Citizens (Spanish political party)

Citizens
Ciudadanos
President Albert Rivera Díaz
Secretary-General Matías Alonso Ruiz
Founded 7 June 2005 (CC)
4 March 2006 (C's)
Headquarters Gran Via de les Corts Catalanes 751 A, 1º 2ª
08013 Barcelona
Youth wing Agrupación de Jóvenes de Ciudadanos – J's
Membership  (2015) Increase 25,290[1]
Ideology Liberalism[2][3]
Social democracy[4][5]
Secularism[6]
Autonomism[7][8]
European federalism[9]
Postnationalism[10][11][12]
Political position Centre
European Parliament group Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe
Colours      Orange[13]
Congress of Deputies
40 / 350
Senate
2 / 266
European Parliament
2 / 54
Regional Parliaments
93 / 1,248
Local Government
1,527 / 67,611
Website
www.ciudadanos-cs.org
Politics of Spain
Political parties
Elections

Citizens (Spanish: Ciudadanos [θjuðaˈðanos]; Catalan: Ciutadans [siwtəˈðans]; Basque: Hiritarrak; Galician: Cidadáns; shortened as C’s), officially Citizens – Party of the Citizenry,[14] is a liberal[2] political party in Spain which is described by itself and some observers as centre-left and non-nationalist, although others have described it as centre-right. Citizens presents itself as a party which offers a mix of social democracy and liberal-progressive positions on its platform.[15]

It was founded in Catalonia, in whose Parliament it has 25 deputies. It opposes Catalan nationalism. The leader of the party uses the phrase: "Catalonia is my homeland, Spain is my country and Europe is our future" to outline the party's ideology.

Ideology

Ideologically, C's describes itself as a progressive,[16] secular, constitutionalist,[16] European federalist and postnationalist[17] party. In addition, Albert Rivera has said that C's defends autonomism[18]

According to its declared identity signs, C's advocates four basic lines of action:

  1. Defense of individual rights.
  2. Defense of social rights as well as the welfare state.
  3. Uphold the State of Autonomies and Europe's unity.
  4. Regeneration of democracy and of political life.

History

Ciutadans was formed in Catalonia in July 2006 in response to the call made in a manifesto by a group of well-known figures in Catalonian civic society (among them Albert Boadella, Félix de Azúa and Arcadi Espada), in which they called for a new political force to "address the real problems faced by the general public". In this manifesto, they also warned that "the rhetoric of hatred promulgated by official Catalan government media against everything 'Spanish' is more alarming than ever" and that "the (Catalan) nation, promoted as an homogenous entity, has taken over the space where an undeniably diverse society lived".[19]

This group of personalities, almost entirely based in Barcelona, formed a political platform called Ciutadans de Catalunya, or Citizens of Catalonia, in July 2005. They organised several round tables and conferences and by 2006 they had announced the formation of a new political party, called Ciutadans, or Citizens. In their first conference of 2006, a young lawyer from Barcelona, Albert Rivera, was elected president.

In the 2006 elections for the Parliament of Catalonia, C’s won 3% of the votes and returned three MPs. Four years later, in 2010, a similar result was achieved (3.4%, 3 MPs). Mainly as a counter to the growing public support for independence in Catalonia, C’s – as one of the most outspoken opponents of this movement - has since further grown substantially in support. In the 2012 snap elections the number of votes more than doubled (7.6%, 9 MPs). All but one of these seats were in the Province of Barcelona. In March 2015 almost all surveys predicted further growth in the 2015 Catalan elections and opinion polls showed them to be the third largest party.

In 2013, the party started organising in the rest of Spain with a manifesto called "La conjura de Goya" (The Confederacy of Goya) that took place in the Congress Palace of Madrid.

In the 2014 European elections the party received 3.16% of the national vote, and elected two MEPs.[20] Both MEPs joined the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe (ALDE) group.

