Santiago Abascal Conde (Spanish pronunciation: [sanˈtjaɣo aβasˈkal ˈkonde]; born 14 April 1976) is a Spanish politician and since September 2014 the leader of the right-wing political party Vox. Abascal is a member of the Congress of Deputies representing Madrid since 2019. Before the creation of Vox, Abascal was long a member of the centre-right People's Party, served as legislator in the Basque Parliament, founded the Spanish nationalist Foundation for the Defense of the Spanish Nation (Spanish: Fundación para la Defensa de la Nación Española, or DENAES) and exerted the role of director of publicly funded entities of the Community of Madrid.
Santiago Abascal | |
|---|---|
 Abascal in 2024 | |
| President of Vox | |
| Assumed office 20 September 2014 | |
| Vice President | Jorge Buxadé |
| Preceded by | José Luis González Quirós |
| Member of the Congress of Deputies | |
| Assumed office 21 May 2019 | |
| Constituency | Madrid |
| Director of the Data Protection Agency of the Community of Madrid | |
| In office 4 February 2010 – 28 December 2012 | |
| President | Esperanza Aguirre |
| Preceded by | Antonio Troncoso |
| Succeeded by | Position abolished |
| Member of the Basque Parliament | |
| In office 4 October 2005 – 6 January 2009 | |
| Constituency | Álava |
| In office 16 January 2004 – 22 February 2005 | |
| Constituency | Álava |
| Member of the General Assembly of Álava | |
| In office 13 June 2003 – 3 February 2005 | |
| Constituency | Vitoria |
| Member of the City Council of Llodio | |
| In office 13 June 1999 – 16 June 2007 | |
| Personal details | |
| Born | Santiago Abascal Conde 14 April 1976 Bilbao, Basque Country, Spain |
| Political party | Vox (since 2014) |
| Other political affiliations | People's Party (1994–2013) |
| Spouse(s) |
Ana Belén Sánchez Cenador
(m. 2002; div. 2010)Lidia Bedman (m. 2018) |
| Children | 4 |
| Parent |
|
| Alma mater | University of Deusto |
| Signature |  |
Biography
Early life
Abascal was born in Bilbao but grew up in the Province of Álava: his father Santiago Abascal Escuza was a politician and a member of the People's Party, and his grandfather Manuel Abascal Pardo was obliged to be the mayor of Amurrio from 1963 to 1979[1], during the dictatorship of Franco and Spanish transition to democracy.[2][3][4][5] Because of their political work, Abascal's family was routinely threatened by the terrorist group ETA.[6]
Political career
Abascal became a member of the People's Party when he was 18, in 1994.[7][8] He was city councillor of Llodio for two terms (1999–2007).[9] He served in the Basque Parliament from January 2004 to February 2005 representing Álava.[10] He later served again in the regional legislature from October 2005 to January 2009.[11]
After he left Basque politics, Esperanza Aguirre, the regional president of the Community of Madrid, hired him for the post of director of the Data Protection Agency of the Community of Madrid (2010–2012). Abascal was later appointed to another post as Director of the Foundation for Patronage and Social Sponsorship (2013),[7] a publicly funded entity without known activity during Abascal's spell.[12][13]
Abascal left the PP in 2013[8] and helped to found a new party, Vox, which was formed on the same day that the Foundation for Patronage and Social Sponsorship dissolved.[12][14] After Vox's bad result in the May 2014 European Parliament election in which it failed to obtain any seats, inner strife followed between a faction represented by party members such as Ignacio Camuñas, José Luis González Quirós and Alejo Vidal-Quadras, and a hardline faction, featuring Abascal along with other figures of the DENAES Foundation.[15] The moderate faction became estranged from the party,[15] and Abascal became the new president on 20 September 2014.[16]
Abascal is a member of the Congreso de los Diputados representing Madrid since May 2019. His party came third in the election for the 14th Congreso, characterized by the BBC as a "far-right surge".[17]
During the 2020 and 2021 electoral campaigns for regional elections in the Basque Country and Catalonia, multiple electoral events featuring Abascal as one of the speakers were attacked by political opponents.[18][19][20]
Political positions
Abascal's political programme for 2018 included the expulsion of all illegal immigrants, the construction of "impassable walls" in the Spanish African enclaves of Ceuta and Melilla, the prohibition of the teaching of Islam, the exaltation of "national heroes", the elimination of all regional parliaments and opposition to Catalan nationalism.[21] He used anti-Muslim rhetoric in 2019 and called for a new Reconquista of Spain. Vox increased its' share of the vote from 0.2% to 10% in the general election of 2019.[22]
He has also expressed disappointment towards Morocco and how it handles the border by allowing illegal immigrants to cross. This has led to conversations about the status of Spanish Sahara. Abascal has expressed a different way to handle it (unlike the other parties that favor abandoning it to Morocco); that the people of the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic have the right to self determination, with the hopeful outcome of choosing to remain and integrate as the Spanish Sahara.
