Their initial funding, totalling nearly 972,000 euros, came in the form of individual donations from supporters of the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI) and of People's Mojahedin Organization of Iran (MEK), thanks to their "personal relationship" with Vidal-Quadras, who had supported the NCRI during his stint in the EU Parliament. There is no evidence that Vox has broken Spanish or EU funding rules accepting these donations.[34][36]
The 2014 European elections marked the first time the newly formed Vox fielded a candidate, with Vidal-Quadras running under its banner, though he narrowly failed to retain his seat in the European Parliament.[37] Vidal Quadras later left the party due to both the political failure at the European election and his inability to impose his stances in the party. He would argue in 2018 that the party shifted from a "liberal conservative, Europeanist, and reformist" proposal (represented by himself), to a "Nationalist, revisionist, eurosceptic and confessional" one.[38]
Abascal's early leadership (2014–2017)
In September 2014 the party elected Santiago Abascal, one of the founders, as its president, and Iván Espinosa de los Monteros, also a founder, as General Secretary.[39][40] Eleven members of the National Executive Committee were also elected.[41]
At the beginning of 2020, during the onset of the global COVID-19 pandemic, Vox called for travel restrictions between China and Spain, and later between Italy and Spain, to safeguard against the "Chinese virus".[54] At that time the epidemic was already in full swing in those countries, but it was prior to any COVID cases being officially confirmed within Spain in significant numbers. That position found no support among other parties, and it was criticized as xenophobic rhetoric.[55][56] The party claims that serious counter-COVID measures were deliberately delayed in Spain by the government, which hid the information and downplayed known risks to allow for mass public events on International Women's Day (8 March) to take place, as these events were important for the left wing agenda of the newly formed coalition government of PSOE and UP.[57] At the same time, Vox went forward with their own global party conference on 8 March in Vistalegre, where party supporters from all parts of Spain were invited. The conference resulted in numerous cases of COVID infection, including confirmed cases of COVID transmission between members of Vox leadership.[58][59] This fact was often brought up by Vox opponents to criticize Vox attitude towards COVID situation in Spain.[60]
During the anti-COVID lockdown and follow-up restrictions, Vox routinely criticized government measures as inefficient, partisan, and partially unconstitutional.[61] In April 2020 the party appealed to the Constitutional Court of Spain against the first State of Alarm (15 March – 21 June) declared by the government.[62] In October 2020, Vox's parliamentary group at the Congress of Deputies tabled a motion of no confidence against the current Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez, bringing Santiago Abascal as alternative candidate.[63] The motion failed to gain any support among the other parliamentary groups, gathering 52 'yes' votes (those of Vox legislators) and 298 'no' votes (the rest of the chamber).[64] In November 2020 Vox appealed to the Constitutional Court of Spain against the second State of Alarm (October 25, 2020 – May 9, 2021) declared by the government.[65]
At the beginning of 2021, Vox's abstention was instrumental in securing European COVID-recovery funds on Socialist terms.[69] Many Vox supporters considered this as the "largest error in Vox's history".[70]
During 2020 and 2021 electoral campaigns for regional elections in the Basque Country,[71]Catalonia,[72] and the Community of Madrid[73] multiple legal electoral events of Vox were physically attacked by radical political opponents on the premises of "Vox's legitimate electoral events in some regions being provocative acts". The view of the events as provocations was endorsed by high ranking UP members, including their speaker Pablo Echenique, and their leader, the Second Deputy Prime Minister of Spain at the time, Pablo Iglesias.[74]
On 14 July 2021, in response to the Vox's appeal the previous year, the Constitutional Court of Spain declared by a narrow majority (six votes in support vs. five votes against) that the first anti-COVID State of Alarm was unconstitutional in the part of suppressing the freedom of movement established by the Article 19 of the Constitution.[75] In October 2021 the Constitutional Court of Spain supported two other appeals by Vox, and declared unconstitutional the closing down of Spanish Parliament and Senate in the beginning of pandemic, and the second State of Alarm.[76][77] As reported on 22 October 2021, the Government of Spain ordered all fines collected in relation to the first State of Alarm to be returned to citizens.[78]
Entering regional governments (2022–2023)
On 13 February 2022, Vox came third in the 2022 Castilian-Leonese regional election, raising its representation from 1 up to 13 seats, and becoming the key player for the rival People's Party (PP), who won the elections, to form a government.[79][80] Following this election result, and an unfolding leadership crisis in PP,[81] Vox for the first time was recognized as the Spain's second political force, according to some opinion polls for the next general elections.[82] In March 2022, it was announced that Vox would form government with the PP in Castile and León, taking three of ten ministerial positions including vice president for regional leader Juan García-Gallardo.[83] Vox member Carlos Pollán was elected President of the Cortes of Castile and León, the position of speaker.[84] This represents the first participation of Vox in any regional government.