Policies

The C's have outlined some policies for the 2015 general election:

Political background

Albert Rivera, president of the party

C's is mostly considered a liberal party both in economic policies and social issues, however its political discourse is mainly centered around opposition to Catalan nationalism,[23] to the extent that it has been frequently criticised for being a single issue party, a label rejected by its members. In the period 2006-2012, the number of C's voters who had voted for centre-right parties in previous elections was similar to the number who had voted for centre-left parties, suggesting that the party's positions on general economic and social issues are not its main draw.[24] C's criticise any sort of nationalism, "including the Spanish nationalism that Mr. Ynestrillas defends".[25]

One of the main issues raised by the party is the Catalan language policy, which actively promotes the use of Catalan language as the sole working language of Catalonian public administration.[26][27] The party challenges this policy and defends equal treatment of the Spanish and Catalan languages.[27] It also opposes the current language policy within the Catalonian educational system, in accordance with which all public schooling is delivered in Catalan. The party also supports strengthening the powers of the Spanish central institutions and curtailing the powers of regional administrations.[28]

Other topics include a thorough reform of the electoral system with the aim of creating greater proportionality that would give less weight to single constituencies. They also support some changes in the 1978 constitution, especially regarding regional organisation. Regarding the chartered autonomous communities' tax regimes, the party respects and does not want to remove the Basque Country's and Navarre's chartered regimes because it believes that "they aren't discriminatory in and of themselves"; however, it criticises what it calls the miscalculation of the quota or contribution which is negotiated between governments and has been causing significant differences that have become outrageous".[29] It proposes a review and a recalculation of the Basque Quota and the Navarrese Contribution in order to stop the Basque Country and Navarre being "net beneficiaries".[30]

Among other policies, they also support a regulation of prostitution, marijuana and euthanasia.

Election results

Congress of Deputies and Senate

Election Congress of Deputies Senate Rank Government Leader
Votes % ±pp Seats won +/− Seats won +/−
2008 46,313 0.2% New
0 / 350
 ±0
0 / 208
 ±0 #13 No seats Albert Rivera
2015 3,500,541 13.9% New
40 / 350
 Increase40
0 / 208
 ±0 #4 To be determined Albert Rivera

European Parliament

European Parliament
Election Votes % ±pp Seats won +/− Rank Candidate
2009A 22,903 0.1% New
0 / 54
 ±0 #11 Miguel Durán
2014 497,146 3.2% Increase3.1
2 / 54
 Increase2 #8 Javier Nart

A Contested as Libertas Spain.

Local councils

Local councils
Election Votes % ±pp Seats won +/− Rank Leader
2007 67,298 0.3% New
13 / 66,131
 Increase13 #17 Albert Rivera
2011 35,060 0.2% Decrease0.1
7 / 68,230
 Decrease6 #23 Albert Rivera
2015 1,467,663 6.6% Increase6.4
1,527 / 67,611
 Increase1,520 #3 Albert Rivera

