Spain’s centrist party says it will not run in upcoming elections

By Alyssa McMurtry

OVIEDO, Spain (AA) - After nearly disappearing from the electoral map in recent local polls, the centrist party Ciudadanos announced on Tuesday that it will not run in Spain’s upcoming general election.

“The message of the elections was clear: The centrist-liberal offer in Spain was not strong. We have come to the conclusion that Spaniards do not see us as an alternative,” said the party’s secretary general, Adrian Vazquez.

In Spain’s nationwide local elections on Sunday, the party won just 1.35% of votes and did not get a single politician elected to a regional government.

That is a steep fall from its peak. In 2017, Ciudadanos was the highest-voted force in the Catalan regional elections. In the April 2019 general elections in Spain, it was the third-most popular party, winning 15% of the vote nationwide.

While Ciudadanos was founded as a neoliberal center-left party opposed to Catalan independence, its identity shifted over the years until it was firmly on the right of the political spectrum.

As the party collapsed, most of its votes went to the Popular Party and even the far-right Vox, which both saw major gains after Sunday’s vote.

Meanwhile, Spain’s far-left parties are scrambling to find a new strategy ahead of July’s general election.

While Ciudadanos’ departure means the right-wing vote is being concentrated between just the Popular Party and Vox, the left wing of Spanish politics has been fragmenting.

On Tuesday, Spain’s Labor Minister and most popular politician Yolanda Diaz registered a new party called Sumar. She previously belonged to Unidas Podemos but moved away from the brand in recent months, which also lost significant power after Sunday’s vote.

While Podemos founder Pablo Iglesias has said the left must unite, only nine days remain for Sumar to strike an agreement with Podemos, which has been elusive for months.

Sunday’s elections marked a clear victory for the Popular Party and Vox. But Spain’s Socialist Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez is gambling that it will be better for his party to hold elections months earlier than was expected and called a snap election on Monday.

Sanchez said Spaniards need to clarify the political direction of the country as the nation takes on the rotating presidency of the EU Council. Popular Party leader Alberto Nunez Feijoo said Sanchez wants people to choose between taking their holidays or voting.

“There will be a choice between Spain and Sanchez, and I’m convinced the majority of citizens will choose Spain,” Feijoo said in a euphoric party meeting on Tuesday.

Meanwhile, Socialist politicians suggest that the Popular Party and Vox may not have enough support to form a government. While it will be the first general election in Spain in nearly four years, the country held four general elections between 2015 and 2019.