The president of Vox, Santiago Abascal, holds that the head of the Executive, Pedro Sánchez, has been shown up by the general strike of this 11 November, since "the follow-up of the strike has been a disgrace".
On Wednesday night, Abascal led the central event of Vox in the Recinte Firal de Tarragona, accompanied by the candidates for this constituency Jordi de la Fuente (Congress) and Anabel Rodríguez (Senate), as well as by the party's provincial general secretary, Sergio Macián.
"Pedro, you have failed. It has been a disaster. The follow-up of the strike has been a disgrace and many of those who have had to follow it have done so out of obligation," he said from the stage.
In his intervention, he attributed that failure "to violence, to the pickets falsely called informational that have gone to harass the workers, the self-employed and the shopkeepers".
Commitment to put an end to the pickets
For this reason, he pledged that, if he reaches La Moncloa, "there will never again be informational pickets in Spain closing businesses and preventing people from freely carrying out all their work", and he also assured that there will be no unions funded with "the money and taxes of the workers", in reference to the main umbrella organizations.
He went after those who act during labor stoppages by considering that they form part of organized groups that "threaten, a intolerant and violent rabble that are the criminal militias of Pedro Sánchez and of his bought unions".
Against this, he defended that "there are very good unions in Spain: one is the Sindicato Solidaridad," whose general secretary is precisely the head of the ticket for Tarragona, Jordi de la Fuente.
Catalonia and immigration
When referring to the situation in Catalonia, he went after the formations that have presented themselves as defenders of Catalan self-government, denouncing that those who said they were protecting the community "what they have done is condemn Catalonia to, with the passage of time, becoming an Islamic caliphate".
According to Abascal, "Catalan identity was that in the end we would see women covered up under cloths when only their eyes are seen" and forced to walk behind the men.
He insisted that "that has been brought by Pujol, it has been brought by the PSC, it has been brought by Rufián and ERC and it has been brought by all those who had their mouths full defending Catalonia but have betrayed it," thus holding both nationalists and socialists responsible.
In this scenario, he promised to protect “the Catalan and Spanish identity that is based on freedom, that is based on prosperity” and on the common historical tradition of Spain.
Criticism of the “grandchildren’s law” and the external vote
Regarding the electorate that has obtained Spanish nationality through the so-called “grandchildren’s law,” he reiterated his rejection: “In an illegal manner, they have been given nationality with the ‘grandchildren’s law’ in order to try to steal the election of November 29 from us.”
Controversy with Broncano and TVE
Abascal referred again to his recent appearance on TVE in the program ‘La Revuelta’ and said that there are 40 minutes of interview that were not broadcast. Even so, he defended the outcome: “It was me who got the big door, and the infirmary for the other.”
In his view, Vox is starring in an unprecedented episode on the small screen by “getting the director of a program to come out the next day after having the biggest audience of its history to ask for forgiveness. It’s unbelievable.”
“They’ve asked for forgiveness for not managing to take me down,” he added, linking this situation to what he considers Pedro Sánchez’s strategy, the candidate for re-election, to cling to power “however it takes,” as he put it.
Messages from De la Fuente and Macián
During the rally, Jordi de la Fuente broke a placard from the general strike written in Arabic in front of the attendees and proclaimed that only Vox is setting the pace of the campaign. He addressed the PSC with a direct message: “Don’t hide the acronym, you are the PSOE,” and warned them that Abascal’s party is facing the socialists head-to-head in these elections.
For his part, Sergio Macián defended that Vox presents the only list to the Senate for Tarragona with real options to challenge the seat to the current Executive: “Only Vox presents.”