References

  1. ↑ "Citizens tenfolds the number of members in two years; with 20,300 it triples UPyD" (in Spanish). Voz Pópuli. 2015-03-31.
  2. 1 2 Wolfram Nordsieck. "SPAIN". Parties and Elections in Europe. Retrieved 10 January 2016. Ciudadanos - Partido de la Ciudadanía (C's): Liberalism
  3. ↑ www.welt.de
  4. ↑ Ramón Rallo, Juan (24 April 2015). "¿Ciudadanos liberales? (III)". Vozpópuli. Retrieved 28 May 2015. Como ya sucediera con el mercado laboral o con las políticas de crecimiento económico, la difusión del programa fiscal de Ciudadanos constata, nuevamente, que no nos hallamos ante un partido liberal, sino ante una formación socialdemócrata que aspira a conseguir una reordenación “sensata” del entramado burocrático e intervencionista actual pero sin reducirlo lo más mínimo
  5. ↑ O'Leary, Elisabeth (8 February 2015). "Spain's Podemos leads poll but may have peaked - El Pais". Reuters. Retrieved 12 April 2015. Ciudadanos (Citizens), social democrats who defend national unity and have drawn voters on the left and right disenchanted with corruption in politics, saw a 4 percentage point rise to 12.2 percent
  6. ↑ «and has a left-liberal, secularist slant» - Demsoc Europe
  7. ↑ Auzias & Labourdette 2014, p. 31: «Enfin, Ciutadans (C's), avec 9 députés au parlement, s'oppose aux nationalistes et défend le modèle de l'Etat des autonomies».
  8. ↑ (Spanish) Directo de los resultados de las elecciones catalanas 2012 - Público
  9. ↑ Citizens – Party of the Citizenship (C’s) - Demsoc Europe
  10. ↑ López Basaguren & Escajedo San Epifanio 2013, p. 871: «This paper has presented a multistage model of voting for nationalist parties, as well as for the nonnationalist Ciutadans-Partit de la Ciutadania»
  11. ↑ (Spanish) Ciutadans renuncia a las generales tras el 'no' de UPyD a concurrir en coalición - El Mundo
  12. ↑ "Sabino Méndez hablara de la inmortalidad del rock'n'roll en el ciclo La Música Contada" (in Spanish). Asociación de Compositores y Autores de Música. 23 October 2008. Retrieved 12 February 2016. Su proyecto literario está centrado en “contar hechos susceptibles de verificación”, y se mueve entre la revisión autobiográfica, o la narración de hechos como la reciente formación en Cataluña del Partido de los Ciudadanos (colectivo de carácter postnacionalista que centra su nuevo libro)
  13. ↑ Manual de Identidad Corporativa
  14. ↑ Wolfram Nordsieck. "SPAIN". Parties and Elections in Europe. Retrieved 10 January 2016. Citizens - Party of the Citizenry
  15. ↑ "Albert Rivera, la cara visible de Ciutadans". laSexta. 1 December 2013. Retrieved 23 June 2015. Somos un partido de tradición socialdemócrata y liberal-progresista
  16. 1 2 (Spanish) «C's es un partido progresista y constitucionalista», El País
  17. ↑ (Spanish) «Somos postnacionalistas y no queremos luchar contra un nacionalismo con otro. Vamos sin banderas, casi desnudos, abriendo camino sin fronteras desde la Constitución», C's
  18. ↑ Rivera: “Hemos visto documentos que demuestran que CiU se ha estado llevando una parte de las comisiones de obras en Cataluña”, Crónica Global
  19. ↑ Manifesto signed by some intellectuals which preceded the formation of the party
  20. ↑ http://www.boe.es/boe/dias/2014/06/12/pdfs/BOE-A-2014-6233.pdf
  21. ↑ "Ciudadanos". ciudadanos-cs.org. Retrieved September 27, 2015.
  22. ↑ "Ciudadanos". ciudadanos-cs.org. Retrieved September 27, 2015.
  23. ↑ "Pro-Spain Ciutadans group demands Mas step down as regional premier". El País. 26 November 2012. Retrieved 22 May 2013.
  24. ↑ Lluís Orriols (13 August 2013). "Ciutadans, ¿un partido de izquierdas o de derechas?" (in Spanish). El País. Retrieved 28 February 2014.
  25. ↑ (Spanish) , Diario Crítico
  26. ↑ "City Council of Barcelona: "Catalan will continue to be the Council's working language"". City Council of Barcelona. Retrieved 22 May 2013.
  27. 1 2 "Albert Rivera, Ciutadans candidate: "An independent Catalonia would fail"" (in Spanish). 20 minutos. 15 November 2012. Retrieved 22 May 2013.
  28. ↑ "Ciudadanos - Modelo de estado". Ciudadanos-cs.org. Retrieved 2014-07-10.
  29. ↑ (Spanish) Futuro incierto en País Vasco y Navarra para Podemos, UPyD y Ciudadanos: ¿quitarán los fueros? - Vozpópuli
  30. ↑ (Spanish) Ciutadans propone revisar el cupo vasco y navarro reformando la Constitución - Lainformación.com

Bibliography

External links

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