Santiago Abascal Conde (; born 14 April 1976) is a Spanish politician and since September 2014 the leader of the

national-conservative National conservatism is a nationalist variant of conservatism that concentrates on upholding national and cultural identity. National conservatives usually combine nationalism with conservative stances promoting traditional cultural values, ...

political party Vox. Abascal is a

member of the Congress of Deputies The Congress of Deputies ( es, link=no, Congreso de los Diputados, italic=unset) is the lower house of the Cortes Generales, Spain's legislative branch. The Congress meets in the Palace of the Parliament () in Madrid. It has 350 members ele ...

representing

Madrid Madrid ( , ) is the capital and most populous city of Spain. The city has almost 3.4 million inhabitants and a Madrid metropolitan area, metropolitan area population of approximately 6.7 million. It is the Largest cities of the Europ ...

since 2019. Before the creation of Vox, Abascal was long a member of the People's Party, served as legislator in the

Basque Parliament The Basque Parliament ( Basque: ''Eusko Legebiltzarra'', Spanish: ''Parlamento Vasco'') is the legislative body of the Basque Autonomous Community of Spain and the elected assembly to which the Basque Government is responsible. The Parliament ...

, founded the

Spanish nationalist The creation of the tradition of the political community of Spaniards as common destiny over other communities has been argued to trace back to the Cortes of Cádiz. Revisiting the history of Spain, after 1812 Spanish liberalism tended to take fo ...

Fundación para la Defensa de la Nación Española (DENAES) and exerted the role of director of publicly funded entities of the Community of Madrid.

Biography

Early life

Abascal was born in

Bilbao ) , motto = , image_map = , mapsize = 275 px , map_caption = Interactive map outlining Bilbao , pushpin_map = Spain Basque Country#Spain#Europe , pushpin_map_caption ...

. Abascal descends from a line of prominent politicians in the

Province of Álava A province is almost always an administrative division within a country or state. The term derives from the ancient Roman ''provincia'', which was the major territorial and administrative unit of the Roman Empire's territorial possessions outsi ...

: his father

Santiago Abascal Escuza Santiago Abascal Escuza (30 October 1949 – 23 July 2017) was a Spanish politician. Biography Abascal was born in Amurrio, Álava. His father, Manuel Abascal Pardo, was the town's mayor during the Francoist years. With his wife Isabel Conde Ál ...

was a politician and a member of the People's Party, and his grandfather Manuel Abascal Pardo was the mayor of

Amurrio Amurrio is a town and municipality located in the northwest part of the province of Álava, in the Basque Country, northern Spain. It has over 10,000 inhabitants. It is between Vitoria-Gasteiz and Bilbao, respectively to 41 km and 31 km ...

from 1963-79, during the Dictatorship of Franco and Spanish transition to democracy. Because of their political work, Abascal's family was routinely threatened by the terrorist group

ETA Eta (uppercase , lowercase ; grc, ἦτα ''ē̂ta'' or ell, ήτα ''ita'' ) is the seventh letter of the Greek alphabet, representing the close front unrounded vowel . Originally denoting the voiceless glottal fricative in most dialects, ...

Political career

He became a member of the People's Party when he was 18, in 1994. Abascal was city councillor of Llodio for two terms (1999–2007). He served in the

from January 2004 to February 2005 representing

Álava Álava ( in Spanish) or Araba (), officially Araba/Álava, is a province of Spain and a historical territory of the Basque Country, heir of the ancient Lordship of Álava, former medieval Catholic bishopric and now Latin titular see. Its c ...

. He later served again in the regional legislature from October 2005 to January 2009. After he left Basque politics,

Esperanza Aguirre Esperanza Aguirre y Gil de Biedma (; born 3 January 1952) is a Spanish politician. As member of the People's Party (PP), she served as President of the Senate between 1999 and 2002 (becoming the first female politician to have held the post), a ...

, the regional president of the

Community of Madrid The Community of Madrid (; es, Comunidad de Madrid ) is one of the seventeen autonomous communities of Spain. It is located in the centre of the Iberian Peninsula, and of the Central Plateau (''Meseta Central''). Its capital and largest munic ...

, found him a niche in the region by handpicking him to 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), a publicly-funded entity without known activity during Abascal's spell. Abascal left the PP in 2013 and helped to found a new party, Vox, which was formed on the same day that the Foundation for Patronage and Social Sponsorship dissolved. After Vox's bad result in the May 2014 European Parliament election in which it failed to obtain any seats, inner strife between a faction represented by party members such as Ignacio Camuñas, José Luis González Quirós and

Alejo Vidal-Quadras Alejo Vidal-Quadras Roca (born 20 May 1945 in Barcelona) is a Spanish politician and radiation physicist who served as a Member of the European Parliament from 1999 to 2014 and served as First Vice President of the European Parliament from 20 ...

