“We have not died. “Killing Vox is not going to be so easy!” Santiago Abascal claimed last night who, except for this initial joke, was rather contained in his enthusiasm. There was satisfaction, but no euphoria. The party has achieved what it set out to do, but there is a bittersweet taste, since they have lost the leadership of the right to the benefit of the PP.
In data, Vox has obtained a quarter of a million votes this 12-M and is growing – moderately – in the four constituencies. Ignacio Garriga’s candidacy has resisted the tough competition that has arisen in Catalonia on the right and will be able to maintain its parliamentary group of eleven deputies. Furthermore, he maintains his presence in the four provinces – with seven seats in Barcelona and one in Girona, Lleida and Tarragona – which is another of the challenges that he had set for himself. “Vox has achieved good results and consolidated itself in Catalonia,” Abascal stated. The electoral ground is robust.
However, the eleven deputies are not going to contribute to any governance scheme. All parties, except the PP, have already made it clear in the campaign that they will not actively or passively accept the votes of the ultras. The PSC candidate, Salvador Illa, winner of the elections, made it very clear. And Abascal himself ruled out last night that the Vox deputies are going to favor the investiture of the socialist leader. He insisted that the PSC “is just another separatist party.”
Vox has also not managed to stay ahead of its main adversary, the PP, a possibility that it had entertained, encouraged by the polls in the final stretch of the campaign. It has not been. The popular ones have beaten them with a spectacular increase that has taken them to 15 seats. Abascal couldn’t hide his disappointment. “We are glad that the PP has been able to resolve part of its obsessions with Vox. Maybe they don’t have it so close at hand to make us disappear and they have to settle for overcoming Vox,” he said, ironically, when asked about the result of the fight with the PP. “We aspire to greater things, to defeat separatism. The PP has had cheaper ambitions in these elections and its obsession was Vox,” he stressed.
It also remains to be seen what role the eleven Vox deputies can play in the new legislature. “We are not going to let you down,” Garriga assured those who voted for him last night. These three years of opposition have nothing to do with the four years that we are going to lead,” she announced.
In terms of agreements, it will be difficult for them to have room for maneuver. In the last three years, the cordon sanitaire agreed upon by the majority of parliamentary groups – except PP and the now defunct Cs – allowed Vox to be cornered. It is likely that the pact will be revalidated in the new legislature. Only the PP has remained on the sidelines, but taking into account that the deputies of both formations do not reach a fifth of the chamber, it is easy to foresee the parliamentary marginality that once again awaits Vox.
All these circumstances could have caused the euphoria to be contained last night. During the count, at some point during the night there were thirteen deputies, which by the end were already eleven. In the Barcelona hotel where Abascal, Garriga and the rest of the Vox leaders followed the scrutiny, a scenario had been considered that was finally abandoned. Next to the stage, the windows were open to the street and green light spotlights had been installed facing Gran Via so that, in the absence of a balcony to go out to, the Vox leaders could look out to greet the supporters waiting. on the street. However, when they arrived at the room where the press was working and where a hundred supporters were waiting, a triumphant entrance to the chords of one of Vox’s anthems in the campaign, music with epic Gladiator-style overtones, the windows were already closed.
