Here is the Third Spain»: Ciudadanos and the discourse of Spanish Centrism (2005-2023)

Abstract

In 2008, Albert Rivera, leader of the centrist political party Ciudadanos, declared that the recently-formed Catalonia-based group –which was looking to expand throughout the rest of Spain– «represents a progressive Third Spain». From that point on, the identification of Ciudadanos with the concept of a Third Spain was constant, both in the former’s political discourse and in analyses centred on the party –especially if they were sympathetic to it–. This does not mean that the concept was given a clear, single meaning: the Third Spain came to mean various different things in this context, although they were all related to various aspects of what the party wished to project as a centrist agenda for post-2008 Spain. Furthermore, vindicating the Third Spain became a point of contention with political rivals and even within Ciudadanos it self, particularly during the party’s crisis in mid-2019. This article analyses the use of the Third Spain concept during the creation, rise and fall of Ciudadanos, focusing on the various senses in which this term was used in the party’s discourse, on the function it played within its political project and in a number of specific situations, and in what this case reveals about the symbolic repertoire of political centrism in Spain during the democratic period.