Ciudadanos: from 57 seats to coaching and Canadian energy

From 57 seats to the consultancy: the trail of Ciudadanos

Ciudadanos did not fall because of an external plot: it disintegrated through its own handling of coalitions and of its electorate. The figure that sums it all up is still there, uncomfortable as ever: 57 seats, enough to build a stable absolute majority with the PSOE that nobody wanted to attempt. Today its two most recognisable faces are far from Congress. Albert Rivera, working as a coach at UTAMED. Inés Arrimadas, at Current Energy, a Canadian company.

The pact they preferred not to make

With 57 MPs, the arithmetic allowed for a solid government without depending on anyone else. The bet was different: propping up the PP in every region and chasing a right-wing upset, becoming its improved version. The outcome is well known. Voters ended up preferring the original to the copy, and the next election left the party with five seats.

The wear and tear of not knowing what you were voting for

Another accusation weighs just as heavily: ambiguity as a method. First a pact with the right was hinted at, only for a deal to be struck with the left; then exactly the opposite. Voters stopped knowing what they were buying with their ballot. Before that there had been the Catalan moment: winning the regional elections and failing to build any alternative majority to the independence movement alongside the PSOE and the PP.

Two faces and no structure

The leap to national politics was never backed by an equivalent grassroots network. Without cadres, without succession and without a finished programme, the party was the brand and two well-known faces. When those faces stepped away, nothing was left to hold it up. Their leaders' subsequent landings —coaching, energy consultancy— fuel conspiracy theories, although the collapse is better explained by verifiable and perfectly documented decisions.

The nostalgia doing the rounds on talk shows today is somewhat of a trap: people miss what they never voted for with conviction. If a centrist project with the same credentials and the same doubts reappears tomorrow, the sensible bet is that it will repeat the script. Though nobody would sign off on that prediction today.