- There's only you missing, Enrique.
- No. I am precisely here to not be there.
The one who responds by hurrying a drag of his inseparable electronic cigarette, while watching the 52 deputies of Vox with distance to take the official photo in Congress, is Enrique Cabanas . Person unknown to the general public but who has established himself as a powerful collaborator in the shadow of Santiago Abascal, making virtue of that anonymity to play with discretion the role of extension of the president of Vox. "It is the factotum," sources of training assure him.
Officially deputy secretary of the Presidency of Vox, he is an inseparable companion of Abascal battles who, among other tasks, has managed with iron hand "the whole territorial structure of the party".
Cabanas exerts a figure similar to that of the chief of staff. The delicate issues that Abascal has to address and control pass through him, but he also gives political advice or influences the statements to be made.
He has also been the person who has moved to places where there have been conflicts of all kinds to negotiate and control. It happened for example with the investiture of the Region of Murcia after the regional elections of May, where he served as the envoy of the Vox leadership and who applied the delicate mandate of the National Executive Committee not to vote in favor of the PP in a first failed investiture .
He will coordinate the parliamentary group even though he is not a deputy in Congress
Always moving discreetly behind the scenes and being the firewall of the issues that reach Abascal, the deputy secretary of the presidency forms a tandem with Kiko Méndez-Monasterio , the much better known adviser to Vox, who is used mostly in the discursive and political line of the party .
The two, each with their role, act as the pillars that support Abascal on a daily basis and who are always with him. The three together form a triumvirate at the top of Vox, which they then complement with a crown of people who work and develop the main issues.
Cabanas has now taken another step and has assumed the role of coordinator of the Vox parliamentary group in Congress. A liaison post to connect the match apparatus with the 52 Vox deputies.
As spokesman in Congress, Iván Espinosa de los Monteros will remain, whose influence on Vox continues to strengthen. The position, which puts him at the head of the third group of the Chamber, after the PSOE and the PP, consecrates him in practice as number two of the training, given that Javier Ortega Smith devotes a substantial part of his time to politics Municipal of Madrid , where he is councilman.
«Cabanas has been the backbone of Vox in organization these years. For a while only Santi and he worked full time »for the game, say the sources consulted. Others point out that he is Abascal's "orchestra man" to solve all kinds of problems, which has his criteria because he values his "common sense" and his personality to "not shut up" if he has to disagree.
Abascal's relationship with Cabanas was forged when they shared a project in Denaes (Defense of the Spanish Nation), a foundation of "patriotic" dyes that is considered the Vox embryo. There they also met, for example, Abascal and Ortega Smith and there passed many of the current leaders.
«The same gives you good advice that warns you of not having something on the agenda; the same gives encouragement and encouragement by spurring one into action, which holds him with the reins, ”Abascal de Cabanas wrote in 2011, in an article dedicated exclusively to praise his loyalty and worth. What accounts for how far and since when is a person of maximum confidence and whose advice have ancestry over him.
«Always there, never fails and never disappoints. Its versatility and capacity are enviable. If I had a company I would not hesitate to sign him, ”he continued. "The same is true for a broken one than for a rip off."
This boy for everything and with a high «ability to command» is a son, grandson, great-grandson, nephew and brother of the military. A fundamental circumstance to understand how he is and how he thinks, and that has given him a sober character that blends with shyness. Features that lead him to be an airtight and sometimes "brusque" person. "With character, but bearable."
Here the topic of military discipline is fulfilled by the letter. Not only because of the influence of having such a military family, but because his father, a "old-fashioned" colonel, applied a strong discipline at home to rule a home with seven sons.
Father himself of five children, Cabanas is a key piece in the more nationalist current of Vox; the most defender of the symbols, traditions and history of Spain. Like Santiago Abascal.
The 'guardian' of the Rock block
From Denaes to Vox
In an operation with divers, the Denaes Foundation - led by Abascal - removed one of the concrete blocks that Gibraltar threw into the water in 2014 to prevent Spanish fishermen from fishing. Cabanas, one of those who prepared that claiming action, is the custodian of that block, whose whereabouts are kept absolutely secret. These adventures have now moved to Vox, where the evolution of that project to a party follows in the forefront. Political success has not changed his obsession with discretion, which sometimes leads to the extreme, even when asked for a photo. «I don't take a picture with my wife, I'm going to take it with you».
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