Vox congratulates National Day while Abascal changes the parade in Madrid for Ceuta

Vox has congratulated this Monday the 12th of October with a message on its social networks in which it claims the three celebrations that coincide during the day: the National Day of Spain, the Day of Hispanicity, and the festivity of the Virgin of Pilar. "Happy Day of Pilar! Happy Day of Hispanicity! And Happy National Day of Spain! Today, #12deOctubre, we Spaniards have a lot to celebrate. LONG LIVE SPAIN," the party has published, accompanying the message with a Spanish flag.

The celebration arrives, however, with the main figure of Vox far from the traditional military parade in Madrid. Santiago Abascal has decided to spend October 12 in Ceuta and not participate in the official events of the capital, an absence that occurs for the second consecutive year. The party leader previously announced that he would not be in the authorities' stand alongside the government of Pedro Sánchez and that he would travel to the autonomous city to focus on the situation at the border.

Abascal celebrates October 12 in Ceuta

Abascal justified his decision with a message particularly critical of the Executive. "On October 12, I will not be in any stand with a mafia government that has betrayed Spain and has left part of our national territory invaded," he wrote on X. He then announced that he would be in Ceuta "with the Spaniards who defend the border that Sánchez has abandoned." The expressions about a supposed "invasion" and "betrayal" are part of Vox's political discourse on the migration crisis recorded in the autonomous city and do not describe a legal qualification of the facts.

The leader of Vox has traveled accompanied by Jordan Bardella, president of National Rally in France and also president of the Patriots group in the European Parliament, to which Vox belongs. The visit seeks to once again place migration policy and the protection of external borders at the center of the party's message, after the massive arrivals recorded in Ceuta at the end of July.

The choice of the autonomous city is also not casual from the perspective of the pre-campaign for the general elections on November 29. A day earlier, Abascal opened the Vox pre-campaign in Estepona and positioned three axes of his proposal as "national priority," "remigration," and deregulation. From there, he already anticipated that he would travel to Ceuta to celebrate Hispanicity and assert that the city "has been Spain for centuries and will continue to be Spain."

Second consecutive year outside the authorities' stand

This is not the first time that Abascal has refused to occupy his place in the institutional stand on October 12. In 2025 he also did not attend alongside the other authorities, although he remained in Madrid and watched the parade from the street among the public. This year he has taken a step further by also being absent from the capital and moving his celebration to Ceuta.

The traditional military parade begins this Monday at 11:00 hours in Madrid and is presided over by the Kings, accompanied by Princess Leonor and Infanta Sofía. The President of the Government, Pedro Sánchez; the Minister of Defense, Margarita Robles, and the Chief of the Defense Staff, Teodoro López Calderón, as well as other members of the Executive and institutional representatives, also attend.

The absence of Abascal thus turns the Vox celebration into a day with two scenarios. While the official account of the formation claims from social media the Day of the Pillar, Hispanidad, and the National Holiday, its president has chosen Ceuta to build a political message around October 12 and one of the issues that Vox wants to place at the center of the electoral campaign: immigration, security, and border control.