Santiago Abascal had reserved a slot to record with Jordi Wild on Wednesday. The next day, on 'Espejo Público', the leader of the far-right Vox admitted that he had decided to cancel the appointment and explained what he will now ask of those who want to interview him. Vox will demand to be able to record interviews that are not broadcast live with its own camera and will stop exclusively ceding the rights to its interventions. "It is a strategic decision of our campaign that we will not change in any way," he told Susanna Griso one day before the start of the 29N campaign.
The demand comes with a round of interviews already closed on 'The Wild Project' with Pedro Sánchez, Alberto Núñez Feijóo, Ada Colau and Abascal himself. Jordi Wild maintains that the four teams had signed an agreement to publish the full conversations and that Vox wanted to change the conditions on the eve of the recording. The podcast creator had prepared unagreed questions and had two fact-checkers to verify the answers. "It's a lack of respect for my professionalism," he said in the video that Griso recovered during the interview.
Abascal attributed the change to his appearance on Monday on 'La Revuelta'. He accused Radiotelevisión Española (RTVE) of having "kidnapped 40 minutes of recording" and pointed to Moncloa as responsible for that material remaining unpublished, an accusation for which he provided no evidence. The program's team maintains that Vox knew the editing conditions. Regarding the change of audience, Abascal says he does not know how it was managed and celebrates that it allowed him to speak. David Broncano already explained that the request to manage the capacity came from the Vox team and on Tuesday he apologized for having accepted it.
Griso asked him why Jordi Wild should pay the consequences of a disagreement with another program. Abascal admitted that the creator had been "the victim of a previous mistake of ours" and defended himself against the criticism he had received from the younger audience. He even suggested that it also takes courage to cancel an interview with a creator with so many followers and expose oneself to their reproaches.
From attacks on unions to Abascal's six million
Abascal has presented yesterday's general strike as an operation by the Government and some unions that, according to him, have been "silent as the dead for eight years". He attributed the turnout to intimidation by picketers. The strike had an uneven impact and the marches gathered tens of thousands of people. The Government Delegation estimated 120,000 attendees in Madrid and the Urban Guard counted 55,000 in Barcelona, two cities where disturbances were recorded at the end of the protests. The demands were also directed at the Executive. The Tenants' Union has demanded a reduction in rents and has held governments of different stripes responsible for protecting landlords.
The far-right leader has promised to eliminate or drastically reduce subsidies to unions, employers' associations, and parties if he gets enough support. Griso reminded him that Vox receives public funding and that the elimination of these aids was included in their first program. Abascal defended that his party collects them to compete on equal terms. He also ratified that he aspires to convert Spain into a unitary State, even though Vox shares regional governments with the PP, and has left open the return of powers to the State if he gathers the necessary support.
When talking about housing, Abascal assured that "almost 6 million people have entered Spain in 5 years" and that 400,000 homes have been built in that time. When Griso asked him for the source, he referred to Vox's calculations obtained "through different channels", without explaining what he had counted. The National Institute of Statistics distinguishes between those who arrive and those who leave. In 2024, it registered 1.29 million arrivals from abroad and 662,294 departures, with a balance of 626,268 people. The Bank of Spain, for its part, estimates that between 2021 and 2025, about 750,000 fewer homes were built than households were formed, with more than half of that gap concentrated in six provinces.
The Vox candidate has proposed removing taxes linked to purchase, deregulating construction, and promoting what he calls "re-emigration", which he extends to foreigners who live off public aid. The interview was broadcast on the same morning that the Permanent Deputation validated the first of the housing decrees, with the suspension of evictions for vulnerable households and two-year extensions for certain contracts. The PNV's vote allowed this text to go forward. The second decree, which contemplated indefinite rentals, was rejected.
From taking migrants to the border to saying that gays will vote for Vox "en masse"
Griso asked Abascal if he would expel a person who has already regularized their situation. The ultra leader spoke of protecting those who arrived legally, work, and, in his words, respect "our way of life". He ended by asking those who, in his opinion, do not contribute, those who commit crimes, and those who enter irregularly to leave. In October, Social Security registered close to 3.7 million foreign affiliates, 16.4% of the total. At the end of the month, there were 490,586 active affiliates linked to the extraordinary regularization process.
In Ceuta, Abascal has called for "urgently taking everyone to the border", including minors, and has proposed suspending the friendship agreement with Morocco. The regulations require examining each repatriation of an unaccompanied minor according to their best interest. Regarding arrivals in El Hierro, he has proposed using the Navy to intercept boats and transfer their occupants to a safe port outside of Spain. When Griso asked him which country would receive them, he replied: "We are not going to accept them either". He also accused NGOs of aiding mafias, without presenting evidence. International norms oblige providing assistance to people in danger at sea and cooperating for them to disembark in a safe place.
Asked what an abused woman, a trans person, or a gay man could expect from a Government with Vox, Abascal replied that "homosexual people will end up voting for Vox en masse." He justified it by stating that in France they mainly support Marine Le Pen's party because, according to him, it protects them from the homophobia he attributes to Islamic fundamentalism. Available studies on that vote are scarce. An Ifop poll published before the 2022 French presidential elections placed the voting intention for Le Pen among LGTBI people at 17%, compared to 16% for the electorate as a whole.
Abascal also returned to the 'grandchildren's law' and avoided anticipating whether he would challenge the elections due to the composition of the census. The Supreme Court had already rejected extending to the children of naturalized citizens the precautionary suspension of voting that affects their parents. In the final stretch, he accused the Executive of being a "mafia government that has militias in the streets" and alluded to an attempt to boycott his rally yesterday in Tarragona, without providing evidence linking what happened to the Government. When Griso asked him if he was referring to Pedro Sánchez when speaking of "mafiosos" and "psychopaths," he replied: "I think everyone already knows."
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