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Ciudadanos' whole shebang has come tumbling down. Like a headless chicken continuing to run and run nowhere without realising its moment has passed. For many months it was very easy to hear praise of Albert Rivera and Inés Arrimadas. They had two opportunities: the 21st December Catalan election and the motion of no-confidence that elevated Pedro Sánchez directly to the Moncloa. In both cases, Ciudadanos got ahead of itself and lost. Spanish nationalism ran a plain campaign for Arrimadas to launch Ciudadanos' candidacy. They won a hollow victory, as pro-independence parties got 70 seats out of 135. An unarguable absolute majority.

During the no-confidence motion, Rivera was three times mistaken about what would happen: he didn't believe that EAJ would abandon Rajoy, he didn't think that that PP would go into opposition over changing its leader and, finally, he distrusted that Sánchez could put together a winning coalition. He went around the offices that finance him proclaiming the apocalypse which didn't come and today the Ibex has already adapted to PSOE's leader.

Conclusion: Rivera is a great nuisance. And his lack of depth and aims are starting to weigh on him. His Falangism 2.0 has ever less support in the media, although, in former French prime minister Manuel Valls, it has found an all-terrain vehicle to talk about Spain, the independence movement and Europe.

Curious: Valls is one of the first politicians to find greater resonance outside his borders than in his own country, where his opinions are no longer found interesting. That said, with a clear bias and a permanent need to inflame relations between Catalonia and Spain.

Now, on the other side of the Ebro river, they're surprised by him and Rivera. As if Ciudadanos were something more.