Santiago Abascal Conde (; born 14 April 1976) is a Spanish politician who has been the president of Vox since 2015. He has also been the president of Patriots.eu since 2024, and has been a member of the Congress of Deputies representing

Madrid Madrid ( ; ) is the capital and List of largest cities in Spain, most populous municipality of Spain. It has almost 3.5 million inhabitants and a Madrid metropolitan area, metropolitan area population of approximately 7 million. It i ...

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 The Basque Parliament (Basque language, Basque: ''Eusko Legebiltzarra'', Spanish language, Spanish: ''Parlamento Vasco'') is the legislative body of the Basque Country (autonomous community), Basque Autonomous Community of Spain and the elected ...

, founded the Spanish nationalist Foundation for the Defence of the Spanish Nation (, or DENAES) and exerted the role of director of publicly funded entities of the Community of Madrid.

Biography

Early life

Abascal was born in

Bilbao Bilbao is a city in northern Spain, the largest city in the Provinces of Spain, province of Biscay and in the Basque Country (greater region), Basque Country as a whole. It is also the largest city proper in northern Spain. Bilbao is the List o ...

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 Amurrio is a town and Municipalities of Spain, municipality located in the northwest part of the province of Álava, in the Basque Country (autonomous community), Basque Country, northern Spain. It has over 10,000 inhabitants. It is between Vitori ...

from 1963 to 1979, during the dictatorship of Franco and

Spanish transition to democracy The Spanish transition to democracy, known in Spain as (; ) or (), is a period of History of Spain, modern Spanish history encompassing the regime change that moved from the Francoist dictatorship to the consolidation of a parliamentary system ...

. Because of their political work, Abascal's family was routinely threatened by the terrorist group

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

Political career

Abascal became a member of the People's Party when he was 18, in 1994. He was city councillor of

Llodio Laudio in Basque or Llodio in Spanish is a town and municipality located in the province of Álava, in the Basque Country, northern Spain. Geography and Demography Llodio is an important industrial center located at 50 km NW from the provinc ...

for two terms (1999–2007). He served in the

from January 2004 to February 2005 representing

Álava Álava () or Araba (), officially Araba/Álava, is a Provinces of Spain, province of Spain and a historical territory of the Basque Country (autonomous community), Basque Country, heir of the ancient Basque señoríos#Lords of Álava, Lordship ...

. He later served again in the regional legislature from October 2005 to January 2009. After he left Basque politics, Esperanza Aguirre, regional president of the Community of Madrid, hired him as director of the Community of Madrid Data Protection Agency, where he served from February 2010 to December 2012. At this time, he was known in Spain as "El que te focka, el que te parte la boca". 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 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 followed 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) is a Spanish former politician and radiation physicist. Born in Barcelona, he served as a Member of the European Parliament from 1999 to 2014 and served as First Vice President of the European Parlia ...

, and a hardline faction, featuring Abascal along with other figures of the DENAES Foundation. The moderate faction became estranged from the party, and Abascal became the new president on 20 September 2014. 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, characterised by the

BBC The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) is a British public service broadcaster headquartered at Broadcasting House in London, England. Originally established in 1922 as the British Broadcasting Company, it evolved into its current sta ...

as a "far-right surge". During the 2020 and 2021 electoral campaigns for regional elections in the Basque Country and

Catalonia Catalonia is an autonomous community of Spain, designated as a ''nationalities and regions of Spain, nationality'' by its Statute of Autonomy of Catalonia of 2006, Statute of Autonomy. Most of its territory (except the Val d'Aran) is situate ...

, multiple electoral events featuring Abascal as one of the speakers were attacked by political opponents.

Political positions

Santiago Abascal en la CPAC en Washington 23

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 Ceuta (, , ; ) is an Autonomous communities of Spain#Autonomous cities, autonomous city of Spain on the North African coast. Bordered by Morocco, it lies along the boundary between the Mediterranean Sea and the Atlantic Ocean. Ceuta is one of th ...

and

Melilla Melilla (, ; ) is an autonomous city of Spain on the North African coast. It lies on the eastern side of the Cape Three Forks, bordering Morocco and facing the Mediterranean Sea. It has an area of . It was part of the Province of Málaga un ...

