Santiago Abascal is willing to recover the lost political space which, according to all polls, is not only recovered by the PP but also, although to a lesser extent, by the unexpected rival who presented himself to Vox in the last elections European: the Party. It’s over (SALF), the party of ultra agitator Alvise Pérez.
Last week, Abascal announced his intention to begin a “tour” throughout Spain in order to redouble his opposition to the government of Pedro Sánchez and maintain his political preeminence, amid a struggle over which of the three right-wing parties will be able to crush power. more and better the debate on immigration policy and on the autonomous financing of Catalonia. With this tour, the leader of Vox also seeks to boost the morale of his people at a time when the census of Vox members was languishing.
Even if the leader of Vox tried to ignore Alvise Pérez, the leadership of the far-right party does not take its eyes off the polls which point to a notable electoral rise of the new formation. The news of the black money received by Pérez, reported by elDiario.es, gave a respite to Abascal’s people because it represents a serious setback for the credibility of the SALF leader among his supporters. Some feel, disappointed, that his speech according to which everyone is corrupt except him has been dismantled.
At Vox, however, we know that the real electoral rival is now the PP, which “steals” its flags from Pedro Sánchez, both in terms of immigration and regional financing, with the president of the Madrid region, Isabel Díaz Ayuso , which marks them all. the path. Abascal also notes the conservative leader’s “flirtations” with certain traditional allies of the European far right, such as the Italian Giorgia Meloni. Although Vox executives publicly deny concern over the stagnation that almost every poll shows them, internal Vox sources privately assure the opposite.
This concern was accentuated after the drastic decision taken by Abascal to break all the autonomy pacts that Vox had with the PP, which led to a drain on the far-right formation of abandonment of institutional and organic positions which did not conform to the break. Several regional councilors disobeyed the leader and remained with the governments chaired by those of Feijóo and announced that they were leaving the party.
Since then, the flow of victims has not stopped, although it had already started months before, after the Extraordinary General Assembly held in January, during which the leader was confirmed in office without internal opposition, after which he appointed a new leadership including territorial leaders. to calm the internal troubles that were already brewing. Despite attempts to calm the waters, it is this trickle of abandonments that continues to cause problems in Abascal. Last Wednesday, the Balearic deputy Agustín Buades slammed the door, against whom the party had opened a disciplinary case after deciding to leave the parliamentary group without waiving the minutes.
At that time, the party had already begun to suffer from a notable drop in membership, as the 2023 accounts published by Vox on its website show, with half of the registered members having not paid their contributions. The data is revealing: although the party has nearly 67,000 registered members, only 35,000 are up to date with their payments., which also meant a significant decrease in revenue for Vox that year for this concept. The goal now is to regain lost ground and attract new members and supporters.
Abascal’s tour of Spain started last week. Last Monday, the leader of Vox visited Asturias, birthplace of the secretary general of the parliamentary group José María Figaredo. From Covadonga, he warned his supporters that “there is a permanent attempt” to “demoralize” them. “Just look at the polls, just look at the news we appear in because often it seems like Vox doesn’t exist. And just look at the Vox death certificates which are constantly published by the media,” he lamented.
“The attempt to demoralize us, to think that this project has failed has been a constant, but we are still here.” Abascal appealed to history: “This is where it all began,” he remembers.
The far-right leader spoke of the “inequalities” that, according to him, the so-called “Catalan quota” will generate. “We are making an amendment to the entire system of autonomy. This is our position. This has never ceased to be the case, even though we have governed regionally. But even today it is proven that “He who acts out of disloyalty is the one who wins prizes,” he shouted.
At the same event, Abascal was also asked if he was “jealous” of Núñez Feijóo’s approach to his far-right European allies, shortly after Núñez Feijóo’s photo with Meloni, with whom the PP leader held a meeting last week in Italy praising his immigration policy.
“Jealousy?” » Abascal was surprised. “Absolutely none. “We are very pleased that our adversaries must recognize that our partners and allies are right and are developing the right policies,” he concluded. According to him, it will be “the opposite”, namely that the PP is the one who is jealous of the very close relationship that he and Vox have with Fratelli d’Italia and Meloni herself. Abascal scorned the fact that Feijóo took this photo because, in his opinion, it “does not work” and constitutes “one more part of the PP’s scam against the Spaniards.”
