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  • Politics Abascal advances the assembly for his re-election to January 27 and anticipates "changes" in his executive committee

Something is moving in the Vox bases in the territories. Time and the decision of those who have initiated the movement will determine whether or not it is transcendental for the future of the party. The departure of Deputy Carla Toscano, who resigned from Congress last week, is just the latest example of an internal revolt that has been simmering for months and that is not only led by elected officials with representation in the institutions, especially in city councils, but also by grassroots militants. stunned by the drift of the party.

The departure of Toscano, Javier Ortega Smith's right-hand man in the Madrid City Council, like the previous ones of significant leaders such as Iván Espinosa de los Monteros five months ago, and before that those of Macarena Olona or Víctor Sánchez del Real – the so-called neoliberal wing – have a common denominator: the disagreement with the hard core that surrounds the president of the party. Santiago Abascal, who, in the midst of the revolt, has scheduled an express general assembly for January 27 to try to curb the increasingly numerous critical voices within the organization.

"It's a smokescreen to try to cover up what's happening," a prominent Vox source told EL MUNDO. Until now, he recalls, "the figure of Abascal was untouchable, but now for the first time the same thing is no longer happening and more and more critical voices are being heard from the grassroots and also in the positions of the territories, especially councilors, surprised and frightened by the drift of the party".

No one at the moment puts a face and voice to the critical current, but there are last-minute movements that even raise the possibility of organizing an alternative to Abascal's leadership. The name of Ortega Smith, deputy in Congress, spokesperson for Vox in the Madrid City Council and one of the party's vice-presidents, has already come on the scene and many of the critics are pushing him to head an alternative candidacy, although he is hesitant to take the step today, according to sources in the party.

They lament in a manifesto that their only mission is to obey and remain silent

The opposition sector considers that the conclave at the end of January is "of dubious legality". They believe that "with the chant of strengthening themselves in the face of the enemies of Spain" what is really sought is "to strengthen those who have the power of the party to consolidate Vox as a structure at their service, in short, a coup d'état to the Venezuelan style", according to a manifesto that began to be disseminated last Thursday and that has spread like wildfire among the grassroots.

With the so-called neoliberal sector annulled and expelled, the circle closest to Abascal, which they call the bunker, took the reins exclusively of Vox just after the municipal and regional elections of May 2023, with Jorge Buxadé as the most influential figure. Kiko Méndez-Monasterio, Gabriel Ariza and Ignacio Hoces, national deputy for Badajoz, are also part of this Praetorian Guard.

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Vox.

Carla Toscano leaves her seat in Congress and is replaced by Rocío Aguirre, sister of the former president of Madrid

  • Written by: EUROPA PRESS Madrid

Carla Toscano leaves her seat in Congress and is replaced by Rocío Aguirre, sister of the former president of Madrid

Vox's Pro-Refounding Congress Manifesto, which is the title of the critical writing, denounces that "internal democracy is non-existent and the organisation does not provide bodies to channel it" and emphasises that "there are unclarified public doubts about the destination of the party's economic funds", while at the same time stressing that "freedom of opinion does not exist and is persecuted" which means that it is "impossible to carry out any analysis or analysis". there is freedom of initiative'.

In the statement, the councillors and public officials of the provinces say they feel "ignored" and ask for important changes in the party. They criticize that "any personal opinion is repressed or reprimanded" and add that "there is an iron control over personal social networks with demands and warnings." In the same vein, they criticize the leadership for the fact that the elected officials of the provinces are "abandoned" to their fate and their "only mission" is to "obey the orders of Madrid and remain silent."

They call the Assembly of the 27th a "blow to Venezuelan"

For all these reasons, they consider that there is "an upward line in the detachment of Spaniards and a downward line in the political expectations of Vox" as a result of the "evident abandonment of the principles contemplated in the founding manifesto", to which is added, they stress, "the voluntary or forced departure of people of great political stature, the castling of the national leadership, the new angry and unsympathetic disposition, the support for the riot and the rejection of everything by system without proposing alternatives."

The manifesto, dated 11 January, insists: "We must live up to the hope we have generated in millions of Spaniards whom we cannot disappoint as is happening every day: we have reduced the number of members with the right to vote and lost enormous human capital that must be recovered".

It also advocates providing the party with "statutes that guarantee democratic functioning and an organic structure that allows the active participation of militants, in accordance with the territorial reality and competences."

The critical current calls for the convening of a refounding congress to "guarantee a powerful structure, which ensures a democratic functioning, brings together the different ideological nuances existing in Vox and opens the door to bodies that work on the development of projects and programs to be developed at the municipal, regional and national levels".

  • Vox
  • Iván Espinosa de los Monteros
  • Macarena Olona
  • Santiago Abascal Conde
  • THE WORLD
  • Ignacio Garriga
  • Badajoz
  • Javier Ortega Smith