The president of Vox, Santiago Abascal, has defined this Monday as a "patriotic gesture" the pact closed with the PP to run together for the Senate in the elections of November 29. Under this agreement, Vox renounces to present its own lists in six provinces and will limit its presence to a single candidate in another 14 constituencies.
"In three words: everything for Spain," Abascal summarized during the presentation event of the heads of list for the elections of November 29 held at the Auditorium of Talavera de la Reina (Toledo). He was accompanied at the event by the vice president and secretary general of Vox, Ignacio Garriga, and by the number one for Toledo, the deputy secretary of Communication, Manuel Mariscal. The party filled the venue, with a capacity of about 1,200 people, and, according to figures provided by the party itself, around 1,500 supporters were left outside.
Abascal emphasized the "many differences" that separate Vox from the PP to highlight that "above" the electoral programs is the need to give a "response" to the "Corrupt Front and the Traitor Front to Spain," referring to the agreement of the PSOE and Frente Amplio to run with a joint list for the Upper House.
"We have real differences in the essentials that have to do with our campaign, in national priority, in re-emigration, in deregulation," the Vox leader insisted in an interview on 'Telemadrid', reported by Europa Press, in which he reproached the 'popular' for having applied "part of the policies that have led us to this place."
However, he stated that they felt "obliged to make a political gesture" and expressed hope that "it will be useful for the objective." He also highlighted the key role that, in his opinion, the Senate will have in the next legislature, especially due to the renewal of four magistrates of the Constitutional Court, a point that has been decisive in the conversations held with the PP.
"We know that the left wants either to kidnap the Senate or to kidnap the Constitutional," he pointed out, criticizing several resolutions of the court of guarantees for giving "reason" to the Government "in absolutely surprising things, even reviewing rulings of the Supreme Court" and "acting as a perfectly political and partisan court."
The pact between PP and Vox, designed to concentrate the vote of the right-wing bloc and counteract the agreement between PSOE, Frente Amplio, and the territorial left, establishes that Vox will not run in Las Palmas, Santa Cruz de Tenerife, Cádiz, Valencia, Castellón, and the Balearic Islands. In these provinces, the PP will incorporate an independent candidate proposed by Vox into its lists, to whom it will grant "the second or third position".
Likewise, Santiago Abascal's formation will only register one candidate for the Senate in Seville, Huelva, Asturias, Badajoz, Álava, Navarra, Cáceres, Huesca, Zaragoza, Alicante, Granada, Cuenca, Pontevedra, and Jaén. In the other twenty-three provinces, Vox will run with complete candidacies for the Upper House.
For its part, the PP will not present lists in Guipúzcoa, where it has not obtained representation for 26 years, nor in Girona and Tarragona, constituencies in which the 'popular' have never achieved a senator. With this understanding, PP and Vox estimate to reach between 125 and 140 seats of the 209 that are elected on November 29, according to sources familiar with the negotiation.
Vox claims it does not act out of self-interest
During his speech, Abascal defended that Vox's proposals, such as reducing bureaucracy, ending what they consider abusive taxes, or the repatriation of immigrants, "do not defend their own interests, but are the voice of the people".
In this context, he referred to the housing access crisis, which he linked to the increase in immigration, and outlined the main lines of Vox's program for the elections on November 29: national priority, deregulation, and tax cuts, as well as the "remigration" of illegal immigrants and those legal immigrants who commit crimes or depend on public aid.
Before the 53 heads of lists for Congress for the 29N, Abascal urged voters "not to be overconfident", warning that the victory of the right-wing bloc is not assured despite polls predicting a wide majority for PP and Vox.
"We have become overconfident, especially some, the usual ones (referring to the PP), in 2023 and the change did not come," the leader has recalled, who has emphasized that "polls are polls." He has warned that "opposite there is not a Government, but a criminal organization" whose "boss," whom he has identified with the president, Pedro Sánchez, "is willing to any lie and any attempt at intimidation." "One should not sell the bear's skin before hunting it," he has emphasized.
In his speech, Garriga has highlighted that, with the agreement for the Senate, Vox has prioritized "the general interest over the particular, the common good and Spain over names and chairs" and has celebrated the "generosity and broad-mindedness" demonstrated by the party.
Furthermore, he has assured that Vox "will give voice" to those who feel "abandoned and betrayed" and has asked citizens to trust that the party "is the guarantee to remove Pedro Sánchez" from La Moncloa. "We have come to change things," he has concluded, calling for the mobilization of the electorate for the 29N.