Who is Abascal, Spain's far-right potential kingmaker?
Summary:
- Santiago Abascal, leader of Spain's Vox Party, may become the kingmaker in Spain's politics, potentially granting the far right a role in government for the first time since Franco's dictatorship.
- Abascal founded Vox with the goal of abolishing regional autonomy and parliaments, gaining popularity after Catalonia's failed bid for independence.
- Vox's policies include anti-immigration, anti-feminist, Eurosceptic, socially conservative, and economically liberal stances.
- While Vox's popularity surged in recent elections, some analysts believe it may have exhausted its pool of voters, affecting its future seat share.
Santiago Abascal, leader of Spain's Vox Party, is on the far right, but he may move centre stage as Spain's kingmaker. No clear leader emerged in the last polls before Spain's election. They showed the Conservative Opposition People's Party, or PP, beating socialist incumbent Pedro Sanchez, but needing to unite with anti-immigration, anti-feminist Vox to gain a majority. This would hand the far right a role in government for the first time since the end of Francisco Franco's dictatorship in 1975.
Santiago Abascal, popularly known as Santiago, started out as a PP lawmaker but fell out with the party, partly over its handling of the Etabasc militant group and other separatist challenges. Hailing from the Basque region, he founded Vox with the aim to campaign for abolishing regional autonomy and parliaments. This resonated with many Spaniards, especially after a failed bid for independence by Catalonia in 2017. In just nine years, Abascal has transformed his party into Spain's third-largest electoral force.
Vox has fast become a fixture of Spanish politics, and the upcoming coalition talks could prove tough, but its influence cannot be ignored.