Former Orihuela local councillor, Juan Ignacio López-Bas, will be the new provincial coordinator of the Ciudadanos (Cs) political formation in Alicante. Juan Balastegui and Jordi Roig will be the new secretaries of Organisation and Institutional Action in the province, respectively.
This was agreed this week by the permanent committee of Cs, a decision with which it covers the vacancies.
López-Bas, Balastegui and Roig will be in charge of commanding the party in the province of Alicante until the refoundation process of the formation in which it is found is completed and it adopts a new name or structure. With his appointment, the leadership of Ciudadanos fills the gap in the provincial leadership after the dismissal of its three strongest representatives, Javier Gutiérrez, as coordinator, along with Jesús Herrero, and César Martínez, who also hold important positions in the Alicante Provincial Council. The dismissal of the three was justified with the aim of revitalising the organic structure of the party in the Valencian Community. In addition, it must be noted that Gutiérrez has a file open that could culminate in his expulsion if his allegations are not addressed.
Gutiérrez was also very critical of the support of the Cs councillors in the vote of no confidence that took the Mayor’s Office from the PP in Orihuela, with whom they shared a government team. He always defended that the councillors of Cs did not have authorisation to sign the vote of no confidence, only to leave the local government. However, some statements by Gutiérrez against the national leadership led to the opening of the file.
The three new appointments were valued for their identification and commitment to the Ciudadanos project so that it continues autonomously, in addition to what may happen in the refoundation process.
López-Bas is currently a Cs deputy in Congress for Alicante, in which he acts as spokesman in the Science, Innovation and Universities commissions, in the Transport, Mobility and Urban Agenda commission and in the International Development Cooperation commission. He has also been a councillor in Orihuela. For his part, Balastegui is the spokesperson for Cs in Benidorm and Roig is a councillor for the formation in San Vicente del Raspeig.
