merger of both parties. In this way, MEP Maite Pagazaurtundúa was elected number two. The then leader of UPyD, Cristiano Brown was number eleven on the lists, but was not elected. In addition, Fernando Savater closed the lists symbolically. The integration of UPyD members into Cs lists for the regional and municipal elections of that same year was also agreed, as well as the resignation of UPyD to run in the general elections on April 28.

For the general elections in Spain in November 2019, both parties agreed again to integrate UPyD members into the lists of Citizens to Congress as independents. On this occasion Cristiano Brown, still leader of the Magentas, was number seven on the lists, but due to the Ciudadanos debacle he was not elected. Once again Fernando Savater closed the list for Madrid.

Finally, on December 6, 2020, UPyD announced its dissolution after its liquidation was decreed. With this, all the elected officials of the party who had institutional representation thanks to the pacts reached with Cs continued as independents or joined the party. The dissolution of UPyD marked the end of the coexistence of two parties that in the past competed for the same electoral space, with Cs becoming the only party with considerable importance in occupying said space.

Relationship with peripheral nationalists

Cs has pointed out the "climate of confrontation that is being created by the independence policies of the Government of the Generalitat, which is breaking coexistence and social cohesion in Catalonia." The party has repeatedly denounced the pressure and harassment suffered by non-partisan groups. nationalists in Catalonia, attributing these attacks to individuals from the pro-independence environment. There have been attacks on militants and attacks on party headquarters by pro-independence extremists.

In November 2006, a young man was attacked at the Autonomous University of Barcelona for wearing a party t-shirt.

In September 2007, Albert Rivera himself received death threats at his private home asking him to abandon "his policy against nationalism" within two months. Two years later, two members of Juventudes were sentenced. of Esquerra Republicana de Catalunya (JERC) as perpetrators of the act.

In July 2013, another party member was attacked in Morell for this incident, punching him while shouting "Spanish!"

On December 1, 2013, the Cs headquarters suffered a second attack in less than a year. A group of unknown people threw stones at the building and broke several windows. Given this, Cs decided to present an institutional declaration to be approved in the Parliament of Catalonia, expressly condemning the violence and asking for "absolute respect for political plurality.".

Throughout the entire history of the party, the confrontation with this type of formations has been constant, some of the most relevant events being those that occurred during the last quarter of 2017 after the illegal Referendum on independence in Catalonia. After the victory of Ciudadanos in the Catalan elections that year, the party became the main opposition party in said Parliament, becoming the main force against the Catalan independentists.

Splits

• Nexo, Edmundo Bal throws Nexo. The political platform has been founded by former leaders of Ciudadanos, Unión Progreso y Democracia, Valents y Contigo Somos Democracia to constitute a “reformist and progressive party” that does not adhere “with the left, nor with the right.”
• Valents (Catalonia) (disbanded)
• With You We Are Democracy (All Spain except Catalonia)
  • Elections to the Valencian Courts of 2023: They are presented within the coalition United States Coalition (in Valencia, “Coalició Units”), better known simply as Units, is a Spanish political coalition in Valencia, created by Contigo Somos Democracia, Lo Nostre and Valencia Unida. Electoral coalition to participate jointly in the Elections to the Valencian Courts of 2023.
• Win La Rioja (La Rioja)
• Constitutionalists (mainly Province of Malaga)
• Zamora Yes (Province of Zamora)
• Civic Alliance (mainly Community of Madrid)