Vox celebrates ten years with Abascal ready to be re-elected and with the majority of historical leaders outside the party

In this decade the party has lost founders and has relegated significant faces and faces a new stage with Garriga and the 'barons'

MADRID, 21 Ene. (EUROPA PRESS) -

Last Tuesday, Vox celebrated ten years since it was presented to the public at an event held in Madrid and, a few months later, Santiago Abascal was elected president of the group that he helped found in 2014. A decade later, the leader is about to to revalidate his position for the third time and without opponents, but he does so without several faces that have accompanied him since the origins of Vox.

The germ of Vox is located in a platform, 'Reconversion', promoted by PP militants critical of the drift of Mariano Rajoy's Government. Among them were Abascal, former MEP Alejo Vidal-Quadras and José Antonio Ortega Lara, a prison official whom ETA held hostage for 532 days.

It was registered as a party on December 17, 2013 and presented to the media on January 16, 2014. Abascal was already one of the leaders at that time and, at the presentation event, Ortega Lara, the activist Cristina Seguí were also present. , the philosopher José Luis González Quirós and the former minister Ignacio Camuñas.

With the exception of Ortega Lara, none of them are in Vox. Seguí resigned months later after accusing the then acting president of the party, González Quirós, of irregular profits; and he, Camuñas and Vidal-Quadras left the party after Abascal assumed the presidency.

The current leader of Vox was elected president for the first time in September 2014, after defeating businessman Ludovico López Cadé in a vote open to militancy, who obtained 99 votes compared to the 1,010 obtained by Abascal. He was then accompanied by Iván Espinosa de los Monteros as general secretary and by Víctor Sánchez del Real as deputy secretary of Communication.

He was re-elected two years later, in March 2016, and already with overwhelming support from Vox affiliates: 98% supported him. Espinosa and Sánchez del Real were relieved in that assembly, but three years later they accompanied Abascal when Vox entered Congress with 24 deputies in the April 2019 elections. In fact Espinosa was its parliamentary spokesperson from then until his resignation last year. August. But today the two are just grassroots militants without any position, and have returned to private activity.

In the repeated general elections of November 2019, Vox reached its zenith and struck a chord, winning 52 deputies. The coordinator of the party's economic program for that campaign was Rubén Manso, but four years later he was left off the lists for 23J, like Sánchez del Real. Both showed their surprise at this exclusion and showed that it had not been their own decision, although they avoided direct criticism of Vox.

In that 'golden era' of Vox, the General Secretariat was in the hands of Javier Ortega Smith, who had been elected in the 2016 assembly, while Macarena Olona served as Vox's 'number two' in Congress alongside Espinosa of the Monteros.

As the legislature passed, there was some friction between the party and the parliamentary group. Abascal remained above possible internal disputes, reserving himself for large events and the main parliamentary debates, and the person who assumed the daily role on Bambú Street was MEP Jorge Buxadé, first vice president and spokesman for the party leadership.

In Congress, Olona was gaining 'screen quota' and ended up leaving the Chamber to be a candidate for the Presidency of the Junta de Andalucía in the regional elections of June 2022, but she did not meet electoral expectations and, a few months later, she announced his withdrawal for "health reasons".

Ortega Smith, for his part, left the reins of the party to focus on his career as spokesperson in the Madrid City Council, leaving the General Secretary in the hands of Ignacio Garriga in October 2022 and instead occupying a vice presidency without specific tasks in the organization.

After leaving Vox and founding his failed project Caminando Juntos, Olona began to send a string of criticisms against Abascal, his current Executive -- especially Buxadé -- and against those he calls "the Intereconomía Clan -- Kiko Méndez-Monasterio, Julio Ariza and Gabriel Ariza--", whom he insists on placing as true power, in the shadows, of the party.

The surprising resignation of Espinosa de los Monteros after the July elections revealed the internal criticism that had until then been hidden. Figures who had held positions of responsibility in the party, such as Sánchez del Real and Manso, criticized Vox's drift and pointed to a culprit: the party leader in Brussels, Jorge Buxadé.

Ortega Smith was the only member of the management who joined these timid internal criticisms. He regretted Espinosa's departure and pointed out that some, without specifying, had failed to recognize the former Vox parliamentary spokesperson for his "loyalty, generosity and sacrifice." Months later, he delved into his criticism of the Vox leadership, assuring in an interview with Europa Press that the party could not become "a placement agency."

In fact, before the Extraordinary General Assembly this year, there was speculation that the spokesperson in Madrid would challenge Abascal for leadership of the party, but the interested party settled the rumors and made it clear that he was not going to give that decision. passed.

Now Abascal is about to be elected president of Vox for the third time, again without opposition, and for the extraordinary assembly next Saturday he wanted to 'adjust' his team for the new National Executive Committee (CEN).

His candidacy reaffirms Garriga as 'number two', revalidating the General Secretary and remaining the only vice president of the party by relegating Ortega Smith, Buxadé and deputy Reyes Romero to members. In addition, he expands the number of members from five to 17, introducing new faces, rising figures at the national level and others linked to the territorial power that Vox has held since the municipal and regional elections of May 28.

On the one hand, the spokesperson in Congress and the general secretary of the parliamentary group, Pepa Rodríguez de Millán and José María Figaredo, enter, and on the other, the vice presidents of Castilla y León, Juan García-Gallardo, join; Murcia, José Ángel Antelo; the Valencian Community, Vicente Barrero; and Aragón, Alejandro Nolasco. He has also introduced the Vox spokesperson in the Murcia City Council, Luis Gestoso, and the president of the Valencian Cortes, Llanos Massó.

Pablo Sáez remains as treasurer and Rocío de Meer, Enrique Cabanas and María Ruiz as members, while Pedro Fernández, once Ortega Smith's right-hand man, leaves. Rosa Cuervas-Mons joins, a close collaborator of Abascal who has served as Director of Communication for the Presidency and head of press for the parliamentary group since the time of Espinosa, as well as the Deputy Secretary of Government Action, Montserrat Lluis; and deputy Blanca Armario.