CS presents a new electoral list for Madrid with only four incumbent council members in its lineup, which is "a more secure and superior list than the previous one," says Villacís

MADRID, 11 Apr.

Madrid's vice mayor and Ciudadanos' mayoral candidate, Begoña Villacís, presented on Tuesday the names that make up the electoral list that will run in the May 28 elections to "transform" the city. The incumbent council members Mariano Fuentes, Silvia Saavedra, and Miguel Ángel Redondo are still loyal to her project, and Santiago Saura gives symbolic support by closing the candidacy.

Villacís detailed the new names that make up her "new bet" for the electoral race, noting that this list is "better" than the previous one and transformative to bring to Cibeles a "loyal and clean" policy. The candidacy features 57 names of "brilliant" civil society profiles, with former Madrid Assembly President Juan Trinidad on the list. At the bottom of the list, Santiago Saura stands symbolically, wishing to go back to university, but convinced that the "Orange Party" will continue to be "decisive" for "the good of Madrid."

"These are reliable values in a better list than the previous one," said the politician and lawyer, insisting that the outcome of the upcoming municipal elections on May 28th in Madrid will have "great significance" nationally.

"There are people who did not want to enter the 2019 list because politics is not attractive today, and it is hard to take the plunge. We are not unaware of the difficulties, but we are very optimistic about the surveys that indicate Cs is going to be decisive," she stated.

Following the departure of at least five out of eleven Orange Party council members, the electoral list was made public. Pepe Aniorte and Ángel Niño were the first to announce their break with the party, with Alberto Serrano, Concha Chapa, and Sofia Miranda following suit.

The mayoral candidate has only stated that the people on the original list "knew perfectly" that the councillors who broke with the party knew they would not be included. She declined to spend much time thinking about these losses.

Dressed in white with a broad smile, Madrid's Orange Party leader seized the opportunity to take a dig at the PP for its negotiations with former Orange Party councillors, emphasising that her team's greatest value is integrity and honesty.

"Integrity is important in politics, and one thing we can be proud of is that yes, I have said no twice to being mayor, and it is what I would most like in the world, and I will fight for it," she stressed.

Villacís is joined by Silvia Saavedra, the delegate of Territorial Coordination at Madrid City Council, who is number two on the list. Mariano Fuentes, responsible for Urbanism, follows as number three, whom she has described as someone "many parties would like to have." Miguel Ángel Redondo, delegate of the Area of Economics, follows.

In her speech, the Vice Mayor emphasized that Ciudadanos is aware that these forthcoming elections are "the most momentous that the party faces," and so they present a better list than the previous one.

"If the 2019 elections were very important and included a team of experts in technocracy to address the first stage of government, now it is a much better list than the previous one," she noted, recalling the challenges they faced in recent years, such as the pandemic, while claiming their accomplishments in a coalition government.

In this regard, she highlighted that her team at Cibeles has shown itself to be "loyal and honest," without any scandals. "There are no other examples of having the opportunity to be a mayor, and I have refused it because, for some, words are very important," she stated.

She also boasted of the achievements of her councillors, such as Mariano Fuentes' milestone in unlocking the Chamartín operation or promoting the southeast developments strategy with the largest sphere of affordable housing. Similarly, she praised Miguel Ángel Redondo's work at the head of the economy area of the Madrid City Council with his investment in sectors such as video gaming or his assistance to the self-employed.

Villacís also extolled Saura's work in transforming the international area of the City Council and making Cs the most European party, making the capital look towards the world.

Afterward, she revealed the list's names, which include profiles from the education sector, law and economics, or technology sectors. Hugo Moreno, Belén del Pozo, Eduardo Torres, Ana García Grimau, Juan Trinidad, Belén Ortiz, Alejandro Fernández Vega, Cramen Gutierrez Moreno, and Miguel Ángel Rodríguez are among the other members on the list.