Vox candidates in the provincial capitals: Two-thirds are men and 72% are new faces

In the autonomous communities, only two headliners repeat: Rocío Monasterio in Madrid and Jorge Campos in the Balearic Islands.

MADRID, 26 Mar. (EUROPA PRESS) -

Vox will run in the municipal elections on May 28 with new faces in 72 percent of the provincial capitals, where two-thirds of the 'number one' on their lists will also be men and the remaining 34 percent will be women.

The party led by Santiago Abascal has prepared the May elections by searching for profiles on its lists who, in addition to garnering the support of their supporters, can enter eventual coalition governments.

This has caused an important renewal among the headliners, which has led to only 16 of the 50 candidates who were 'number one' in 2019 to occupy the same position on the lists for the month of May.

The rest, 66 percent, are released as candidates. These 'repeaters' are mostly people who have been awarded after obtaining the certificate in 2019 and taking the entire legislature as municipal spokespersons. This is the case of Seville, Zaragoza, Teruel or Huelva, for example.

There are also several municipal candidacies led by deputies in Congress, whom Vox has avoided placing on regional lists to avoid incompatibilities that would make them give up their national seat. Only the deputy Patricia de las Heras chooses to enter the Balearic Parliament for the constituency of Ibiza.

In the Town Halls, the lists will be led by deputies in the case of Madrid with Javier Ortega Smith at the helm; in Toledo, with Inés Cañizares; Ricardo Chamorro in Ciudad Real; Luis Gestoso in Murcia; Alberto Rodríguez in Las Palmas; or Emilio del Valle in Santander. Deputy Manuel Mestre will also head the list in the Alicante town of Orihuela.

In the case of the autonomous communities there is also an important renewal compared to 2019 and all their 'number one' will be new except two: Rocío Monasterio in the Community of Madrid and Jorge Campos in the Balearic Islands.

The rest of the headliners to the autonomous Parliaments will be new. In some cases, it has been decided to reward people who already held organic or institutional positions in the community, while in others, 'signings' from outside the party until now have been chosen.

This has been the case of the candidate for the Valencian Community, Carlos Flores, a professor and regular collaborator in the media who, however, has started with controversy for having been sentenced 20 years ago for psychological violence against his ex-wife.

Vox's aspiration is to repeat the Castilla y León formula with Juan García Gallardo as candidate and current vice president of the Board. The most similar case is that of La Rioja, where the 'number one' will be Ángel Alda, a young 31-year-old lawyer.

In Aragon, the chosen one has been its leader in the province of Teruel, Alejandro Nolasco (who will also double as a candidate for mayor of his city); while in Castilla-La Mancha, David Moreno, current party spokesman in Talavera de la Reina, has been chosen to try to access the regional Parliament.

Also in the Canary Islands, the candidate will be its provincial president in Las Palmas, Nicasio Galván; and in Murcia the regional list will be headed by one of the best-known faces of Vox in the region, José Ángel Antelo, provincial president and spokesman in the City Council. In Extremadura, Ángel Pelayo, current spokesman for the formation in Mérida, has been designated as 'number one'.

The new faces are put in Asturias by Carolina López (councilor in Tineo) and Leticia Díaz in Cantabria, who already held positions in the Government with the Popular Party. Meanwhile, in the autonomous cities, the candidates are the current leaders of the party: José Miguel Tasende in Melilla and Juan Sergio Redondo, who repeats in Ceuta.

Navarra is the only autonomous community where Vox has not yet named a candidate. From the national leadership, the secretary general, Ignacio Garriga, said a month ago that there was "no determining reason" and it would be announced "in the coming days", although there has been no news since then.

In the configuration of the lists - which the National Executive Committee approves at the proposal of the provincial committees - the new body of Government Political Direction, with Ignacio de las Hoces at the helm, has had a lot of weight.

This is a team created in March of last year, shortly after Vox entered the Government of Castilla y León, with the aim of coordinating the party's action in the governments of which it is a part and acting as a link with the national leadership headed by Santiago Abascal.

Although it was created after the elections in Castilla y León, Vox did so with an eye already set on its possible entry into more regional and municipal governments after the elections next May.

This body also acts as an adviser in the configuration of the electoral lists, since it has been in charge during the last weeks of putting on the table names that may later be suitable to occupy positions of responsibility in the executives.