Citizens (Spanish political party)

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Citizens
Ciudadanos
President Albert Rivera
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]
Spanish unionism
European federalism[9]
Anti-nationalism[10][11][12]
Political position Centre-left[13][14][15][16][17][18] to Centre-right[19][20][21][22][23][24]
European Parliament group Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe
Colours      Orange[25]
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,[26] 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.[27]

It was founded in Catalonia, in whose Parliament it has 25 deputies. It aims to defend the use of the Spanish language[28] and 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,[29] secular, constitutionalist,[29] European federalist and postnationalist[30] party. In addition, Albert Rivera has said that C's defends autonomism[31]

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".[32]

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.[33] 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:

  • Lowering corporation tax to 25%, in line with many other European countries.[34]
  • Lower and harmonise VAT to a rate between 16% and 19%.
  • Capping the top-rate of income tax at 40%.
  • Increase R&D spending to 3% of GDP.
  • Abolish or merge municipalities with a population less than 5,000.
  • Reducing bureaucracy and red tape.
  • More transparent party funding.
  • Crackdown on corruption.
  • Reform or abolish the Senate.[35]
  • Earned income tax credit to fight in-work poverty.
  • "Austrian Backpack" transferable unemployment compensation.[clarification needed]
  • Devolving training to the citizens from employers associations and trade unions, known to have misused formation funds.
  • Easing immigration policies to attract talent and investors.
  • Legalizing prostitution and marijuana.

Political background

Albert Rivera, president of the party

C's is mostly considered a liberal party both in economic policies[clarification needed] and social issues[citation needed], however its political discourse is mainly centered around opposition to Catalan nationalism,[36] 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.[37] C's criticise any sort of nationalism, "including the Spanish nationalism that Mr. Ynestrillas defends".[38]

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.[39][40] The party challenges this policy and defends equal treatment of the Spanish and Catalan languages.[40] 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.[41]

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".[42] 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".[43]

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

Controversies

C's has been identified as having a populist platform, e.g., by Catalan nationalists such as the expert on far-right movements, Xavier Casals.[44][45] In spite of its efforts to identify its core ideology as progressive, its campaign videos feature notorious right-leaning socialites, journalists and television personalities such as Carlos Navarro.[46] One of these is known for having voiced extremely xenophobic views[47] as well as displayed sexist and violent behaviour[48][49][50][51] on television. More recently, another member was expelled after allegedly making xenophobic and anti-Catalan comments on Twitter.[52]

In January 2014, the Catalan Supreme Court of Justice (es) (TSJC) probed C's Parliament member Jordi Cañas on account of fraud amounting to €429,203.[53] Cañas abandoned his party spokesman position [54] and announced he would resign his seat in the Parliament if he were indicted.[55]

During the 2006 election campaign, the party's president Albert Rivera appeared completely naked in a poster in order to attract publicity to the party.[56][57]

In 2006, the newspaper El Periódico de Catalunya revealed that Rivera was a sympathizer of the conservative People's Party (PP) between 2002 and 2006, and that he had stop supporting the PP just three months before running for election for the Citizen's Party; this was corroborated by El Mundo and El País[58][59] Despite these revelations, however, Rivera still denied having been a full member of the party and implied he voted the socialist party until its approach to Catalan nationalism[60] Past PP membership is by no means a minor affair in C's; former PSC activist Juan Carlos Girauta, who left the Socialists for a stint in PP[61] and a prolonged commitment (1000+ articles[62]) to conservative journalism from his Libertad Digital column up until his very public falling out with César Vidal, became a Citizens member and a candidate in the 2014 European Election.[63]

The party's association with Declan Ganley's Libertas platform raised some concern on account of the coalition formed by the latter with nationalist and ultra-nationalist parties in each of its local European chapters, seemingly at odds with the professed ideology of C's.[64][65][66]

Relations with the media

The party frequently complains about an alleged boycott on the part of Catalan media, especially public television: in their opinion, the party is given too little airtime to present its views on public television.[67] They have also criticised the Catalan press for similar reasons, especially the Spanish-language Catalan newspapers La Vanguardia and El Periódico de Catalunya. On the other hand, its opponents and critics[who?] frequently point out the disproportionately high coverage of Ciutadans by the Spanish national media, especially the Madrid-based Libertad Digital, El Mundo, Telemadrid, and ABC.[citation needed]

European election internal disputes

In 2009 it was announced that C's would run for the European Election allied with the Libertas coalition.

