The president of Vox, Santiago Abascal, has raised this Saturday the tone of his criticisms of the Government of Pedro Sánchez for the railway management after the accident in Urda (Toledo) and the reports about the bonuses for the management of Adif. During an election rally in Guadalajara, the leader questioned whether those responsible for the public company made sure of their incentives before leaving their positions and accused the Executive of allowing the resources intended for infrastructure to end up in "bribes", "appointments", and payments for its executives.
"Why doesn't Pedro Sánchez resign when he sees that all the people he has put in charge are taking the money? In the middle of the massacre, in the middle of the dead," Abascal asked, who directed his reproaches both at the Prime Minister and at the top leadership of Adif.
The Vox leader has questioned what the true objective of those responsible for the public company was and has contrasted the management of railway resources with the needs for maintenance and investment in the network. His remarks come at a time of full political confrontation over the responsibilities arising from the Urda accident and the situation of the railway infrastructures. The event, framed within the campaign for the general elections on November 29, also included the participation of Ángel López Maraver, head of Vox’s list for Guadalajara to the Congress, and of the provincial president of the formation, Iván Sánchez Serrano.
Abascal promises to return security to women
The safety of women has been another of the central pillars of Abascal’s speech, in which he promised that a potential Vox Government would restore freedom to Spanish women and linked his proposals with the Executive’s migration policies. The Vox president said there will be no women "locked up in cloth prisons" in the streets and public spaces and defended that young women can return to their homes without having to maintain a phone call with their family members out of fear of suffering an assault.
"We are going to recover Spain from that self-proclaimed feminist government," he has proclaimed. Along those lines, he has accused the Executive of having brought to Spain "people who hate women, who consider them inferior" and has held it responsible for the release of rapists. Abascal has presented these issues as part of his criticism of the Government's migration and security policy, which he has accused of not guaranteeing the protection of women. His proposals fit within one of Vox's main electoral arguments, which links public safety with a hardening of migration policies.
The leader has also extended his message to other groups, with references to young people, older people, women, and workers, whom he has presented as being harmed by what he has defined as "fiscal predation."
Lower taxes and national priority for self-employed workers and workers
On economic matters, Abascal has directed much of his criticism at tax pressure and the difficulties faced by small businesses. The leader of Vox has mentioned self-employed workers who, as he has described them, "raise the shutter already desperate" and cannot make ends meet. Faced with this situation, he has defended national priority, deregulation, and a reduction in taxes as the pillars of his economic alternative. Abascal has offered a "deep change, but a calm change," with the goal that young people can access a decent wage, find housing, and develop their life project without being forced to leave Guadalajara or emigrate to other parts of Spain.
In this way, the President of Vox has claimed a discourse focused on the cost of living, job opportunities, and the ability of citizens to keep their businesses and their families, as opposed to what he considers a model of intervention and excessive tax pressure.
Criticism of oil imports and the bureaucracy of the countryside
The primary sector has also taken up a prominent place in the rally. Abascal has criticized that Spanish oil is removed from the market to control prices while the entry of products from Morocco and Tunisia continues. The leader has questioned the conditions under which Spanish producers compete and has denounced the bureaucratic burden that farmers and ranchers have to bear. As he has explained, administrative obligations are turning field workers into “ruined office workers,” by forcing them to dedicate time and resources to paperwork that hinders the development of their operations.
Against this, he has defended that agricultural and livestock businesses can be passed down from generation to generation, so that families maintain their operations and their livelihoods. Abascal has presented this continuity as a tool to combat depopulation and preserve economic activity in the interior of the country. He has also held part of the sector’s difficulties to be the result of policies agreed upon in Brussels between the conservatives and the socialists, which he has blamed for a deterioration in conditions for Spanish producers.
With this speech, Vox has put together in Guadalajara an intervention that combines criticism of the Government for its rail management after the accident in Urda with its main proposals on security, taxation, immigration, and defense of the primary sector ahead of the elections on November 29.