Ignacio Garriga at EuropaViva2025

Abascal: “All of them (MENAs) need to leave!” Vox ramp up rhetoric at EuropaViva2025

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Santiago Abascal closed the Patriots EU group gathering on Sunday 14th September with an uncompromising message demanding massive remigration of illegal immigrants and MENAs to a jubilent audience at EuropaViva2025 in Madrid, as Spain looks set to be moving towards another general election.

 

The weekend´s event was ostensibly a forum for the European Group Patriots but with limited speakers from other countries on the final day (the absence of Argentinan President Milei except via livefeed) the stage was set for Abascal to rally his supporter base with a fiery speech denouncing the “Caliphate of Brussels” , Islamification of Europe and continuing waves of immigration into Spain.

 

It can be taken as a sign of confidence that there is no softening of the message and with recent opinion polls published in El País by 40db showing Vox are the most popular party amoungst male voters (22.3%) and in age groups up to 44 years old, there was a confidence in the hall that Vox are ready to make the breakthough that has been seen in other Euopean countries. No better example of this could be leader of Portuguese Nationalist Party Chega André Ventura being a key speaker on the closing day.

 

On the same day that Spain was in the international news for the cancellation of La Vuelta due to violence in Madrid, Abascal ramped up the rhetoric against crime and the lack of safety in Spain caused by immigrants , escpecially MENAs (Unaccompained immigrants under 18).

 

Confidence and craze at EuropaViva2025

 

From the moment the conference started, this was definitely a Vox event, with Vox Leader in Catalonia Ignacio Garriga stating proudly on Saturday´s opening that “the left is scared” before launching attacks on both PSOE and PP. Although there were fewer speakers on the final day than previous years, Vox still managed to attract Chega Leader André Ventura and the amount of confidence throughout the weekend from Vox supporters that they are ready to breakthrough was palpable. Vox´s support amoungst working age groups has been growing and that was reflected in the event, with a significant youth attendance and ‘independent’ media platforms from Bipartidismo to think tank Fundación Disenso.

 

Of course, both of the above groups are owned or heavily linked to Vox but it is a sign of the breaking monopoly of traditional media and Vox´s innovation that they no longer feel the need to go through conventional media channels. Instead, Vox can shape the narrative through they own media loop whilst still going direct to voters and it has been undeniably successful.

 

 

Contradictions

 

Still, amidst the eulogies for Charlie Kirk (with Greek Euro MP Afroditi Latinopoulou proclaiming “we are all Charlie Kirk!” after EuropaViva2025 opened on Sunday with a video to the late American commentator) and euphoria, contradictions remain. As always at these events, the most interesting speakers are those away from the main cameras and in a Saturday panel, the contradiction was laid bare by  Vlaams Belang Euro MP Tom Vandendriessche who pointed out is has always been the business community who have pushed for immigrants to undercut wages and not innovate. Warming to his theme, he stated the welfare state is drastically undermined by the erosion of the contribution principle caused by mass immigration. 60 years ago, this is bread and butter social democratic language that would have made up the concerns of Trade Unions against immigration, now it is greeted to stony silence and uncomfortable fidgeting at EuropaViva2025.

 

We saw this again on Sunday, where Abascal decried the number of young Spanish people forced to share fridges with immigrants to leave home but couldn´t find anything to say about a liberal housing policy that allows an eldery generation to turn their own children into renters by flooding up the price of rent thanks to the immigration. Indeed, the American First Policy speaker Kristen Ziccarelli on Saturday talked about how many Americans come on holiday to Spain when the awkward fact for any actual nationalist wanting to give young Spaniards a place to live is the multinational companies like AirBnB and mass tourism are going to have to sit alongside immigration as the first things to go if Vox are serious about housing. 

 

There are still some reckonings with reality that Vox and other Patriotic /Nationalist /Far Right (choose your preference) need to make if they want to solve the problems they have identified.

 

EuropaViva2025- Lessons Learned as Vox turn on PP

 

It is rare in politics that politicians do get to learn from their mistakes and Abascal has, after an intellectually incoherent and electorally damaging support for PP in almost every regional government in Spain over the previous years, realised they are not his friends. We heard more about the PP-PSOE coalition and how both parties are offering the same politics around immigration that Spanish voters do not want. This is not the language of someone looking for a co-alition deal and the concern for PP is , much like the dying Conservative party in the UK who also completely failed to deliver immigration restrictions, if they don´t get immigration down heavily the next time they take office, Vox won´t give them a second chance.

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