The president of Vox and candidate for the Presidency of the Government, Santiago Abascal, has landed this Sunday in Cornellà de Llobregat (Barcelona), one of the main municipalities of the traditional metropolitan red belt and the PSC’s historical stronghold, to call for a "historic mobilization" ahead of the general elections on 29 November. Before a packed audience and with hundreds of supporters who have not been able to access the venue, Vox’s leader has made an appeal to voters of different political leanings to bring about a change of Government. "We are here to change the course and give hope back to the Spanish people, whether they are right-wing, left-wing, centrist or none of that", he declared during a rally marked by his criticisms of Pedro Sánchez and by a speech focused on immigration, security, and the difficulties of accessing housing.
Abascal has presented the date with the ballot boxes as "the elections of our lives" and has assured that Spain is facing a situation that demands a political change. "Spain cannot endure four more years of Pedro Sánchez", he warned, before accusing the Executive of being made up of a "corrupt, criminal, lying, treacherous and destructive mafia of everything public". The candidate has insisted that his party also intends to reach those who have traditionally voted for the left, arguing that citizens’ everyday problems do not necessarily respond to the ideological divisions of the parties.
In that regard, he has appealed especially to the young people who cannot access housing and to neighbors worried about crime. "There are a lot of people who walk around the street and aren’t thinking about those things", he said, referring to right- and left-wing labels, to argue that Vox wants to attract citizens who believe their problems are not being solved by the administrations. The message takes on special significance in Cornellà, a city traditionally linked to Socialist voting and chosen by Vox to try to broaden its electoral support in the Barcelona metropolitan area.
Abascal responds to Sánchez over the flag of Spain: "He doesn’t deserve it"
One of the most standout moments of the intervention has come when Abascal has referred to the rally that Pedro Sánchez has held this very Sunday in Alcorcón (Madrid), where the head of Government has begun his speech by waving a flag of Spain and claiming it as a symbol of the Constitution, democracy, equality, and women’s rights.
Vox’s candidate has taken advantage of the gesture to launch one of his most forceful criticisms against the socialist leader. "Pedro Sánchez does not deserve the flag of Spain. He only has the right to take that of Morocco, the flag of Bildu and the estelada, that of those he serves", he has said, referring to the Government’s political relations with the separatist parties and the Executive’s position regarding Morocco.
Abascal has also mocked the presence of Spanish flags at the socialist event, asserting that at times "it looked like a Vox rally". After joking about the banner that Sánchez had used, he has acknowledged agreeing with the president that the flag belongs to all Spaniards and represents democracy and the Constitution, although he added that it also symbolizes "our collective history", "national unity" and "our freedoms".
"It’s everyone’s, I corroborate it; it’s Pedro’s, but he doesn’t deserve it", he has ruled. His words have prompted the reaction of the attendees, who have chanted "Spain is not for sale; Spain is defended", one of the usual slogans at events of the party.
The leader has also questioned Sánchez’s messages about the election result. After the socialist president asked the opposition to accept the verdict of the ballot boxes, Abascal has responded that "the election result is accepted if there are no tricks". This is a political warning from Vox’s leader, who has not provided in that intervention any evidence of irregularities in the electoral process.
Vox wants to transform the "red belt" into the "green belt"
The choice of Cornellà as the setting for the rally has not been casual. Vox intends to gain electoral space in one of the areas traditionally most favorable to Catalan socialism, where the PSC has maintained a strong institutional presence for decades. The party has turned this goal into one of the central messages of the event, in which the party’s general secretary, Ignacio Garriga; Vox’s spokesperson in the Parliament, Joan Garriga; and the head of the list to the Congress for Barcelona, Juan José Aizcorbe, have also participated.
It has been precisely Joan Garriga who has articulated the party’s electoral strategy. "We want to turn the decrepit red belt into the new green belt of hope", he has assured, using the colors traditionally associated with socialism and Vox to represent the political change that his party proposes.
Abascal has taken up that idea to address expressly Catalans who previously voted for the PSC or for separatist parties. The candidate has assured that those voters should, in his view, abandon the clash between national identities to focus on shared problems, although he has done so by resorting to an especially harsh discourse against immigration.
"The problem is not between Catalans and Castilians. The problem is with Catalans as a whole, with the Islamic caliphate to which they have condemned us from Pujol to the PSC of Illa", he has said. With that statement, Abascal has politically blamed the different Catalan governments for the situation he denounces in matters of migration and security. The characterization of Catalonia as an "Islamic caliphate" forms part of his electoral rhetoric and does not describe its institutional reality.
Immigration, crime and housing, the axes of Vox’s discourse
The immigration and insecurity have taken up a large part of the interventions in Cornellà. Vox’s general secretary, Ignacio Garriga, has accused successive Catalan governments of having worsened coexistence and public services, linking their immigration policies to security problems in certain metropolitan municipalities.
"Anti-Catalans are the ones who have transformed a prosperous community into a beacon of decay and insecurity", Garriga said, who has recalled the fatal stabbing of a woman in Esplugues de Llobregat to reinforce his criticisms of the security situation in Catalonia.
The campaign has also resorted to housing access problems to reach young voters. Abascal has insisted that the electoral debate should focus on the economic difficulties faced by families and on the situation of those who cannot become independent. In this way, Vox tries to broaden its message beyond its usual demands about the unity of Spain, putting the emphasis on social issues that especially affect the large urban areas.
However, the links that Vox leaders establish between immigration, crime, and the deterioration of public services form part of their political diagnosis. The specific episodes of criminality mentioned during the rally do not, by themselves, make it possible to determine the general causes of crime or to attribute them to the entire immigrant population.
Abascal addresses supporters with a megaphone who have been left out
The rally has also been marked by high turnout and by moments of tension recorded in the vicinity of the auditorium. The venue, with an approximate capacity of 500 people, according to Servimedia, has filled its seats, while other supporters have had to keep following the event from outside. Before starting his main address, Abascal got on a van and went with a megaphone to those who had not managed to get in, telling them "a great mobilization without fear".
The leader took advantage of that brief speech to thank the presence of the attendees and to call for support from the "Spaniards of Cornellà and of Catalonia". The image of supporters gathered outside the venue has served the party to show its ability to draw crowds in a municipality where historically the left has had greater presence.
In the surrounding area, there have also been concentrated members of antifascist organizations opposed to Vox’s presence in Cornellà, who have chanted slogans such as "fascists out of our neighborhoods". The presence of both groups has caused moments of tension, although the Mossos d'Esquadra have intervened to keep demonstrators and attendees separated and prevent the former from entering the venue.
The episode has allowed Abascal to resume his criticism of those, according to a complaint, who try to obstruct acts by his party. Vox leader has accused the protesters of acting in an organized manner against his formation and has insisted that he will not modify his agenda because of the protests.
With the rally in Cornellà, Vox is trying to contest the vote in one of the main historic strongholds of Catalan socialism and mobilize its electorate two weeks before the general election. Abascal has combined attacks on Sánchez with messages about housing, immigration and security, in an appearance with which he intends to present 29N as an opportunity to alter the current political balance. "We are here to change the course", he has reiterated to his supporters, after warning that, in his view, Spain cannot face another term under the socialist Government.