The crisis does not stop at Vox Baleares. The deputies of Vox Baleares, Idoia Ribas and Sergio Rodriguezin conflict for a year with the national leadership of the party, is now demanding the resignation of the spokesperson of the parliamentary group, Manuela Canadaswho is accused of making false and offensive statements about them at a spokespersons’ meeting on September 3, and of insinuating that both might soon leave the parliamentary group.
In a letter addressed to the Madrid leadership, to which this newspaper had access, the rebel deputies assure that Cañadas spoke to them “in a derogatory tone” and spread rumors and infamies, on the alleged desire to “sink the party” and create one, after the critical sector led by Ribas created Avanza en Libertad, a cultural association with the same ideology as Vox.
“Unfortunately, we do not know if these seats will soon be occupied by other Vox deputies, because, as this media program is broadcast from time to time, we will see that it can be the same; “I have to be honest,” said Cañadas at the aforementioned meeting of spokesmen where the reallocation of the seat of Agustín Buades was discussed, who recently left the group for disagreement with Santiago Abascal’s decision to break the pact with Marga Prohens’ PP.
Cañadas avoided commenting on his colleagues’ request for resignation: “I have no intention of participating in this circus.Whoever wants to get tangled up, let him get tangled up; “I came to work for the citizens of the Balearic Islands on behalf of Vox,” he replied without denying the accusations.
The rebel MPs demand the resignation of the spokesperson of the Vox parliamentary group, or the opening of the corresponding sanction file for serious and very serious non-compliance, as well as “the immediate proposal of another MP to exercise the function of spokesperson”.
In their writings, Ribas and Rodríguez – who were charged but not expelled earlier this year after unsuccessfully trying to take control of the parliamentary group with Cañadas, Buades and María José Verdú – denounce that the Vox Baleares parliamentary group is suffering during this early period of the legislature “a constant boycott by the provincial leadership of the party to destabilize the government and try to provoke an electoral advance. They also accuse Enrique Cabanas, member of the National Executive Committee, of wanting to modify the majorities of the parliamentary group to impose a change in the spokespeople.
Cañadas assumed the spokesperson position held by Idoia Ribas after she reoriented her position and abandoned the rebel sector. She is one of the five deputies who defied the directives of Santiago Abascal by not supporting the spending ceiling of the regional government in 2023. At the beginning of the year, they also tried to expel deputies loyal to Abascal and take control of the group. Later, Cañadas entered the official sector with Maria Jose VerduThe war between the official sector – made up of Cañadas, the regional leader Patricia de Las Heras, the deputy of the Balearic parliament, Gabriel Le Senne and María José Verdú – and the two rebel deputies remains more open than ever.
In early September, Ribas, Rodriguez and non-attached MP Buades used their association Avanza en Libertad to launch a statement openly criticizing the decision of Vox management to break the pact with Marga Prohens’ PP. Vox Baleares responded by demanding the certificate of its deputy and veiledly threatening his definitive expulsion, which was not carried out. Vox Baleares lost two deputies in one year. Of the eight deputies won in the May 2023 elections, six remain after the departure of Xisco Cardona and Agustín Buades from Menorca in one year.