On 19 June 2022, Vox came third in the 2022 Andalusian regional elections. With Macarena Olona as the leading candidate, the party improved over the previous regional elections, gaining about 100k more votes, and two more seats in the Parliament of Andalusia, but failed short of the expectations to achieve significantly better results and become the key to the new regional government.[85] In the aftermath of elections, despite initial promises to stay and lead Vox's opposition group in Andalusia, on 29 July 2022, Olona announced her decision to resign and left politics due to unnamed "medical reasons".[86][87]
In March 2023, Vox, for the second time, tabled a motion of no confidence against the government of Pedro Sánchez, with Ramón Tamames as alternative, independent candidate. The motion failed with 53 votes in favour, 201 votes against, 91 abstentions, and four absentees.[88]
In May 2023, local and regional elections were held in Spain. Vox, as the minor partner, formed the government with the PP in the Valencian Community, though the PP ordered that Vox's lead candidate Carlos Flores would not take part in the government, due to his 2002 conviction for harassment of his ex-wife.[89] After protracted negotiations, Vox also joined PP governments in Extremadura and Aragon.[90] Despite not forming the government, Vox was awarded the speaker's role in the Parliament of the Balearic Islands in exchange for abstaining on the vote and thereby allowing a PP government.[91] Again as the smaller of the two parties, Vox formed local governments with the PP in cities such as Elche, Toledo, Valladolid, Guadalajara and Burgos.[92]
Stabilization and reconfiguration
2023 general election and aftermath (2023–2024)
A general election took place in July 2023, for which the PP was widely forecast to win and obtain a majority with support from Vox.[93][94][95] In what BBC News called a surprise result, Vox fell from 52 seats to 33, losing half a million votes; the PP took the most seats but fell short of a majority even with Vox's support. Vox's reduced presence in the Congress meant that it lost its ability to appeal the government's legislature to the Supreme Court; it had previously used this right to challenge Sánchez's legislation on transgender issues, euthanasia and the COVID-19 pandemic. After the election, some political journalists noted Spain had followed an opposite trend to other European countries such as Sweden, Finland and Italy where conservative-nationalist parties had scored strong results and opined Vox's communication style had turned off voters and that the disappearance of Ciudadanos (whose votes mostly went to the PP) had indirectly penalized Vox as the electoral system is weighted to favour bigger parties. Abascal partly blamed the People's Party whom he argued had been too triumphalist in campaigning on behalf of the right, claiming "They sold the bear's skin before they had even hunted it. That is clearly the reason why there was a lack of mobilisation [of voters]."[96][97][98]
In the aftermath of the general elections, many members of the "liberal family of Vox" left the party or lost their influence in favour of the syndicalist wing, headed by Jorge Buxadé.[99]
Vox held a major rally in Madrid in May 2024 in anticipation of the European elections. Receiving support from international politicians including Argentinian President Javier Milei and France's presidency candidate Marine Le Pen, as well as other politicians from Italy, Hungary, France, and Portugal.[103][104]
Vox identifies as a "right-wing without complexes"[107] and regards itself as an alternative to both the "cowardly right" of the People's Party and the "orange fickle" of Citizens.[108] In November 2018, during a party event in Murcia, the party's leader, Santiago Abascal, defined his party as "antifascist, anti-Nazi and anti-communist".[109] The party has been described as simply right-wing,[110] a populist radical-right (in contrast to an extreme right), and far-right.[111][112][113][114]
According to certain analysis, the main tenets in Vox's ideology are: (i) a strong anti-immigration stance and advocacy for stricter law and order policies; (ii) a strong defence of the unity of Spain against all who allegedly want to break or undermine it; (iii) an opposition to what it labels the "progressive dictatorship"; (iv) and strong defence of the Catholicism and so-called traditional values.[115]
