The candidate for the presidency of the Government of VOX, Santiago Abascal addressed this Saturday a specific appeal to women to mobilize in the general elections of November 29. During a rally in Almería, Vox’s president has promised to combat the "religious fanaticism that despises women", to toughen penalties against sexual aggressors, and to reform legislation against violence against women. His intervention has linked women’s security with immigration policy, one of the main arguments of the party’s campaign.
"The main deceived" by the Government of Pedro Sánchez have been women, Abascal has said, according to the statement released by Vox after the event. The candidate has denounced that more and more women are suffering sexual violence in the streets and has questioned whether current legislation offers an effective response. In his view, it is necessary to approve a law that "really solves a problem", accompanied by harsher sentences for rapists.
The appeal comes at the start of the election campaign, in which Vox is trying to broaden its support among voters.
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Abascal links violence against women with religious fanaticism
Vox’s leader has turned to the killing of a woman in Asturias to defend his position. He has referred to the crime committed this week in Gijón, where a young woman died after being stabbed, allegedly by her ex-partner, a man of Moroccan nationality who had a restraining order, according to El Español.
From that case, Abascal has rejected the term gender-based violence and has defended that the problem must also be addressed from a religious perspective.
"It is religious violence of those who defend religious fanaticism that despises women. And here religious fanaticism is not going to take root", he proclaimed.
His interpretation links the origin of the alleged aggressor with a religious motivation that is not supported by the known data of the crime. Spanish legislation, for its part, considers gender-based violence to be that carried out against a woman by her male partner or ex-partner, regardless of their nationality or religion.
Abascal has insisted that Vox will defend women’s security by toughening penalties, reforming legislation, and pursuing a more restrictive immigration policy. National priority and remigration are among the main electoral commitments of his party, along with economic deregulation and tax cuts.
"We export doctors and import patients"
Public healthcare has occupied another of the blocks in the intervention. Abascal has accused the Executive of having deteriorated health services to the point that doctors and nurses trained in Spain are looking for job opportunities in other countries.
"Now we export doctors, nurses, and nurses trained here in our country, with many public resources, and we import patients", he has denounced.
The leader has linked this situation to waiting lists and the working conditions of healthcare professionals, whom he considers insufficiently recognized.
The statement about care for foreign patients forms part of Vox’s political criticism.
In addition, Abascal has extended his reproaches to the maintenance of roads, the rail network, and education, which he has presented as examples of the management of the socialist Government.
"Now or never" ahead of the elections of 29N
The Almería rally, the first act by Abascal in Andalusia since the official start of the campaign, has also served to reinforce his message of mobilization. The event was held in Plaza de la Constitución, with the participation of Manuel Gavira, second vice president of the Junta de Andalucía, and Rocío de Meer, Vox’s lead candidate for the Congress seat for the province.
"We don’t have another election," Abascal warned, who has presented the call as a decisive opportunity to remove Sánchez from Government. "It’s now or never," he insisted.
The candidate urged his supporters not to be swayed by polls, which he considers a risk to the participation of his sympathizers.
"We don’t have a bigger enemy than the polls at this moment", he assured.
He has also accused the Executive of acting like "a mafia" and has called for a vote against Sánchez by drawing on judicial investigations that affect the PSOE circle. "It doesn’t matter whether that is right-wing, left-wing, far-left, centrist, whatever. You have to get rid of the mafia that has kidnapped power in Spain," he said.
Abascal has asked the attendees to convince the undecided people around them and has called for "a massive mobilization" on November 29.
Rocío de Meer draws on the story of an elderly woman from Roquetas to denounce insecurity
Vox candidate for Almería, Rocío de Meer, has brought to the rally the case of Antonia, an older woman who, according to her account, lives in the 200 Housing Estates neighborhood of Roquetas de Mar.
De Meer has explained that the elderly woman, a widow and with health problems, lives in a block that previously was public housing and whose conditions have deteriorated. She has denounced security problems, damage in common areas, breakdowns of the elevator, and power supply outages.
According to the candidate, Antonia refuses to leave the neighborhood because she participated in its development and keeps her memories there. De Meer has used her story to criticize the actions of the administrations and to call for measures against crime and the illegal occupation of homes.
"They’ve stolen everything from us," she said, before asking that neighbors regain "peace of mind, prosperity, the peace of the elderly, housing."
The account comes from De Meer’s remarks collected in Vox’s statement and does not include independent documentation about the woman’s personal circumstances or about the incidents described.
Gavira asks to bring Vox to the Government of Spain
Manuel Gavira closed his remarks with a call for working-class neighborhoods and for the conditions that, as he defended, allowed earlier generations to buy a home on a salary.
The Andalusian vice president assured that Vox’s goal is not limited to occupying autonomous vice presidencies, but that it aims to participate in the central Government and apply its program in the area of immigration, the economy, and public services.
Gavira has demanded an end to bureaucracy and strengthened compliance with migration legislation. He also defended that the formation wants to restore security in neighborhoods and improve opportunities for families and young people.
With the slogan "It’s common sense" as the centerpiece of the campaign, Vox has chosen Almería to reinforce its message on immigration, security, and public services. Abascal’s appeal to women took a prominent place in an event that ended with a call for mobilization for 29N.