Abascal believes that global warming is the "greatest scam in history".[23] He is opposed to Agenda 2030.[24]
Abascal criticized Spanish PM Pedro Sánchez's unilateral recognition of a Palestinian state, saying that it amounts to legitimising the "satanic terrorism" of Hamas, the Palestinian Islamist group responsible for the October 7 attacks.[25] He further criticized Sánches for knowing "nothing of Israel's history".[26] Months before, the Spanish prosecutor’s office had opened an investigation following Abascal's suggestion during an interview with the Argentine newspaper Clarín that a time might come when people would want to “hang [Sánchez] by the feet.”[27]
Personal life
He first married Ana Belén Sánchez, who was herself a PP candidate in local elections in Llodio and Zuia; they had two children. They subsequently divorced.[28] In June 2018, he married the Spanish blogger and influencer Lidia Bedman.[29] He had two children with Bedman.[30][28] Abascal is a longtime member of the Spanish Ornithological Society.[31] Abascal is an affiliate of the ultraconservative association HazteOir (HO) and was the recipient of a HO Award in 2012.[32]
Due to recurrent death threats for his political views and work, Abascal is licensed to carry and use a handgun for self-defence.[33] Namely, the license type B, granted to civilians proved to experience a real and high risk of being attacked. Under strict Spanish gun laws, such licenses are rare, as only about 0.02% of the population own them.[34]
References
- ^ SANTIAGO ABASCAL TIRÓ UNA MEGA BOMBA CON FANTINO "MILEI EN ESPAÑA ES UN ROCKSTAR"
- ^ "Abascal, el 'ex' del PP que lleva la extrema derecha a la política nacional". Eitb (in Spanish). 3 December 2018. Retrieved 16 January 2019.
- ^ "Muere Santiago Abascal, exdirigente del PP vasco y padre del líder de VOX". Efe.com (in Spanish). Vitoria. 23 July 2017. Retrieved 16 January 2019.
- ^ Los Genoveses (27 April 2019). "Santiago Abascal: un ultra con sueldo y pistola". El Plural (in Spanish). Retrieved 1 May 2019.
- ^ "Santiago Abascal: su pasado, su familia, sus dos mujeres y sus aficiones". Voz Populi. 11 November 2019.
- ^ Veiga, Diego Rodriguez (9 November 2020). "Abascal revive sus dos dramas con ETA: el ataque familiar y el asesinato de su amigo cartero". El Español.
- ^ a b Gutiérrez, Óscar (5 December 2018). "¿Quién es Santiago Abascal, líder del partido Vox?". 20minutos.
- ^ a b Amón, Rubén (3 December 2018). "Santiago Abascal, el fan de Marine Le Pen". El País.
- ^ "Santiago Abascal: del PP vasco a sacudir la política española en Andalucía". La Vanguardia. 3 December 2018.
