Citizens (Spanish: ; ; shortened as Cs—C's until January 2017), officially Citizens–Party of the Citizenry (Ciudadanos–Partido de la Ciudadanía, CS), is a liberal political party in Spain. The party has been located in the centre to centre-right of the political spectrum.

Citizens' political ideology was initially unclear beyond a strong opposition to Catalan independence and Catalan nationalism in general. The party initially presented itself as left-of-centre, holding social democratic and progressive liberal positions; however, it removed any mention of social democracy from its platform in February 2017, moving closer to the political centre. By 2018, it was judged by commentators to have drifted further away from the left, as its focus shifted to competing against the People's Party (PP) as the leading party of the Spanish right. Despite describing itself as postnationalist, it has been deemed by some journalists and academics as professing a Spanish nationalist ideology. Since 2023, the party has been described as less focused on opposing Catalan nationalism, instead emphasising liberal policies.

Founded in Catalonia in 2006, the party initially enjoyed growing support throughout the 2010s on a regional and national level, owing to its staunch opposition to Catalan independence as well as the PP's decline in popularity under then-Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy. Entering the Congress of Deputies in 2015 in fourth place, it became the single largest party in the Parliament of Catalonia in 2017 and entered multiple coalition governments in autonomous communities. Citizens reached its electoral zenith at the April 2019 general election, where it became the third-largest party in the country and pulled ahead of the PP in several regions. This popularity did not last long: after refusing to form a coalition with the Spanish Socialist Workers' Party (PSOE), that year's November snap election saw Citizens lose 47 seats and become the country's smallest national party, resulting in leader Albert Rivera's resignation and departure from politics. This proved to be the first of a succession of electoral defeats that would set Citizens on the path to near-complete political collapse.

In 2021, the party failed to pass a no-confidence vote against its own regional government with the PP in Murcia, after which its coalition partner in the Assembly of Madrid triggered a snap election over fears of meeting the same fate — this resulted in Citizens losing all of its Madrilenian seats, having already lost 30 of its 36 seats in Catalonia earlier that year. The following year, the party lost all but one of its seats in the Cortes of Castile and León, as well as all of its seats in the Parliament of Andalusia. The party chose not to contest the 2023 Spanish general election after facing a near-total collapse in that year's regional and local elections. In 2024, the party lost the last of its electoral representatives in the Catalan and European Parliament elections, receiving less than one percent of the vote in both cases.

History Origins (2005–2006) Background Citizens was preceded by the political platform Ciutadans de Catalunya (Citizens of Catalonia), formed on 7 June 2005 by a group of fifteen academics, writers and other figures of Catalan society (including Albert Boadella, Félix de Azúa, and Francesc de Carreras) in reaction to the Generalitat's plans to reform the Statute of Autonomy. The group presented their manifesto at the Centre de Cultura Contemporània de Barcelona on the 21st of the same month, where they called on "citizens of Catalonia who identify with our proposal to demand a political party which will contribute to the restoration of realism", expressing their lacking confidence in the government to "address the real problems faced by the general public." In this manifesto, they declared that "the rhetoric of hatred promulgated by official Catalan government media against everything Spanish is more alarming than ever" and that "the [Catalan] nation, postulated as an homogenous entity, has taken over the space where an undeniably diverse society lives".

Leading up to their formation as a political party, Ciutadans de Catalunya organised several round table meetings and conferences that were occasionally met with controversy; at one event held ahead of the referendum on the 2006 Catalan Statute of Autonomy, several members of the group were assaulted by pro-independence activists. A second manifesto was presented at the Teatro Tívoli in Barcelona on 4 March 2006.

Foundation Their founding conference was held in July in Barcelona, where Citizens was formally incorporated as a political party under the full name of Ciudadanos–Partido de la Ciudadanía (Citizens–Party of the Citizenry). Albert Rivera, 26 years old at the time, was elected its first leader.

Early years (2006–2013)

Catalan regional elections Cs presented in 16 September its candidature for the 2006 Catalan regional election, taking part in an election for the first time. The party entered the regional parliament with three MPs, including leader Rivera, winning 89,840 votes, the 3.09% of the total. The party voted against the investiture of José Montilla.

For the 2010 regional election, Albert Rivera was chosen the party's candidate for the presidency of the Catalan Generalitat. The party ended up winning 105,827 votes, the 3.4%, three tenths up from the previous election, maintaining its 3 MPs in the process.

C's took part in the 2012 snap election with Rivera as its candidate again. Its campaign slogan was "Better united". The party received 274,925 votes, the 7.58%, winning 9 MPs and tripling its votes. The party's substantial growth in support was mainly due to its role as a counterweight to the growing public support for independence in Catalonia, with C's acting as one of its most outspoken opponents.

