Santiago Abascal | |
|---|---|
_(cropped).jpg) Abascal in 2025 | |
| President of Vox | |
| Assumed office 20 September 2014 | |
| Vice President | Jorge Buxadé Ignacio Garriga |
| Preceded by | José Luis González Quirós |
| President of Patriots.eu | |
| Assumed office 16 November 2024 | |
| Vice President | Kinga Gál |
| Preceded by | Gerolf Annemans |
| Member of the Congress of Deputies | |
| Assumed office 21 May 2019 | |
| Constituency | Madrid |
| Director of the Data Protection Agency of the Community of Madrid | |
| In office 4 February 2010 – 28 December 2012 | |
| President | Esperanza Aguirre |
| Preceded by | Antonio Troncoso |
| Succeeded by | Position abolished |
| Member of the Basque Parliament | |
| In office 4 October 2005 – 6 January 2009 | |
| Constituency | Álava |
| In office 16 January 2004 – 22 February 2005 | |
| Constituency | Álava |
| Member of theGeneral Assembly of Álava | |
| In office 13 June 2003 – 3 February 2005 | |
| Constituency | Vitoria |
| Member of theCity Council of Llodio | |
| In office 13 June 1999 – 16 June 2007 | |
| Personal details | |
| Born | Santiago Abascal Conde (1976-04-14)14 April 1976 (age 48) Bilbao,Basque Country, Spain |
| Political party | Vox (since 2014) |
| Other political affiliations | People's Party (1994–2013) |
| Spouse(s) | |
| Children | 4 |
| Parent |
|
| Alma mater | University of Deusto |
| Signature |  |
Santiago Abascal Conde (Spanish:[sanˈtjaɣoaβasˈkalˈkonde]; born 14 April 1976) is a Spanish politician and since September 2014 the leader of the far-right political partyVox. Abascal is amember of the Congress of Deputies representingMadrid since 2019. Since November 2024 he is also the president of the European right-wing political partyPatriots.eu.
Before the creation of Vox, Abascal was long a member of the centre-rightPeople's Party, served as legislator in theBasque Parliament, founded theSpanish nationalist Foundation for the Defence of the Spanish Nation (Spanish:Fundación para la Defensa de la Nación Española, or DENAES) and exerted the role of director of publicly funded entities of the Community of Madrid.
Abascal was born inBilbao but grew up in theProvince of Álava: his fatherSantiago 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 ofAmurrio from 1963 to 1979,[1] during thedictatorship of Franco andSpanish transition to democracy.[2][3][4][5] Because of their political work, Abascal's family was routinely threatened by the terrorist groupETA.[6]
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Abascal became a member of thePeople's Party when he was 18, in 1994.[7][8] He was city councillor ofLlodio for two terms (1999–2007).[9] He served in theBasque Parliament from January 2004 to February 2005 representingÁlava.[10] He later served again in the regional legislature from October 2005 to January 2009.[11]
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. Abascal was later appointed to another post as Director of the Foundation for Patronage and Social Sponsorship (2013),[7] a publicly funded entity without known activity during Abascal's spell.[12][13]
Abascal left the PP in 2013[8] and helped found a new party,Vox, which was formed on the same day that the Foundation for Patronage and Social Sponsorship dissolved.[12][14] After Vox's bad result in theMay 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 andAlejo Vidal-Quadras, and a hardline faction, featuring Abascal along with other figures of the DENAES Foundation.[15] The moderate faction became estranged from the party,[15] and Abascal became the new president on 20 September 2014.[16]
Abascal is a member of theCongreso de los Diputados representing Madrid since May 2019. His party came third in the election for the14th Congreso, characterised by theBBC as a "far-right surge".[17]
During the 2020 and 2021 electoral campaigns for regional elections in theBasque Country andCatalonia, multiple electoral events featuring Abascal as one of the speakers were attacked by political opponents.[18][19][20]
Abascal's political programme for 2018 included the expulsion of all illegal immigrants, the construction of "impassable walls" in the Spanish African enclaves ofCeuta andMelilla, the prohibition of the teaching of Islam, the exaltation of "national heroes", the elimination of all regional parliaments and opposition toCatalan nationalism.[21] He usedanti-Muslim rhetoric in 2019 and called for a newReconquista of Spain. Vox increased its share of the vote from 0.2% to 10% in the general election of 2019.[22]
He has also expressed disappointment towardsMorocco and how it handles the border by allowing illegal immigrants to cross. This has led to conversations about the status ofSpanish Sahara. Abascal has expressed a different way to handle it (unlike the other parties that favour abandoning it to Morocco); that the people of theSahrawi Arab Democratic Republic have the right to self-determination, with the hopeful outcome of choosing to remain and integrate as theSpanish Sahara.
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.[23] He has stated that an immigrant from Latin America is not the same as an immigrant from a Muslim country.[24]
Abascal believes thatglobal warming is the "greatest scam in history".[25] He is opposed toAgenda 2030.[26]
Abascal criticised Spanish PMPedro Sánchez's unilateral recognition of a Palestinian state, saying that it amounts to legitimising the "satanic terrorism" ofHamas, the Palestinian Islamist group responsible for the7 October attacks.[27] He further criticised Sánchez for knowing "nothing ofIsrael's history".[28] Months before, the Spanish prosecutor's office had opened an investigation following Abascal's suggestion during an interview with the Argentine newspaperClarín that a time might come when people would want to "hang [Sánchez] by the feet".[29]
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He first married Ana Belén Sánchez, who was herself a PP candidate in local elections inLlodio andZuia; they had two children. They subsequently divorced.[30] In June 2018, he married the Spanish blogger and influencer Lidia Bedman[31] with whom he had two children.[32][30] Abascal is a longtime member of theSpanish Ornithological Society.[33] Abascal is an affiliate of the ultraconservative associationHazteOir (HO) and was the recipient of a HO Award in 2012.[34]
Due to recurrent death threats for his political views and work, Abascal is licensed to carry and use a handgun for self-defence.[35] 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.[36]
| Government offices | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by | Director of the Data Protection Agency of the Community of Madrid 2010–2012 | Office abolished |
| Party political offices | ||
| Preceded by | President ofVox 2014–present | Incumbent |
