On 10 November, Spanish citizens will head to the polls for the fourth time in four years to elect the new members of the Cortes Generales (General Courts) formed by 350 members of the Parliament and 200 members of the Senate.

These snap elections come after a year of political instability that started with the crisis of the government of Mariano Rajoy (PP) back in 2018 due to corruption cases within his party and ended in a successful vote of no confidence. Pedro Sanchez (PSOE) led the caretaker government but could not secure enough support to adopt essential legislation including the general budget for 2019. As a result, new elections were called for April 2019.

While the Socialist party (PSOE) obtained the highest number of votes, it didn’t have an absolute majority to form a government. After a series of negotiation talks, Sanchez was – again – unable to secure the support of other parties to form a government. New elections were called for November.

An ALDE member since 2016, Ciudadanos led by Albert Rivera will take part in the next week’s elections. Having its roots in Catalonia and becoming the largest party after the 2017 Catalan regional elections, new Spanish liberal force was created as the party emerged at a national level. Being the third force nationally with 57 MPs and two senators, the party has representation in almost all of the regional parliaments and is part of government in four regions: Andalusia, Castille and Leon, Madrid and Murcia.

ALDE Vice-President Luis Garicano MEP is the Head of Delegation of the party in the European Parliament. Ciudadanos currently has 6 MEPs.

“Pongamos España en Marcha con un Gran Acuerdo Nacional” (Let’s set Spain underway with a Great National Agreement) is the party’s electoral programme that highlights ten priorities:

See full programme in Spanish here

Ciudadanos kicked off their electoral campaign on 31 October with slogan “Si se puede” (Yes we can) to show that a change in the government is possible, that the party can make reforms and that an alternative majority to PSOE, Podemos and the nationalists – with Ciudadanos playing a key role – is achievable.

You can follow the party’s campaign on social media with the hashtags #EspañaEnMarcha, #SiSePuede and #10N

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