, the prohibition of the teaching of Islam, the exaltation of "national heroes", the elimination of all regional parliaments and opposition to

Catalan nationalism Catalan nationalism promotes the idea that the Catalan people form a distinct nation and national identity. A related term is Catalanism (, ), which is more related to Regionalism (politics), regionalism and tends to have a wider meaning, most pe ...

. He used anti-Muslim rhetoric in 2019 and called for a new

Reconquista The ''Reconquista'' (Spanish language, Spanish and Portuguese language, Portuguese for ) or the fall of al-Andalus was a series of military and cultural campaigns that European Christian Reconquista#Northern Christian realms, kingdoms waged ag ...

of Spain. Vox increased its share of the vote from 0.2% to 10% in the general election of 2019. He has also expressed disappointment towards

Morocco Morocco, officially the Kingdom of Morocco, is a country in the Maghreb region of North Africa. It has coastlines on the Mediterranean Sea to the north and the Atlantic Ocean to the west, and has land borders with Algeria to Algeria–Morocc ...

and how it handles the border by allowing illegal immigrants to cross. This has led to conversations about the status of

Spanish Sahara Spanish Sahara (; ), officially the Spanish Possessions in the Sahara from 1884 to 1958, then Province of the Sahara between 1958 and 1976, was the name used for the modern territory of Western Sahara when it was occupied and ruled by Spain bet ...

. Abascal has expressed a different way to handle it (unlike the other parties that favour abandoning it to Morocco); that the people of the

Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic The Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic (SADR), also known as the Sahrawi Republic and Western Sahara, is a partially recognized state in the western Maghreb, which claims the non-self-governing territory of Western Sahara, but controls only ...

have the right to self-determination, with the hopeful outcome of choosing to remain and integrate as the

. Abascal says if Spain is to have immigration, it needs to be legal and to favour countries from Latin America which already speak Spanish, and share common values. He calls for quotas of immigrants. He has stated that an immigrant from Latin America is not the same as an immigrant from a Muslim country. Abascal believes that

global warming Present-day climate change includes both global warming—the ongoing increase in global average temperature—and its wider effects on Earth's climate system. Climate change in a broader sense also includes previous long-term changes ...

is the "greatest scam in history". He is opposed to Agenda 2030. Abascal criticised Spanish PM

Pedro Sánchez Pedro Sánchez Pérez-Castejón (; born 29 February 1972) is a Spanish politician who has served as Prime Minister of Spain since 2018. He has also been Secretary-General of the Spanish Socialist Workers' Party (PSOE) since July 2017, having p ...

's unilateral recognition of a Palestinian state, saying that it amounts to legitimising the "satanic terrorism" of

Hamas The Islamic Resistance Movement, abbreviated Hamas (the Arabic acronym from ), is a Palestinian nationalist Sunni Islam, Sunni Islamism, Islamist political organisation with a military wing, the Qassam Brigades. It has Gaza Strip under Hama ...

, the Palestinian Islamist group responsible for the 7 October attacks. He further criticised Sánchez for knowing "nothing of Israel's history". 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 ánchezby the feet".

Personal life

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

and Zuia; they had two children. They subsequently divorced. In June 2018, he married the Spanish blogger and influencer Lidia Bedman with whom he had two children. Abascal is a longtime member of the Spanish Ornithological Society. Abascal is an affiliate of the ultraconservative association

HazteOir CitizenGO is an Ultraconservatism, ultra-conservative advocacy group founded in Madrid, Spain, in 2013 by the ultra-Catholic and far-right HazteOir organization, a similar Spanish platform that has been dedicated to the fight against "gender ide ...

(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 licence 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.

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) 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 Members of the 15th Congress of Deputies (Spain)