Life is a rollercoaster. Let them tell Ciudadanos, a party that throughout its 16-year history has survived all kinds of turbulence, but after chaining five electoral catastrophes it has not managed to take flight. The march this week of Luis Garicano, the leader of the ranks in Brussels, leaves the liberals without one of their last recognizable faces and reflects the decomposition of the party, immersed in its refoundation to try to save a political project on the brink of extinction.
The orange beginnings
The journey of Ciutadans -its original name- began in 2005 with a founding core of intellectuals united against Catalan nationalism. The party is presented publicly at the Tívoli theater in Barcelona in March 2006. In the Parliamentary elections that year, it won three seats. The poster of the orange formation, which shows its young candidate, Albert Rivera, just as he came into the world, manages to give a blow of effect and increases his notoriety during the campaign. But it will take time to make a name for himself in national politics.
Landing in Congress
It is in 2015 when Cs begins to expand throughout the national territory in order to be “decisive” when configuring constitutional majorities. In April of that year, the formation broke into Congress with 40 seats and signed an agreement with the PSOE with up to 200 measures after an express negotiation of 21 days, but which did not bear fruit. The country is doomed to a new call to the polls. The electoral repetition cost the oranges eight seats – it was left with 32 deputies – and brought about a shift in strategy. Rivera changed Sánchez for Mariano Rajoy and agreed to the support of Ciudadanos with 150 measures that forced the PSOE to rebel against Pedro Sánchez to impose the majority wish of its leaders, which was to let the PP govern with socialist abstention.
Farewell to social democracy
Rivera’s plans went beyond being a hinge. Her long-term ambition was to rule the country. For this she needed a strong and united party. With that roadmap in mind, the orange leader began weaving his hyper-leadership without anyone internally discussing any of his decisions. Even when in 2017 the party changed its ideology and abandoned social democracy. But that ideological shift did cost him a trickle of militant casualties and charges.
Historical victory in Catalonia
That same year, Cs achieved a historic victory in the Catalan regional elections, called by Rajoy after applying article 155 before the unilateral declaration of independence promoted by the leaders of the ‘procés’. The Liberals become the leading political force in Parliament with 36 seats. Knowing that she does not have enough support to govern, Inés Arrimadas gives up even fighting for the Generalitat.
The attempt to lead the right
The polls smile at the formation. Some surveys even place it at the gates of the Moncloa. Rivera feels strong and aspires to give the ‘sorpasso’ to the popular taking advantage of the wear of the Government and the rise of Vox. But the motion of censure that brings down Rajoy upsets his plans. Sánchez is proclaimed president and Rivera and, therefore, Ciudadanos, remain blurred on the political board.
Columbus’s photo
Sánchez’s failure to carry out the Budgets activates the electoral machinery. The orange leadership then bets on the ‘photo of Columbus’ together with the PP and Vox, and poses a strong veto against the socialists -another well-known ‘no is no’- that unleashes a new cascade of resignations and an attempt at internal rebellion. In this way, any pact between PSOE and Cs is ruled out, even after 28-A, which grants them a sum of 180 seats, above the absolute majority. In the regional and municipal elections held shortly after, the party chose to prop up the PP in power by closing down bipartisan governments in Madrid, Murcia and Castilla y León.
In free fall
Without support to be invested, Sánchez lets the deadlines run and the elections are repeated. The 10-N becomes the worst nightmare of Cs when falling, suddenly and without anesthesia, from 57 to 10 deputies taking Rivera and most of his hard core ahead. A long journey through the desert begins for the survivors, already led by Arrimadas.
The Murcia fiasco
Since then the liberal formation has not been able to take flight. The debacle in the generals is followed by the crash in Catalonia, where it loses 30 seats. After that 14-F, Cs maneuvers to carry out a motion of censure in Murcia that unseats the PP from the regional government and generates, without calculating it, an implosion on the board. Suddenly, he was left out of the Murcian Executive and, due to the domino effect, that of Madrid. The electoral call in this community leaves him mortally wounded by not getting any seat in the Assembly. History repeats itself in Andalusia.
The refounding “from top to bottom”
After losing the last regional government that was left standing alongside the PP, the party has launched a refoundation process to avoid total shipwreck in the 2023 electoral cycle. A “revolution from top to bottom,” they say in the leadership , with the aim of maintaining the liberal and centrist space that «sociologically exists».
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