Santiago Abascal has decided to make his first major coup in the leadership of the party after the poor results achieved in the elections in Andalusia, where he hoped to enter the regional government, and after the recent and serious crisis that broke out. The candidate of the extreme right in these autonomous communities, Macarena Olona, who now threatens to lead a new project after Espinoza de los Monteros closed the door to a return. The first head was Javier Ortega Smith, who was replaced this Thursday in the General Secretariat and Organization by Ignacio Garriga, who was a candidate for the Generalitat. The Catalan MP, a confidant of Jorge Buxade, will now have all the power previously wielded by Ortega Smith, who has been under increasing domestic criticism for a lack of control over the territories he has ruled for a while. About local and regional elections.
The Madrid deputy and councilor took to his Twitter to say goodbye to his colleagues in the region, announcing that from now on he will join the task carried out by the Speaker of the Madrid City Council and prepare the 2023 campaign after ratification. As a municipal candidate of the National Executive Committee of the far-right formation. His version of events, as he said in statements to reporters in the corridors of Congress, is that he made the decision that he could dedicate himself exclusively to the “victory” of Madrid, because this function was not compatible with the General Secretariat. Regional and municipal elections, where he had to support candidates from all over Spain. However, Vox promoted him as the party’s vice president and appointed him as the legal head of the congressional caucus, which, he said, does not require much dedication and does not force him to be in direct contact with everyone. territories.
Shortly after the management announced his replacement, Abascal thanked him for his work on social networks and emphasized that he will continue with him in the direction, but as a “vice president”, one of three in Vox, he does not know what content. will be assigned. The other two vice-presidents include MEP and national speaker Jorge Buxade and Reyes Romero. “For years, crossing the desert, I felt that my friend, comrade and companion, Javier Ortega Smith, was next to me. I am happy to know that I am now in the position of vice president and I hope very soon in the office of the mayor of Madrid,” dared the president of Vox, who, according to OK Diario, created a cabinet to prepare election candidates, from which he excluded the one he calls his “friend and comrade-in-arms”.
With his appointment as Madrid’s mayoral candidate, speculation that the party leadership was going to hand Ortega Smith to lead the Castilla-La Mancha poster in the regional elections is put to rest, given his connection to Toledo. , where he owns a cigar and where he got married. The Vox leader himself reinforced this possibility in various visits to the region, noting that he would without exception be “where it was most needed and useful for the party.” In this Thursday’s gesture, those who insisted that the current speaker of the Madrid Assembly, Rocio Monastero, was going to be the head of a municipal cartel to fight against the current mayor, José Luis Martínez-Almeida, instead of repeating. Isabel Dias Ayuso in the community of Madrid, because in Vox they do not have the slightest doubt that the autonomous leader of the PP will steal the capital again.
But what Ortega Smith used most thoroughly was to try to separate his departure from the tension with Macarena Olona or the internal criticism he faces from some of his party colleagues over the chaos in the territories. “It doesn’t matter,” he repeated this Thursday, referring to Olona. “I was the one who was offered to accept such an important, demanding and responsible challenge, I considered the decision. she said.
The former candidate for the Andalusian junta has made no secret of his discomfort with Ortega Smith, against whom he pointed out, without citing him, in an interview with ABC in which he denounced the “lack of internal democracy” and “lynching” at Vox. that some leaders organized against him after he failed to meet the expectations set there. The result of their complaints was the lapidary phrase of the Speaker of the Parliament, Iván Espinosa de los Monteros: “Indeed, this is the end of the road.” Olona replied that this is “just the beginning”. This Thursday, ex-Granada MP Ortega fired Smith, also in his own way and unabashedly, on Twitter.
The truth is that recently the performance of Ortega Smith, who also combined his municipal position with a congressional seat, has been questioned internally by some of his party colleagues. These critical voices, along with his management, believe that “he was covering up too much power that he used unceremoniously”, but without being able to stop the internal crisis that Vox has been experiencing in recent years. The latter, which led to the resignation of the party leadership in Badajoz this Thursday. They also reprimanded him for neglecting his duties as a councilor or deputy in his desire to pile up accusations. In fact, Almeida himself repeatedly reprimanded him for his repeated absences from the city council.
But tensions in the party have already spilled over into many factions with the nearness of a dual election appointment in May 2023. The lack of news about the candidacies is causing nerves among those who aspire to repeat themselves in the lists. In many municipalities in Madrid or other provinces, they have no idea who to install, according to some former members of the formation who know their equipment well.
“After the disastrous results in Andalucia, we already know the nervousness that has been created in those positions that want to receive at least a small salary in the municipal elections. They see the weakness of the project and the lack of proposals close to the citizens. Most of all he knows deep down that he won’t even become a councilor because of the mistakes he made,” wrote a group of Barcelona critics on a Telegram account this week.
Meanwhile, in Murcia, the deputies who were expelled from Vox and forced to readmit, but no longer follow the party’s instructions, are the ones who are helping Olona to promote this “new project” that the former Alicante leader announced a few days ago. And for those who are in a hurry to find funding. At the moment, the president of Alianza Cívica, Herenia Trillo, denied that Olona is going to lead the party and demanded a correction of the digital media that published it.
This weekend, Vox will try to build unity and close ranks, and Ortega Smith and Ignacio Garriga will participate in the VIVA 22 macro event with Santiago Abascal.
Source: El Diario