According to Xavier Casals, the unifying part of Vox's ideology is a war-like ultranationalism[116] identified by the party with a palingenetic and biological vision of the country—the so-called España Viva—as well as a Catholicism-inspired culture.[7] He says that ideological roots of the party's ultranationalism lie in incondicionalismo, 'unconditionalism', the nationalist discourse based on the "fear of amputation of the homeland" coined in the 19th century in Colonial Cuba against Cuban separatism, and autonomist concessions (replicated in Catalonia in the 1910s).[117] Casals writes that the party's discourse has also revived the myth of the Antiespaña ("Anti-Spain"), an umbrella term created in the 1930s by the domestic ultranationalist forces to designate the (inner) "Enemies of Spain",[4][118] creating a simplistic España viva/Antiespaña duality that comes handy for communicating via social media.[119] Casals notes, regarding the external projection of its discourse, that the party has reanimated the concept of "Hispanidad"; party leader Abascal has stated that an immigrant coming from a "brotherly Hispanic-American country" is not comparable to the immigration coming from "Islamic countries".[120]
According to Guillermo Fernández Vázquez, Vox's positions, which he described as "economically anti-statist and neoliberal" as well as "morally authoritarian", is similar to positions held by Jörg Haider's Freedom Party of Austria or Jean Marie Le Pen's National Front from the 1980s, thus likening the emergence of the party to an archaic stage of current radical right parties, more worried about the need to modernize their image than Vox; the latter's approach to cultural issues would be in line with old school Spanish nationalist parties, restricting the scope of "culture" to "language and tradition".[121][122]
In 2023, Barcelona-based journalist Stephen Burgen and Spanish political scientist Pablo Simón argued that Vox had grown to contain two factions which adhere to different influences; they cited a more hardline wing close to leader Santiago Abascal whom they claim take inspiration from nationalist European parties and figures such as Viktor Orbán in Hungary and the right-wing nationalist faction of Law and Justice in Poland, and a second wing containing former party spokesman Iván Espinosa de los Monteros who identify more with the British Conservative Party and whose role models would be Margaret Thatcher and Ronald Reagan.[125] Espinosa quit politics in August 2023, although he officially remained a member of the party, and downplayed his discrepancies with Vox's main line.[125][126]
Vox has been described as anti-feminist,[143] and wants to repeal the gender violence law,[144] which they see as "discriminatory against one of the sexes", and replace it with a "family violence law that will afford the same protection to the elderly, men, women and children who suffer from abuse".[145] Left-leaning critics believe Vox undermines the importance of feminist struggle in the advancement of women's liberties by means of linking the latter to a culture with "Christian foundations".[146]
Vox has proposed that citizens should be allowed to keep arms at home, and supports the castle doctrine,[154][155] but does not support the right to carry arms or the free sale of firearms.[155] Current party leaders, Santiago Abascal and Javier Ortega, are both licensed to carry handguns for self-defence due to recurrent threats to their lives for their political activities.[156][157]
In some discourses, party leaders have suggested that their opposition to mass immigration from Islamic countries effectively protects the LGBT community, as homosexuality is largely prosecuted in Islamic cultures, and that most immigrants do not alter their attitude upon arrival to Spain.[165][161]
Vox opposes the Ley Trans, developed by Irene Montero and the Ministry of Equality, which was approved by the Spanish government in June 2021.[161][166] According to Vox, the law as proposed "attacks the rights of women, children, biology, and common sense".[167]
Vox congratulated the Hungarian parliament for passing legislation[168] that would ban media and educational content which may be seen by underage persons from depicting LGBT individuals or addressing LGBT issues.[169]
Immigration
Vox positions itself strongly against illegal immigration, which, according to INE data, is a significant contributor to crime in Spain.[170] Vox calls for the unconditional deportation of all illegal immigrants, as well as the legal ones who commit crimes; the tightening of Spanish immigration laws; legal actions against non-profits (e.g.Proactiva Open Arms) and organized crime facilitating illegal immigration; and the militarization of problematic borders. The party emphasizes its support for legal immigration complied with the Spanish law. It promotes a stricter control of immigration according to the needs of the national economy, with preference for immigration from Hispanic America on the premise of easier integration of such immigrants into Spanish society, as opposed to those from Islamic countries.[171][172][173] Opponents of Vox consider the party xenophobic and anti-immigrant.[174][175]
