Citizens (Spanish political party)
|
Citizens
Ciudadanos |
|
|---|---|
 |
|
| Abbreviation | C's |
| President | Albert Rivera |
| Secretary-General | Matías Alonso Ruiz |
| Spokesperson in Congress | Juan Carlos Girauta |
| Founded | 7 June 2005 (CC) 4 March 2006 (C's) |
| Headquarters | Gran Via de les Corts Catalanes 751 A, 1º 2ª 08013 Barcelona, Catalonia |
| Youth wing | Group of Young Citizens – J's |
| Membership (2015) |
 30,800 |
| Ideology |
Liberalism Secularism Pro-Europeanism Postnationalism |
| Political position | Centre |
| European affiliation | Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe |
| European Parliament group | Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe |
| Colours | Orange |
| Congress of Deputies |
32 / 350
|
| Senate |
3 / 266
|
| European Parliament |
4 / 54
|
| Regional Parliaments |
100 / 1,248
|
| Local Government |
1,527 / 67,611
|
| Website | |
| www.ciudadanos-cs.org | |
Citizens (Spanish: Ciudadanos [θjuðaˈðanos]; Catalan: Ciutadans [siwtəˈðans]; Basque: Hiritarrak; Galician: Cidadáns; shortened as C's), officially Citizens – Party of the Citizenry, is a liberalpolitical party in Spain which is self-described as postnationalist. Citizens presents itself as a party which offers a mix of social democracy and liberal-progressive positions on its platform.
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.
Citizens brands itself as a centre-left party in its statement of principles (ideario). Albert Rivera refused to locate Citizens on the political spectrum for a time, though. And he has recently been placing C's in the political centre. Although some observers agree with the party's ideario by describing C's as centre-left and others agree with Albert Rivera's last definition by describing the party as centrist, the vast majority of them have positioned Citizens on the centre-right.
Ideologically, C's describes itself as progressive, secular, constitutionalist, European federalist and postnationalist. Ciudadanos has been associated with autonomism in the sense of supporting the current State of Autonomies, defending its existence with the present political decentralization but rejecting autonomous communities' right to self-determination. So, the party opposes separatist movements such as the Catalan independence movement and opposes federating the autonomous communities. Even though Citizens is a supporter of European federalism nowadays, it ran in the 2009 European Parliament election in coalition with the far-right, Eurosceptic party Libertas. Although reconsidering the current head of state is not a priority for the party, Albert Rivera has said that Citizens is "a republican party which claims that Spanish citizens are who have to decide whether they prefer a once-modernized monarchy or a republic through a referendum in the context of a constitutional reform".
...
Wikipedia