Vox (Spanish political party)

VOX
President	Santiago Abascal Conde
Secretary-General	Javier Ortega Smith-Molina
Founded	17 December 2013
Ideology	Spanish nationalism Social conservatism Economic liberalism Political Catholicism Centralism[1] National conservatism Soft Euroscepticism[2] Monarchism
Political position	Right-wing
Religion	Roman Catholicism
European affiliation	None
Colours	Green
Town councillors	22 / 67,611
Mayors in Spain	2 / 8,122
Website
www.voxespana.es
Politics of Spain Political parties Elections

Vox (often stylized as VOX) is a right-wing political party in Spain founded on 13 December 2013 by former members of the People's Party (PP). It proposes the criminalization of abortion and centralization of the Spanish state.

History

It was founded on 17 December 2013,^[3] and publicly launched at a press conference in Madrid on 16 January 2014.^[4][5] The reasons for this schism seem to be the way the incumbent PP government dealt with the issue of the violence of separatist group ETA, the fiscal policy of the PP and the desire for a more centralized government in contrast to the current, quasi-federal political system ("State of Autonomies") instituted in 1978. Vox opposes Basque and Catalan separatism in general.^[5] VOX have labelled themselves as a right-wing and Christian democratic party. The first provisional chairman was the philosopher José Luis González Quirós (provisional until the party's internal election in late 2014). Other members are Santiago Abascal, Iván Espinosa de los Monteros and José Antonio Ortega Lara (well known for having been kidnapped by ETA for more than a year).

Vox ran for the first time in the 2014 European elections but narrowly failed to win a seat in the European Parliament,^[6] in part due to the head of the electoral list, a former PP MEP who has since left the party.

Starting with a focus in economically liberal stances and recentralization proposals, the focus of their message shifted towards stances compatible with the european right wing populism,^[7] endorsing islamophobic and anti-immigration discourses as well as criticism of multiculturalism.^[7]

In September 2014 the party elected Santiago Abascal, one of the founders, as new president, and Iván Espinosa de los Monteros, also a founder, as secretary general. Eleven other members of the Comité Ejecutivo Nacional were elected, most without previous political activities as they have a background of business people and scholars.

Results of Vox (2014 European elections in Spain)

Results

References