In 2020, Vox deputy Rocío de Meer described neighborhoods such as Molenbeek in Brussels or Barbès in París as "multicultural dung heaps".[181] Other party deputies have used the same term, such as party leader Santiago Abascal during a failed motion of censure, and deputy Ignacio Garriga.[182]
During the Russian invasion of Ukraine, Vox supported the accommodation of Ukrainian refugees in Europe. According to Abascal, "these are real war refugees, women, children, and elderly people", unlike "young Muslim males of military age invading Europe's borders with the intention to destabilize and colonize it".[183]
Islam
While Vox's official platform only contains proposals against Islamic fundamentalism, public statements made by party figures have been accused of constituting Islamophobia, helping to underpin, according to Casals, their discourse against Maghrebi immigration, and in favour of the development of a closer bond to Catholicism.[146] The party advocates for the closure of fundamentalist mosques as well as the arrest and expulsion of extremist imams.[145] Vox has openly called for the deportation of tens of thousands of Muslims from Spain.[184] In 2019, the party's leader demanded a Reconquista, 'reconquest' of Spain,[185] explicitly referencing a new round of expulsions of Muslim immigrants from the country.[186]
The party supports suppressing the VAT in the purchase of a first house, but only for Spaniards.[194]
In its program for the 2023 Spanish general election, Vox proposed an overhaul of the Spanish fiscal system, with a radical reduction of income tax down to two levels of 15% and 25%, reduction of added-value taxes, and the abolishment or reduction of other state taxes.[193]
Vox promotes the "pin parental" policy, which aims to guarantee parental rights over the public education their children receive by vetoing their children from obligatory attendance to classes contradicting their parents' values.[195] Party representatives claim that Spanish national and regional authorities abuse the control of the public education system to impose their political and ideological agenda on children.[195]
The party's views on the European Union have been described as either Eurosceptic or Soft Eurosceptic,[16][17] arguing that Spain should make no sovereignty concessions to the EU in order to guarantee national sovereignty.[17] The party's leadership is strongly opposed to the EU becoming a federal superstate and instead argues for a Europe of "strong and sovereign states" that "defends its borders and its Christian roots and opposes multiculturalism and mass immigration."[202][203] Political science professor Andrés Santana and Lisa Zanotti noted that out of all the parties in Spain, Vox's voters and grassroots activists were the most likely to oppose Spain's membership of the EU.[204] In July 2021, party leader Abascal signed a statement opposing the EU's "federalist drift" with Viktor Orbán, Marine Le Pen, Jarosław Kaczyński and Giorgia Meloni, among others.[205]
Following the beginning of the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine, Vox took a strong pro-Ukrainian stance, announcing its support to "all measures" to defend Ukraine, including shipments of armaments to Ukraine.[208] However, in 2024, Vox began to shift its views on Ukraine, with Abascal criticising the €1 billion "that Spaniards do not have" in Spanish aid to Ukraine,[209] expressing concern over potential escalation through Western countries supplying Ukraine with long-range missiles for use against Russian soil, and calling for an end to the conflict "as soon as possible".[210]
In May 2024, Abascal voiced criticism towards Prime Minister Sánchez for unilaterally recognizing a Palestinian state, describing this action as a scandalous reward to Hamas,[219] and promised to reverse said recognition.[220]
A 2020 study based on a statistical analysis of April 2019 general election results found that Vox's support is stronger among the middle-aged, urban population with higher secondary education and at the higher end of income distribution. Authors say that such a voter profile is in direct contrast with that of a typical supporter of radical right parties in other European states, expected to be a man from a rural area with low education and a low income. Vox's support is stronger among voters dissatisfied with the current political situation in Spain, and voters who identify themselves as Spaniards.[224]
A 2021 study of the influence of Spanish party leaders on Twitter during the April 2019 general election campaign[225] found that the messages tweeted during the electoral campaign by Santiago Abascal (Vox) reached the highest diffusion and viralization capacity compared to Twitter messages by leaders of Cs, PSOE, PP and UP. The main focus of Abascal's tweets, according to the authors, was the Spanish territorial model (27.2%), government and parties (19.3%) and economy (14.5%).
