Vox calls on the PP and Ciudadanos to join their mobilization "so that the Government falls"

The leader of Vox, Santiago Abascal, during an intervention in Congress. Uly Martín

Vox calls on the other political parties that reject the reform of the crime of sedition —in the first place, PP and Ciudadanos— to join the mobilizations that it has called "so that the Government of treason and ruin falls," in the words of its president, Santiago Abascal.

As in February 2019, the Plaza de Colón could be the scene of a great concentration of all right-wingers, but, unlike then, Abascal will not be a minor guest, but the host.

The call puts the PP in an embarrassing situation because, although it shares its resounding rejection of the reform agreed by the PSOE and United We Can, Vox has called alone, without coordinating with the other forces of the right, which could lead to popular leaders to end up joining the demonstration of a party that is not his.

All attention will focus on the possible assistance of the mayor of Madrid, José Luis Martínez-Almeida, and the president of the Community, Isabel Díaz Ayuso, who competes with Abascal in inflamed rhetoric.

Abascal reacted with a laconic "betrayal" to the announcement of the reform of the Penal Code made on Thursday by Pedro Sánchez in an interview on La Sexta.

However, although it is a matter of great interest to Vox – which has made the confrontation with the Catalan independence fighters one of its hallmarks since its inception – the party delayed its response for more than 24 hours.

He waited for, on Friday afternoon, the president of the PP, Alberto Núñez Feijóo, to make his position public in an appearance without questions before the press.

Feijóo promised to resurrect the crime of sedition if he arrives at La Moncloa, but did not say a word about presenting a motion of censure, although the president of Ciudadanos, Inés Arrimadas, had asked him and had anticipated that he would have their votes.

The PP leader's response was considered "very weak" in Vox circles.

“It is no longer enough to tear your clothes off as the PP does and announce that one day the unjust laws of social communism will be repealed.

That day, if it comes, may already be late.

We have to fight them now”, wrote in an editorial

organ of Disenso, the foundation that Abascal presides over.

On Friday, Abascal called a press conference for this Monday (the first since last February, although in September he answered journalists at the CEU San Pablo University);

and on Saturday, he announced the holding of demonstrations in the Plaza de Sant Jaume in Barcelona, ​​the next day 19;

and in the Plaza de Colón, in Madrid, on the 27th, in addition to concentrations before the town halls of the provincial capitals.

The call is only signed by Vox and its union arm, Solidarity.

However, despite the fact that the objective of the mobilization is to force the resignation of the Government and the early calling of elections, Abascal is reluctant to use the constitutionally provided instrument to achieve it: the presentation of a motion of censure.

Even if the Government won it, as is foreseeable, its processing would delay the approval of the reform of the Penal Code until next year, stresses Arrimadas.

The outlook could not be better for Abascal: with Núñez Feijóo out of Congress and unable to intervene in the debate, it would be the opportunity to go head-to-head with Sánchez and regain prominence at a time when all the polls turn their backs on him.

However, the fiasco of the motion of censure that he presented in October 2020, and which caused his definitive break with the previous leader of the PP, Pablo Casado, makes Abascal hesitate.

The vice president and former general secretary of Vox, Javier Ortega Smith, assured on Friday that there are more than enough reasons to present a motion of censure against Pedro Sánchez and that his party is always studying this possibility, but added that “others [referring to the PP] they could step forward and, until now, they have not said that they intend to do so.”

That same day Vox recalled, through social networks, that "the PP and Ciudadanos voted to keep Sánchez" in power, by rejecting Abascal's motion of censure in 2020, which was only supported by the 52 deputies of his group.

It is not clear that he now obtained a better result.

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