The Vox spokesperson in the Madrid City Council and deputy in Congress, Javier Ortega Smith, has denounced that there are “four” people who run the party behind the scenes and that they do it “for the money”, attributes “personal vanity” to the president, Santiago Abascal, and anticipates that he will keep his seat in the Lower House if he is finally expelled from the party, even integrating into the Mixed Group.
“The four who lead (the formation from behind) their objective is called dough, money and power, nothing more, that sad”, he indicated. “They are people who in their life have had two euros together and who when they have had them they have lost them and have left debts, who have seen that this politics thing is a fabulous springboard to have public resources, to have a lot of money and to be able to decide with that to place many friends, to have a life that they haven't even remotely had before nor could they even dream of because of their professions and trades”, he added in an interview on 'Onda Madrid', collected by Europa Press.
Ortega points to Abascal's ego
About the leader of the party, Santiago Abascal, he recalled that the leader he knew was someone “altruistic, with vocation,” who acted “out of patriotism.” When asked if he also perceives ego and a desire for recognition, Ortega admits that “unfortunately also.”
“That you meet with I don't know what international leader (...) but we haven't come for that, we haven't come to satisfy our personal vanities, we haven't come to satisfy our personal egos, we haven't come to turn politics into our 'modus vivendi', we have come to politics to solve the problems of the Spanish people, even if in doing so we risk our physical integrity, our personal economy, our professional prestige, and getting our faces slapped,” he launched.
Mixed Group
Questioned about whether he plans to keep his seat in Congress in case he is “kicked out” of Vox's parliamentary group, he replied that “of course” he will move to the Mixed Group. He stressed that he is very proud to have been part of the parliamentary group, to have joined a political project and to have defended it as a national deputy since 2019 and, at the same time, as spokesperson in the Madrid City Council, insisting that he has done nothing to justify having to leave his seat in the Chamber.
“As long as the legislature is maintained I will fulfill my responsibilities as a deputy where it corresponds to me according to the regulations. There I will continue fighting for Spain and I will continue doing so with the same enthusiasm and with the same vocation for service,” he has committed.
“I am the one from Vox like the one who most”
When asked if he would vote for Vox again in future general elections, Ortega is crystal clear and answers yes, “of course,” because he considers himself part of the party. He lashes out against those who, in his opinion, have appropriated the organization: “The bad thing is that some have believed that Vox is their personal estate and that only if you are applauding them all day and telling them that they are the prettiest, the tallest, and the best and that they all do everything well, do you have the right to enter their estate,” he criticized.
“I am from Vox as much as anyone. This project was born on a train returning on October 12 from Barcelona and we decided to call it Vox. When there were four of us and the one with the guitar. We didn't even have enough to pay for, I'm not saying an office, it's that we didn't even have the furniture, which was a donation someone made to us so we could have a table, a computer, and a chair. So no one is going to come and take away my right to defend this political project,” he highlighted.
Ortega Smith maintains that his current objective is to fight the battle “from within Vox so that Vox recovers the essence for which it was born one day”, thus concluding his intervention.