, and a hardline faction, featuring Abascal along with other figures of the DENAES Foundation, followed. The moderate faction became estranged from the party, and Abascal became the new president on 20 September 2014. During 2020 and 2021 electoral campaigns for regional elections in Basque Country and

Catalonia Catalonia (; ca, Catalunya ; Aranese Occitan: ''Catalonha'' ; es, Cataluña ) is an autonomous community of Spain, designated as a '' nationality'' by its Statute of Autonomy. Most of the territory (except the Val d'Aran) lies on the nort ...

, multiple electoral events featuring Abascal as one of speakers were attacked by radical political opponents on the premises of "Vox's legal electoral events in these provinces being acts of provocation".

Political positions

Abascal's political programme for 2018 includes the expulsion of all illegal immigrants, the construction of "impassable walls" in the Spanish African enclaves of

Ceuta Ceuta (, , ; ar, سَبْتَة, Sabtah) is a Spanish autonomous city on the north coast of Africa. Bordered by Morocco, it lies along the boundary between the Mediterranean Sea and the Atlantic Ocean. It is one of several Spanish territorie ...

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. He used

anti-Muslim Islamophobia is the fear of, hatred of, or prejudice against the religion of Islam or Muslims in general, especially when seen as a geopolitical force or a source of terrorism. The scope and precise definition of the term ''Islamophobia'' ...

rhetoric in 2019 and called for a new

Reconquista The ' (Spanish, Portuguese and Galician for "reconquest") is a historiographical construction describing the 781-year period in the history of the Iberian Peninsula between the Umayyad conquest of Hispania in 711 and the fall of the Nasrid ...

or reconquest of Spain. He promotes climate change denial and believes that

global warming In common usage, climate change describes global warming—the ongoing increase in global average temperature—and its effects on Earth's climate system. Climate change in a broader sense also includes previous long-term changes to E ...

is the "greatest swindle in history". On economic issues, he claims the legacy of 1996–2004 Prime Minister José Maria Aznar of the People's Party and supports a

liberal Liberal or liberalism may refer to: Politics * a supporter of liberalism ** Liberalism by country * an adherent of a Liberal Party * Liberalism (international relations) * Sexually liberal feminism * Social liberalism Arts, entertainment and m ...

and

conservative Conservatism is a cultural, social, and political philosophy that seeks to promote and to preserve traditional institutions, practices, and values. The central tenets of conservatism may vary in relation to the culture and civilization in ...

line, including a sharp reduction in public spending.

Personal life

He first married Ana Belén Sánchez, who was herself a PP candidate in local elections in Llodio and

Zuia Zuia ( es, Zuya) is a town and municipality located in the province of Álava, in the Basque Country, northern Spain. History The first mention of the Zuia Valley is in the document from the year 1025 (though some authors argue that it is poste ...

; they had two children. In June 2018, he married the Spanish blogger and influencer Lidia Bedman-Lapeña. He had two children with Bedman. Abascal is a longtime member of the

Spanish Ornithological Society The Spanish Ornithological Society (in Spanish: Sociedad Española de Ornitología; SEO/BirdLife) is Spain's main bird conservation charity. It was founded in 1954 and has 8,000 members and 50 staff. It is Spain's representative in the BirdLife ...

. Abascal is an affiliate of the ultraconservative association

HazteOir CitizenGO is an ultra-conservatism, conservative advocacy group founded in Madrid, Spain, in 2013 by the ultra-Catholic and far-right HazteOir organization. The foundation aims to be "a community of active citizens that seeks to promote the part ...

(HO) and was the recipient of a HO Award in 2012. Due to recurrent death threats for his political views and work, Abascal is licensed to carry and use a handgun for self-defence. Namely, the license type B, granted to civilians proved to undergo a real high risk of being attacked. Under strictest Spanish gun laws, such licenses are rare, only about 0.02% of population hold them. Abascal was one of several Spanish politicians who tested positive for the

COVID-19 virus Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS‑CoV‑2) is a strain of coronavirus that causes COVID-19 (coronavirus disease 2019), the respiratory illness responsible for the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. The virus previously had a p ...

during the

2020 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identi ...

References

External links

Official website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Abascal, Santiago 1976 births Critics of multiculturalism Living people Male critics of feminism Members of the 7th Basque Parliament Members of the 8th Basque Parliament Members of the 13th Congress of Deputies (Spain) Members of the 14th Congress of Deputies (Spain) Signers of the Madrid Charter Spanish anti-communists Spanish nationalists Spanish people of Basque descent Spanish Roman Catholics Spanish sociologists University of Deusto alumni Vox (political party) politicians Municipal councillors in the Basque Country (autonomous community) Politicians from Bilbao