According to some members of C's, the negotiations prior to this electoral pact were led personally and secretly by the party leader, Albert Rivera. This alienated the other two MPs (besides Rivera himself) and a significant part of the party from his leadership.[68] In turn, the official stance of C's is that the critics are acting more as a fifth column of the ideologically similar Union, Progress and Democracy (UPyD),[69] all resulting in a major crisis within the party.

Several intellectuals that had participated in the formation of Ciutadans later withdrew their support. Albert Boadella, for example, became one of the co-founders of the Union, Progress and Democracy party led by former Basque Socialist politician Rosa Diez.

Other

Prominent meetings of the party have been reportedly picketed by Catalan separatist groups on several occasions.[70] Its leader Albert Rivera has received anonymous death threats urging him to quit politics. Two members of the ERC Youth were sentenced to prison for it.[71][72][73][74][75]

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

See also

References

  1. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  3. ↑ [1] www.welt.de
  4. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  5. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  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. ↑ (Spanish) Albert Rivera o el acoso a un no nacionalista en el Parlamento autonómico de Cataluña - Periodista Digital
  13. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  14. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  15. ↑ Catalan vote sends mixed messages - Economist Intelligence Unit
  16. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  17. ↑ (Spanish) «C's Ciudadanos Centro-izquierda», Ayuntamiento de Barcelona
  18. ↑ Ciutadans ja es veu amb grup parlamentari propi al nou Parlament - Directe!cat
  19. ↑ Medda-Windischer & Carlà 2015, p. 178: «It should be said that not all political parties and social entities signed the Agreement: the People's Party (center-right) and Ciutadans (center-right, recently-created pro-Spanish party in the Catalan Parliament) rejected the Agreement on the basis that it had been conceived in a clearly nationalist fashion, whereas the NGO SOS-Racisme and the Trade Union Comissions Obreres considered the document not progressive enough».
  20. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  21. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  22. ↑ After Syriza: What’s next for Spain?, Eastminster
  23. ↑ Protesters march against austerity measures in Madrid, The Guardian
  24. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  25. ↑ Manual de Identidad Corporativa
  26. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  27. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  28. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  29. ↑ 29.0 29.1 (Spanish) «C's es un partido progresista y constitucionalista», El País
  30. ↑ (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
  31. ↑ Rivera: “Hemos visto documentos que demuestran que CiU se ha estado llevando una parte de las comisiones de obras en Cataluña”, Crónica Global
  32. ↑ Manifesto signed by some intellectuals which preceded the formation of the party
  33. ↑ http://www.boe.es/boe/dias/2014/06/12/pdfs/BOE-A-2014-6233.pdf
  34. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  35. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  36. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  37. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  38. ↑ (Spanish) [2], Diario Crítico
  39. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  40. ↑ 40.0 40.1 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  41. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  42. ↑ (Spanish) Futuro incierto en País Vasco y Navarra para Podemos, UPyD y Ciudadanos: ¿quitarán los fueros? - Vozpópuli
  43. ↑ (Spanish) Ciutadans propone revisar el cupo vasco y navarro reformando la Constitución - Lainformación.com
  44. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  45. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  46. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  47. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  48. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  49. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  50. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  51. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  52. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  53. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  54. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  55. ↑ El diputado de C's Jordi Cañas renunciará a su escaño si es acusado de fraude fiscal - lainformación.com
  56. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  57. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  58. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  59. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  60. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  61. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  62. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  63. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  64. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  65. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  66. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  67. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  68. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  69. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  70. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  71. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  72. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  73. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  74. ↑ Albert Rivera denuncia amenazas de muerte para que deje su política "contra el nacionalismo"- Lavanguardia.es – Noticias, actualidad, última hora en Cataluña y España
  75. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.

Bibliography

External links

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