At least in this, Santiago Abascal is clear and consistent. This is what the president of Vox declared in the interview he gave to the newspaper El Mundo this Saturday.
Even so, possibly as a result of the poorly chosen political action of the Popular Party and the notable lack of leadership of its current president Pablo Casado, I am increasingly surprised by moderate-minded friends and acquaintances who tell me about their electoral inclination towards Vox.
The reformist political center in Spain is orphaned, although only at the state level. Well, also in several territories including the Canary Islands. This is not the case in Galicia, Madrid, Castilla y León or Andalusia, where true PP leaders govern.
It is true that said electoral leadership is debatable that they can maintain it in the case of hypothetical general elections. I greatly fear that, just as it is becoming more and more noticeable that it is happening in Lanzarote and the rest of the islands, in the face of hypothetical legislative elections, Vox, even without clear regional limits, will considerably reduce the representation of the Popular Party in the Congress of Deputies.
There are many knowledgeable voices, and even more voters disgusted with Pedro Sánchez's policies and permissiveness with the populists in Pablo Iglesias' fold, who are demanding an alternative with a solid discourse in the political space of liberalism and reformism; or what many simplify by calling it the political center. It gives the impression that Abascal's "cowardly right-wing" comment has awakened sensitivities.
It seems quite obvious that Spain needs the Popular Party to face something like a refoundation and a renewed leadership, ingenious, close to the feelings of the citizens, while being brave and knowing how to communicate, to prevent the dangerous right-wing of Vox from becoming a government alternative.
In any case, even if the Popular Party does not redirect its course and, consequently, Vox could become the second political force in Spain, in no case will Santiago Abascal, Espinosa de los Monteros, Rosario Monasterio, Macarena Olona, Ignacio Garriga, Alejandro Hernández and the rest of Vox leaders represent liberalism or reformism, or what is the same, the political center or the modern right in Spain.
The good thing about the situation is that Santiago Abascal knows it, is clear about it and has confessed it in the El Mundo interview.
Lorenzo Lemaur Santana
Former leader of the PP of Lanzarote and the Canary Islands
Councilor of the Popular Party in Arrecife from 2007 to 2011