- ^ García Martín, Javier (28 April 2019). "La post-España de Santiago Abascal". 20 Minutos (in Spanish). Retrieved 1 May 2019.
- ^ "Santiago Abascal Conde" (PDF). Voxespana.es (in Spanish). 2019. Archived from the original (PDF) on 21 April 2019. Retrieved 1 May 2019.
- ^ a b Pérez Mendoza, Sofía (13 January 2019). "La fundación que dirigió Abascal se extinguió sin dejar rastro de su último año de actividad". eldiario.es.
- ^ Guzmán, Cecilia (6 November 2013). "Santiago Abascal se 'forra' al amparo del PP madrileño". El Plural.
- ^ Maestre, Antonio (9 December 2018). "Manual de VOX para antifascistas emocionales". La Marea.
- ^ a b Sangiao, Sergio (23 January 2019). "Los tránsfugas de Abascal". CTXT.
- ^ "Santiago Abascal, nuevo presidente de Vox con el 91% de los votos". Publico.es. 20 September 2014. Retrieved 16 January 2019.
- ^ "Spanish elections: Socialists win amid far-right surge". BBC News. London, U.K. 11 November 2019. Retrieved 7 December 2019.
- ^ "Vox arranca la campaña en Euskadi con mítines blindados entre piedras y botellas". 26 June 2020.
- ^ "Lanzan piedras a Abascal en un acto de Vox en Girona". 30 January 2021.
- ^ "Intento de agresión a Abascal en un acto electoral en Gerona". 30 January 2021.
- ^ de Laguérie, Henry (14 November 2019). "Santiago Abascal, l'homme derrière le retour de l'extrême droite en Espagne". Le Parisien (in French). Retrieved 20 January 2021.
- ^ Walker, Kira (29 April 2019). "Spain's far-right makes election gains using anti-Muslim sentiment". The National.
- ^ Chapelle, Sophie (22 October 2020). "Déni du réchauffement, mépris pour les renouvelables, haine des réfugiés climatiques : le "fascisme fossile"". bastamag.net (in French). Retrieved 20 January 2021.
- ^ Abascal, Santiago (19 April 2023). "Santiago Abascal denuncia la sumisión de Pedro Sánchez ante Marruecos: "¿Por qué razón lo hace?"". VOX España. YouTube.
- ^ "VOX Opposes Spanish Socialists' Decision on Palestine". The Conservative. Retrieved 7 July 2024.
- ^ "Leader of Spain's Vox party criticizes Sánchez over Palestinian state recognition".
- ^ "Spain's far-right Vox leader probed over 'hang' Pedro Sánchez diatribe". Politico. Retrieved 7 July 2024.
- ^ a b "Así es la primera mujer de Santiago Abascal: la expolítica con la que compartió partido y desahucio". El Plural (in Spanish). 25 January 2020. Retrieved 25 January 2020.
- ^ Villar, C. (9 October 2018). "La boda cool de Santiago Abascal (VOX) con la bloguera Lidia Bedman este verano". El Confidencial (in Spanish). Titania Compañía Editorial, S.L. Retrieved 1 May 2019.
- ^ "Así es Lidia Bedman, la pareja 'egoblogger' de Santiago Abascal, líder de VOX". La Vanguardia. 30 March 2016. Retrieved 16 January 2019.
- ^ "Abascal: un aficionado a los pájaros casado con una 'influencer'". Cadena COPE (in Spanish). Radio Popular S.A. 27 November 2018. Retrieved 16 January 2019.
- ^ Bastante, Jesús (7 December 2018). "Las conexiones de Vox con HazteOir, los 'kikos' y una docena de obispos españoles". eldiario.es (in Spanish).
- ^ "El permiso tipo B que tiene Abascal: ¿qué armas permite llevar, qué requisitos tiene y cómo se concede?". 20 Minutos. 18 June 2020.
- ^ Verdu, Daniel (25 October 2016). "Who are Spain's gun owners?". El Pais.