Santiago Abascal, leader of the Vox that inspires the Spanish far-right

Heading to Vox, he is delighted. Santiago Abascal, leader of the far-right Spanish party, already sees himself as vice president of a right-wing coalition government. A few weeks before the election, polls indicated that his party would be decisive for the cycle of change that would see Spain left behind after five years of left-wing government. Opinion polls predict between 12% and 15% for Vox, far behind the People’s Party (PP, liberal right), which is expected to take between 33% and 37% (compared to 24% to 27% for Pedro Sánchez’s PSOE). The score sounds modest, but it puts the Vox leader in a strategic position.

In just five years, his party has gone from eccentric to kingmaker with a solid presence across the country. In the face of skeptical voices from even the most moderate of the PP, he growls, “We will not cast our votes.”

a nationalist aesthetic

If he founded Vox, that’s exactly what it is for. Speak loud and clear, not like those he calls “cowardly and complacent little right-wingers”. Born in Bilbao in the Basque Country in 1976 and the son of a right-wing mayor, Santiago Abascal Conde grew up with death threats from ETA on his family. It was in favor of the PP that he made his debut in politics, knocking on the door in 2013 to start his training a few months later. But it was not until 2018 that he scored his first electoral success, bringing together the far-right, traditionalist Catholics and those indifferent to Francoism with a combative speech calling for the defense of the unity of the homeland threatened by Catalan separatism.

“Vox was not born on the right side of the PP, but within the PP itself, underlined journalist Miguel González, author of a book examining the party. This origin probably explains why the notion of a sanitary cordon facing the far right does not exist for Popular Party voters. For them, it is a family affair. Vox is somewhat like the cousin who gets carried away with too many glasses at the end of the meal. No.”

Piercing eye, aquiline nose, short beard and regal chin, Santiago Abascal shows his difference. Between hunting outfits and camouflage-patterned T-shirts, he delivers his fiery speeches with a clean-cut aesthetic. His passion for horses, weapons or falconry helps him to create the image of a new Sid, at the forefront of the defense of eternal Spain.

A Spain that will soon be the most conservative in Europe?

There is no way for them to play the game of political correctness. He calls for the rediscovery of authentic Spain, an almost folkloric defense of traditions such as paella, bullfights and hunting, as well as Christian values, including abortion, marriage for all and LGBT rights. He plans to put in their place “feminazis” who make men eternally guilty, or ecologists and other vegetarians as enemies of rurality.

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Relations with Viktor Orbán and other leaders of the European far right have led him to expand and harden his argument: Vox denounces illegal immigration, denies guardianship of Brussels, questions the 2030 Agenda and global warming.

So far, PP leaders have played a game of ambiguity, sealing agreements at the local and regional level while looking elsewhere. But the question is, what concessions can the People’s Party make to its partner in order to capture power?

by Cecil Thibault (in Madrid)