The president of Vox, Santiago Abascal, has decided that the deputy general secretary of the party, Montserrat Lluís, will occupy the position of 'number two' for Madrid in the elections on November 29, after she was in charge of negotiating the regional agreements with the PP, according to the formation's communication.
In the third position of the candidacy for Madrid is the current spokesperson for Vox in the Assembly of Ceuta, Juan Sergio Redondo. Following him is the current spokesperson in Congress, Pepa Rodríguez de Millán, who rises one place compared to the 2023 list. The fifth position is occupied by the national spokesperson for Sports and councilor in the Madrid City Council, Cristian Toro.
Thus, the first five names for Madrid released to date introduce significant changes compared to the candidacy presented in this constituency in 2023. At that time, Abascal had María Ruiz as 'number two', who is now a member of the National Executive Committee (CEN).
Numerous departures from the old candidacy
In the third and fourth positions of that list, Abascal placed the former spokesperson in Congress Iván Espinosa de los Monteros and the former leader Javier Ortega Smith, respectively. Both have left Vox and maintain a confrontation with the leadership headed by Abascal. Espinosa de los Monteros resigned from his responsibilities in August 2023, just after the elections, while Ortega was definitively expelled in April of this year, after gradually losing internal weight in the party and in Congress.
In the previous candidacy for Madrid, Juan Luis Steegmann also appeared in sixth place, and Carla Toscano in seventh. Like Espinosa de los Monteros and Ortega Smith, they are no longer part of Vox and also maintain a poor relationship with the Executive.
The CEN met this Monday to give the green light to the candidacies for the general elections. The official deadline to register the lists starts this Wednesday and ends next Monday.