Multiple Vox politicians have made allegedly disparaging statements about homosexuals.[163][161] Thus, Fernando Paz Cristóbal [ca] (ex-leader of Vox in Albacete, who left the party in 2019) said in 2013: "If I had a gay son I would help him, there are therapies to correct such psychology".[163][248]Francisco Serrano Castro (ex-leader of Vox in Andalusia, who left in 2020) tweeted in 2017: "Homosexuals have penises and lesbians have vulvas, and don't be fooled, nobody cares about it".[163] Juan E. Pflüger (director of communications of Vox in 2019) tweeted in 2013: "Why do gays celebrate Saint Valentine's day, if their thing is not love, it's just vice".[163]
Gaysper controversy
Ahead of the 2019 elections, Vox published a tweet calling for a "battle" against several symbols, including a ghost with the LGBT flag. This ghost was re-appropriated by the LGBT community which gave it the name Gaysper and used it as a symbol against homophobia.
The use of the ghost in the tweet met with an initial negative reaction from the LGBT community on Twitter. However, it would later end up using it for the creation of memes, and finally as a symbol of the collective in a phenomenon of reappropriation. The icon would end up being known as Gaysper, in a portmanteau of the word gay and Casper the Friendly Ghost; and subsequently spread in press and television.[251][252] Two PSOE deputies would later attend a parliamentary session in Congress wearing a T-shirt bearing the icon.[253][254]
MENA versus Grandma poster
During the elections to the Assembly of Madrid of 2021 held on 4 May, Vox used a very controversial poster in which the faces of a young masked man and an old woman appeared, with the sign between the two saying: "A mena [unaccompanied foreign minor] 4700 euros per month. Your grandmother 426 euros of pension / month". These numbers were debunked by the Department of Social Policies, Families, Equality and Birth of the Community of Madrid.[255] The poster was denounced in court for inciting hatred towards this group, but the court and the appeal ruling did not consider it a crime.[256][257]
^Pablo Carmona suggests Vox can be indeed adequately interpreted as a sort of evolution of the People's Party from the last years of the leadership of José María Aznar.[33]
^ abCasals, Xavier (19 January 2019). "Vox habla sobre Vox. Tres libros para conocer el partido". Agenda Pública. Su ideario parece hallarse aún en construcción y tiene como eje vertebrador un ultranacionalismo bélico asociado a la "Reconquista" o a una "Covadonga 2.0", El partido lo identifica con una visión biológica y palingenética de la patria, la "España viva", pero también con una cultura de inspiración católica.
^Rama, José; J. Turnbull-Dugarte, Stuart; Santana, Andrés (30 July 2020). "Who are Vox, and who are their voters?". The London School of Economics and Political Science. Retrieved 23 October 2020.
^ abLebourg & Camus 2020, p. 275: "A la cuestión táctica se agrega un problema de concepción de la nación que muestra lo difícil que resulta unir al total de los nacionalistas, porque, así como Marine Le Pen intentó seducir a los diputados de VOX, estos, que son partidarios del centralismo nacional, prefirieron la coherencia ideológica cuando decidieron no adherirse a un grupo que incluye a los Vlaams Belang"
^Gray 2020: "The ideological centralism of Vox, which was first founded back in 2013 by disillusioned members of the PP, is one part of an agenda also characterised by ultra-social conservatism and anti-immigrationism"
^ abcCastelli, Francesco (9 December 2019). "EU-related discussions in 2019 Spanish general elections: a Twitter study". euvisions.eu. Archived from the original on 6 February 2020. Retrieved 12 November 2021. Vox holds positions of soft euroscepticism, arguing that Spain should make no sovereignty concessions to the EU, and its presence on the national stage pushed expectations towards an increased politicization of the debate around the European Union
Arroyo Menéndez 2020: "To the extent that VOX fits with the concepts and theoretical explanations about radical right-wing parties and authoritarian populists, we would have a prior set of variables and factors that could explain the vote for this party."
