The former parliamentary spokesperson for Vox, Iván Espinosa de los Monteros, made public this Thursday that the formation led by Santiago Abascal notified him of the opening of a disciplinary file with the aim of expelling him from the party, and that said decision coincided with the day on which the president of the Junta de Andalucía, Juanma Moreno, announced the call for elections.
“Last Monday around 8:30 PM, Juanma Moreno calls early elections in Andalusia. Two and a half hours later, at 11:01 PM, Vox informs me that it is opening a file to expel me from the party”, he stated in a message disseminated on the social network 'X', collected by Europa Press.
In recent weeks, the former secretary general of Vox promoted a manifesto together with other former officials and leaders critical of the national leadership, among them Javier Ortega Smith, in which they demanded the holding of a congress open to all members to discuss the party's strategy and analyze possible improvements in its internal functioning.
Espinosa de los Monteros —who left the leadership of the party in 2023— maintained on his 'X' profile that “Vox's current strategy consists of shutting itself off, attacking everyone and all those who show not just a different criterion, but simply bewilderment at the situation they themselves have created.” In his opinion, “the current leadership shows capacity to retain, but not to expand.”
Another of the figures most critical of Abascal's leadership, the deputy Javier Ortega Smith, was expelled from Vox at the beginning of March. The Guarantees Committee then ruled that he had committed a “very serious infraction” by frustrating his replacement as spokesperson for the municipal group in the Madrid City Council, a reason for which a disciplinary file was opened against him for disobedience and his suspension of membership was agreed upon.