The situation of citizens in the Islands it borders on suffocation, a mirror of the drift of the party at the national level despite the recent re-foundation of the formation that came to be led by Patricia Guasp. But this fierce struggle for leadership between Inés Arrimadas and Edmundo Bal, where the former left office and handed over the baton to the new leadership, has not healed the wounds of a party that is dying. The last episode -although everything seems to predict that more will follow- augurs more and more the A Chronicle of a Death Foretold of Citizens: in Madrid six out of eleven councilors abandoned begona villacis less than a month and a half before the elections.
And in the Canary Islands? The formation that Albert Rivera created has suffered in these four years the constant bleeding of public positions and affiliates. Only a small stronghold remains leading now Elizabeth Belle, but always with his hand behind his predecessor in the organic position, and vice president and counselor for Roads, Mobility, Innovation and Culture of the Cabildo del TenerifeEnrique Arriaga, an institution in which she is the insular director of Education and Youth . In Tenerife is where the party hopes to have something more presence in the next 28M elections, precisely because of Arriaga or Tacoronte, where the formation is seen with more strength.
But his presence loses steam. In fact, they almost take it for granted that they will not get deputies in the Canary Islands Parliament, when in 2019 Cs obtained 65,830 votes and two deputies: Ricardo Fernandez de la Puente -who has already stated that he will not repeat in the next elections- and Vidina Espino -who left the formation in July 2021 and will now attend Parliament with CC-.
«The project has no wickerwork or organic structure; we are not in a position to present ourselves seriously”, affirms the former regional secretary of Institutional Action for Citizens and current party adviser in the Cabildo de Gran Canaria, Ruyman Santanawho also renounces to continue in the formation due to the loss of illusion since he considers that the project is exhausted.
charges that are leaving
Therefore, Santana will not run in the next elections on any orange party list, although he will finish his term with Cs in the Gran Canaria Cabildo “out of seriousness”, and he is already positioned in the ranks of Nueva Canarias in the next legislature. But like him, many people have expressed their willingness to leave the orange formation and are joining other organizations. The former deputy mayor of Santa Cruz de Tenerife for Ciudadanos, Matilde Zambudio, joins as an independent the political project of Patricia Hernández, PSOE candidate for Mayor of the capital of Tenerife. Juan Antonio Molina, Cs councilor in the La Laguna City Council, joins the Popular Party.
Among others, it is said that Maria Jesus Alvarezcouncilor in Santa Brígida, will not continue, like the councilor of Tourism of San Bartolomé de Tirajana, Ines Rodriguez, who has already stated that he will not renew his candidacy for the next municipal elections in May. Anselmo León, from the Arucas City Council, turns to the PSOE, or Peña Armas, which led the electoral list of Ciudadanos in Puerto del Rosario in the last elections, obtaining two minutes, has allied itself with Nueva Canarias with Fuerteventura advances, the party created by the councilor, to attend the next elections together. Cs He had about thirty positions in different institutions and there will be very few who will continue on the ship.
It is curious that while in the rest of Spain a more massive incorporation towards the PP has been chosen, in the Canary Islands the positions look towards the two nationalist parties, the PSOE or the PP.
A striking case is that of Vidina Espino, Ciudadanos candidate for the Presidency in the previous elections and, things in life, was the one who conditioned access to reissue the position as president of Fernando Clavijo (CC) for being allegedly accused in a corruption case -which has been completely archived by the Justice considering that there was no type of crime-, and now not only is he not in Ciudadanos but Espino is on the CC list to Parliament for Gran Canaria.
According to the former coordinator of the formation, Enrique Arriaga, candidate for the Cabildo de Tenerife and the City Council of Santa Cruz de Tenerife, they already knew more or less who was going to get off this ship. He acknowledges that the re-founding of the party in January has been somewhat late and has meant that they have not had time to rearm for these elections, but he believes, with optimism, that the new label of liberal conservatives, which is committed to reforms without being under the arm of the PP, will permeate in the next general elections in November.
But where are they going to show up?
According to Arriaga, they will concur in almost 60% of the institutions of the last legislature in the Islands. The problem, expressed by those who have gone through the training, is that they have lost structure, the candidates are “soulless”, and if members or supporters helped before, now they are not even close. There may be less than 500 affiliates but that is not why they are active, indicate training sources.
In Gran Canaria, the party presents itself to the town halls of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria and Sugar Mill -They hope that someone else-. In Tenerife, to Icod de los Vinos, Tacoronte, Los Realejos, Tegueste, La Laguna, El Rosario, San Miguel de Abona, Santa Cruz de Tenerife, and “probably in Güímar,” says Arriaga. They also attend in Santa Cruz de La Palma. In Lanzarote it is not yet closed, and in Fuerteventura they give up the effort because Peña Armas left them. This month is the deadline for submission of candidacies.
In the councils, they present themselves to the La Palma, Tenerife and Gran Canaria, although in the latter they still do not have a designated candidate. And to Parliament, they compete for the insular lists of Tenerife -Isabel Bello-, and of Gran Canaria, where there is no candidate either.
And they do not opt for the regional list because they find it difficult to exceed 4% of the votes, acknowledges Arriaga, although the insular 15% is also a tough slab and even more so taking into account that in Gran Canaria, for now, only two town halls attend, and less than ten in Tenerife, corporations that usually add suffrages for Parliament.
According to Arriaga, the polls they conduct in Tenerife give them 5% of the votes in the Santa Cruz de Tenerife City Council, in La Laguna, Tacoronte and in the Tenerife Cabildo. And he also announces new additions to his formation that can help boost the party.
Surveys carried out by sociologists indicate that Ciudadanos has little chance not only in Parliament -almost none- but in local corporations. From the formation it is expected that the personal pull like that of Arriaga or other people can help maintain this party, in the midst of a phase of disintegration.