García Rada, Aser (15 January 2021). "Spain will become the sixth country worldwide to allow euthanasia and assisted suicide". British Medical Journal. 372. the far right Vox opposed the law
Wheeler, Duncan (2020). "Vox in the Age of COVID-19: The Populist Protest Turn in Spanish Politics". Journal of International Affairs. 73 (2). New York City: 173–184. This provided an opportunity for Vox, a far-right populist party
Mudde, Cas (2019). The Far Right Today. John Wiley & Sons. pp. 40, 41, 174. ISBN978-1-5095-3685-6.
Ribera Payá, Pablo; Díaz Martínez, José Ignacio (16 July 2020). "The end of the Spanish exception: the far right in the Spanish Parliament". European Politics and Society. 22 (3): 410–434. doi:10.1080/23745118.2020.1793513. S2CID225618005.
^Fernández, Guillermo (10 October 2018). "Vox abre la puerta". ctxt.es. Vistalegre dibuja a Vox como la expresión de que una parte de la derecha "neocon" española se ha desgajado de la nave nodriza del Partido Popular
^Hennig, Anja; Meyer-Resende, Madalena (2016). Bedingungen der Aktivierung von moralpolitischen Konflikten. In: Ines-Jacqueline Werkner y Oliver Hidalgo (Eds.). Springer. pp. 304–305. doi:10.1007/978-3-658-11793-1. ISBN978-3-658-11792-4.
^Rama J, Zanotti L, Turnbull-Dugarte SJ, Santana A (2021). VOX. The Rise of the Spanish Populist Radical Right. Taylor & Francis Group. pp. 139, 143. ISBN9781003049227.
^Fernández Vázquez, Guillermo (24 April 2019). "Vox, la extrema derecha de siempre". CTXT. A tenor de lo que muestra el programa, cultura es para Vox lengua y tradición, siguiendo el viejo lema de los partidos nacionalistas.
^Abascal, Santiago (8 November 2015). "Cádiz, Covadonga y Bruselas". Libertad Digital (in Spanish). Retrieved 21 July 2018. Porque estamos convencidos de que nación y soberanía son conceptos íntimamente relacionados. Si somos soberanos es porque somos una Nación y no tenemos derecho a entregar lo que hemos recibido de nuestros mayores. España debe estar en Europa pero sin complejos, reivindicando el papel histórico, industrial y agrícola que merecemos. No debemos ser vasallos de Merkel ni de Tsipras. Ni camareros de Merkel ni paganos de las propinas de Tsipras. Las Cortes de Cádiz proclamaron que la Nación española era libre e independiente y que no podía ser patrimonio de ninguna familia o persona. Proclamaron asimismo que la soberanía reside esencialmente en la Nación, que es la única que tiene derecho a establecer sus leyes fundamentales. Esta declaración de soberanía ha sido una constante en toda nuestra historia constitucional.
^Pérez, Sergio (13 April 2019). "El número 7 de Vox en Alcalá renuncia por su nexo con una organización nazi". La Vox de Asturias. Según informa Vox Alcalá de Henares en un comunicado, Bonito ya ha presentado ante la Junta Electoral de Zona un «escrito de renuncia a formar parte de dicha candidatura y a su acta de concejal electo» en el caso de que la obtuviera.
^Redacción (13 April 2019). "Vox expulsa al abogado José María Ruiz Puerta por haber presidido la asociación CEDADE". Alerta Nacional. Tanto a Ortega Smith como a Rocío Monasterio les ha faltado tiempo para desvincularse de Ruiz Puerta. Sostienen que nunca ha militado ni pertenecido a Vox, lo que desdice lo que él mismo ha publicado en redes sociales y también lo que manifestó en "Alt News". En el espacio radial dirigido y conducido por Santiago Fontenla sostuvo que él tenía "acceso directo" a Abascal y daba por consumada su incorporación a ese proyecto político.
Esteban Fernández, Nacho (2023). Por rojos y maricones: homofobia y transfobia en el Partido Popular y el resto de la derecha española. Egales. 104-134. ISBN978-84-19728-03-6.
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