The Vox candidate for Prime Minister, Santiago Abascal, has requested the support of Catalans who back other political formations, including socialists and separatists, by arguing that the current challenge affects all of Catalonia in the face of "the Islamic caliphate."
At a rally held this Sunday in Cornellà (Barcelona), he addressed "those who voted for other political forces, even the Socialist Party. To those who voted here for separatist parties and who today have realized that 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 added before those in attendance.
Abascal led this campaign event at the Auditori de Cornellà, accompanied by the Vox general secretary, Ignacio Garriga; the top candidate for the Congress from Barcelona, Juanjo Aizcorbe, and the spokesperson in the Parliament, Joan Garriga.
Message to the Catalan electorate
Addressing voters in Catalonia, he stressed that it is not the same to militarize in Vox in Madrid as to do so in Catalan territory, although in recent years, he said, the party has been gaining social support: "A part of Catalan society had been poisoned. There was hatred, spontaneous intolerance in the streets, that does not exist today. Today intolerance is organized."
He also referred to those who gather in front of Vox events, something he considers "outside of real Catalonia" and which, in his view, is part of a setup.
Along those lines, he defended that citizens’ concerns in Catalonia and in the rest of the country are the same: "The real problems, not what Rufián talks about when he shows up at a rally in disguise talking about Companys, or Bustinduy, that oaf who is a minister and who insulted our colleague Figaredo the other day on television."
Charge against Sánchez and the Government
The leader of Vox has called for broad mobilization and urged people to stay vigilant in the face of what he defines as traps and episodes of violence.
He has presented these elections as a decisive appointment because "Spain cannot withstand 4 more years of Pedro Sánchez" and has blamed the Executive for degrading public services, arguing that Vox is running to deal with the emergency situation that, as he claims, the country is going through.
He has stated that Spain is run by a "lying, treacherous and destructive criminal mafia of the public sector" and has warned that his party does not consider the electoral contest won, also accusing the Government of preparing a trap with the 'grandchildren law'.
In his view, Sánchez begins to fear that he will not impose himself at the ballot box despite, he says, having traps and prepared violence, so he has warned that the electoral outcome "is accepted if there are no traps".
Sánchez flags and Vox alliances
Abascal has referred to the image of Sánchez displaying a Spanish flag at a rally this Sunday and has emphasized that it is the symbol of national unity and that it belongs to everyone: "It is Pedro's but he doesn't deserve it, and I say he doesn't deserve it because Pedro today only has the right to take the flag of Morocco, the flag of Bildu and the 'estelada'."
He has reiterated that the Socialist leader is "the candidate of Morocco" and has highlighted Vox's international alliances, citing Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni; the leader of Alternative for Germany, Alice Weidel, and Marine Le Pen, whom he already sees as the future president of France.
Immigration and housing
On migration matters, he has insisted that Vox is not opposed to those who arrive from other countries, but to those who "come to collect social benefits", and he has accused those responsible who, according to his accusation, have facilitated this situation of treason.
In this context, he has linked the arrival of migrants with difficulties in accessing housing: "They have opened the door to 6 million people in Spain and they have practically not built a single lousy housing unit. It is not possible to provide housing to people if we open our doors, we say that all of Africa or all of America fits in Spain and no housing is built."
"Out of Spain the criminals, the mafiosos, the gangs, the murderers, the rapists and the thieves! And out of Spain those who have come here to live off the social benefits that the Spanish need! This is not any kind of phobia, this is a gigantic love for our own people," he has stressed.
Economy and large companies
Regarding the economic situation, he has rejected Sánchez’s proposal to raise taxes on housing-owning funds and has demanded that the president “sit down with those from the Ibex, one by one” to remind them that they have increased their profits during his Government while, he laments, it is hard to find citizens who live better than 8 years ago.
“I think it’s very well that large companies also have profits. But what I really care about is that people can make ends meet,” he said, emphasizing that, in his view, the quality of public services such as healthcare, education, or the rail network has also deteriorated.
He has said that the money allocated to rail infrastructure has been diverted in the form of “bribes,” and, when referring to the blackout in 2025, he has stressed that “it had not happened to him, either, not to Zapatero or Aznar or Rajoy or González or Calvo Sotelo or Suárez or Franco or the Republic.”