Ortega Smith digs in against Abascal and threatens him with the courts

BarcelonaDespite the expulsion decreed this Wednesday by the Vox leadership, the party's municipal spokesperson in Madrid, Javier Ortega Smith, has refused to back down and has declared all-out war on the far-right leader, Santiago Abascal, and the rest of the leadership. The expulsion—still provisional in formal terms— It came after he refused to accept the resignation from his position as leader in the city council of the Spanish capital.The decision, made at the executive committee meeting on February 12th and communicated by letter to Madrid city councilors on the 16th, as confirmed by ARA, was made public on Friday. Speaking to the media, Ortega asserted that he will defend himself to the end, if necessary resorting to "the ordinary courts." This is also in response to his defense of his position as spokesperson. In fact, he has verbalized the threat of taking Abascal's leadership to court, clinging to the suffering of an alleged lynching: "I believe my behavior has been exemplary and that I don't deserve what I'm suffering and what my party members are suffering, and that's why, that's why, that's why I will pursue every legal avenue, and if I have to go to the ordinary courts, I will," he declared, guaranteeing that he will defend his "honor." According to his account, he is experiencing a situation of "persecution, attempted silencing, harassment, and expulsion." "I haven't betrayed anyone, I haven't deceived anyone, I haven't lied," he insisted. Ortega Smith even questioned why, given his past as secretary general—he was also a founder of the party—he was dismissed "abruptly," in his opinion, without any explanation. However, the numerous letters and emails sent at least since April of last year by the secretary general, Ignacio Garriga, already made explicit the leadership's reproaches for Ortega's public criticisms and for the fact that he acted independently. This "unease" stemmed from interviews and interventions that went against the official Vox line or that even criticized Abascal. Clinging to a supposed exercise in "consistency," Ortega Smith insisted that some "have decided to change that motto of We fought side by side by we elbow each other "We will put anyone who bothers us on our shoulders." He also denied having "leaked information to the media," one of the accusations made by the Vox leadership.

However, the day after his expulsion, Abascal asserted that he fears "nothing and no one." He even added a clear warning to those within a clearly hierarchical structure like Vox's, which existed even when Ortega was secretary general and led the purges: "We will have no doubts when we have to make internal decisions and in Spanish politics when we come to power." "And I want all Spaniards to know this," he said. He also made light of the fact that "Vox has more founders than members," referring to the fact that several of the founders have left the party, including former spokesperson Iván Espinosa de los Monteros, as well as other prominent figures such as former spokesperson Macao Monasterio and former Castilian-Leonese leader Juan García Gallardo. Amid this all-out battle, the Popular Party's José Luis Martínez-Almeida warned Vox that only the municipal group can remove Ortega Smith from his position as spokesperson, regardless of any unanimous decision by all Vox councilors that Javier Ortega should remain spokesperson, because otherwise, it's incomprehensible that no councilor yesterday made any indication of his removal. A war of more than three years

Ortega Smith could become entrenched in a struggle to gain support within the municipal group, a fight that could allow him to retain his council seat even as an independent—beyond the battle for the spokesperson position—in addition to his seat in Congress. But this struggle has deep roots: Ortega had repeatedly accused Abascal of setting up the party as "modus vivendi"...like a placement agency for friends," he said, referring to the party's long-standing role as secretary general, a position assumed by Ignacio Garriga in 2023. Garriga, who held the position from 2016 to 2022, was dismissed last year as deputy spokesperson.He was expelled from the state leadershipAnd finally, this Wednesday he was abruptly expelled from the party, a precautionary measure, but one with the intention of making it permanent.

In 2022, when he was still secretary general, Ortega Smith's discourse was the opposite of what it is today: "We are a united party, without regional power brokers, with an indisputable national leadership under the presidency of Santiago Abascal," he said after the departure of Macarena Olona and other leaders due to political disagreements. He oversaw numerous purges within the party.