Other elections Following the Catalan elections, C's studied expanding to other autonomous communities. The party contested in the 2007 Spanish local elections, winning only 13 councillors, all in Catalonia.

Cs decided to contest in the 2008 Spanish general election, presenting lists all over the country, and expecting to win MPs at least in Madrid and Barcelona. However, the party only won 45,750 votes (0.18%), being unable to achieve parliamentary representation.

Cs participated in the 2009 European Parliament election. The party initially tried to do so in a coalition with the ideologically similar Union, Progress and Democracy (UPYD), but the offer was rejected. The party's decision to take part in the Eurosceptic and nationalist Libertas coalition was met with controversy and led to infighting in the party due to it being at odds with Citizens' professed ideology Ciutadans se divide tras aprobar acudir a las europeas con la coalición derechista Libertas, RTVE and alleged irregularities in the process.

The party took part in the 2011 local elections, maintaining 10 of its councillors. C's initially tried to contest in the 2011 general election together with UPYD, but its offer was rejected for the fourth time, leading the party to not contest in order to not divide the vote.

Electoral breakthrough (2013–2019)

National expansion In 2013, the party started organising in the rest of Spain with a manifesto called "La conjura de Goya" ("Confederacy of Goya") that took place in the Congress Palace of Madrid.

C's decided to take part in the 2014 European election, where the party received 3.16% of the national vote (497,146 votes) and elected two MEPs. Both MEPs subsequently joined the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe (ALDE) group. The party was later also accepted into the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe Party on 4 June 2016.

As part of its national implementation strategy, the party sealed alliances with various minor parties. Parties such as the Liberal Democratic Centre, Union of the Salamancan People, the Regionalist Party of Castile and León, and the Union of the Extremaduran People joined Ciudadanos in 2014. The Sorian People's Platform did the same in 2015.

2015 and 2016 elections Citizens took part in the 2015 Catalan regional election, where it obtained 734,910 votes, the 17.93% of the total vote, more than doubling its results once again. By winning 25 MPs, the party became the second largest faction in the Catalan parliament.

In the 2015 general elections, Cs entered parliament with 3,500,446 votes (the 13.93%) and 40 seats. As PP's Mariano Rajoy refused the mandate to form a government, Citizens promised the Spanish Socialist Workers' Party (PSOE) its support in parliament in exchange for a number of political concessions. However, this pact would have needed the support of Podemos, which Citizens could not abide by; this deadlock ultimately led to the 2016 snap election, where the party lost 0.8% of the popular vote and eight seats. After these elections, Citizens struck a deal with the conservative PP in supporting its government in exchange for a number of political concessions. After a 10-month political deadlock, PP leader Mariano Rajoy was able to win investiture as Prime Minister and retain power.

Electoral peak Following the illegal independence referendum in Catalonia and the unilateral declaration of independence in October 2017, C's supported the application of the article 155 of the Spanish constitution. This led to the 2017 snap election in Catalonia, where Cs received 1,109,732 votes (25.26%) and obtained 36 MPs, effectively becoming the most voted party in Catalonia, being the first time in democracy where a non-Catalan nationalist party won a Catalan regional election. Cs candidate Inés Arrimadas did not present for investiture due to lacking enough support to be invested as President of the Catalan Generalitat.

Cs became the third most voted party in the 2018 Andalusian regional election, winning 21 MPs with 18.27% of the votes. The party became the junior partner of a coalition government with the PP, which received the external support of Vox.

Cs achieved its best result in a general election in the April 2019 Spanish general election, winning 4,136,600 votes (the 15.86%) and 57 seats, becoming the third most voted party in the country.

In the 2019 European elections, the party obtained 12% of the vote, and won a total of seven MEPs (which became eight post-brexit).

Electoral decline (2019–present)

Rivera's resignation C's went through electoral collapse in the November 2019 general election, having lost 80% of its seats (going from 57 to 10) and maintaining only 1,6 million votes (the 6.79%, down from the 15,9% of the previous election). This led to the resignation of Albert Rivera as party president, who was succeeded by Inés Arrimadas.

Arrimadas' leadership In March 2021, Citizens, together with the Spanish Socialist Workers' Party, presented a surprise no-confidence motion in the Region of Murcia against their own regional coalition government with the People's Party. The motion failed due to defection of several Ciudadanos deputies, and triggered a "political earthquake" across the country, leading to a number of high-ranking members abandoning the party. In the aftermath, Cs also lost all its 26 deputies in Madrid in the 2021 Madrilenian regional election, and fell in country-wide polls from ≈7% support (≈10 deputies) down to ≈3% (≈1 deputy).

Vázquez's leadership