Espinosa de los Monteros dodges Santiago Abascal's internal cleansing

BarcelonaVox has decided to expel the former vice-president of Castile and León, Juan García-Gallardo, for a very serious offense, as ARA has been able to confirm, and not long ago it also kicked out the former leader of the party in Madrid, Javier Ortega Smith – he is still in the City Council. Another figurehead of the Spanish far-right, Iván Espinosa de los Monteros, has shown himself to be equally or more critical than them of Santiago Abascal, but the party prefers, for the moment, not to act against him. The difference, according to sources from the party leadership, is that Espinosa "has not accused" anyone from the leadership of anything, but rather has criticized the party's political direction.

García-Gallardo pointed out that Abascal had made Vox his "personal pension plan" and that he earns "a third salary" through his wife, Lidia Bedman, thanks to a party "supplier", the communication group El Toro TV. The former leader also stated that the party is being "parasitized" by people close to him, who are extracting money from it with corporate "galaxies". But above all, he hit Abascal by attributing to him the fact of "wanting to be rich" thanks to Vox – adding that he "manages it like his own company".

The expulsion from Vox, from February of last year, of who already left his position as deputy and member of the executive will occur as indicated by article 37.3c of its statutes for having incurred in "attitudes that signify the disregard for the dignity of the party, its bodies or any of its affiliates". The party has also expelled the former vice-president of Murcia and until three weeks ago the maximum leader in the region, José Ángel Antelo. Both, like Espinosa de los Monteros, have supported all rebellions.

The tug-of-war with the leadership

Espinosa left politics in 2023 and made the ultraliberal face of Vox invisible, but he has been raising his voice against the leadership for some time. Last year he launched his thought platform Atenea and has recently been collecting signatures to demand an extraordinary congress in the party. He has focused his criticisms on the political arena: he has called for rectifying Vox's "statist", "workerist", and "illiberal turn", the "republican and anti-monarchist drift", and the move away from "the defense of free trade", in addition to the "growing authoritarianism in the internal structure" by the leadership. He has also regretted that the party is "tightening" and "expelling necessary people" – "silencing" disagreements – and that it has changed partners in Europe. Vox has left the European Conservatives and Reformists group of Italian leader Giorgia Meloni to join Viktor Orbán's Patriots for Europe.

The manifesto for the congress points out that "according to published information, the exorbitant remunerations in the president's circle, inappropriate for a project that defends austerity, are not anecdotes" and is concerned about "the existence of a parallel network of opaque entities" linked to "economic interests and exchanges that demand transparency". He himself has said in public that "we need to see euro by euro Vox's money in a closed-door congress".

Regarding Abascal, Espinosa said that "he is another person", which has led to a string of internal criticisms. Last week, Vox MP in Congress José María Figaredo said he was "fed up with his sermons"; and the deputy spokesperson in the lower house, Carlos Quero, has insinuated that Espinosa must have met with the PP leadership to try to make Vox "a docile party". Now the escalation is verbal, but in December Espinosa de los Monteros already filed a lawsuit against two members of the compliance team for allegedly revealing his personal data, as a result of the opened investigation. The tug-of-war remains open, for now, from within the party.