Ortega Smith leaves the Vox group in Congress, joins the Mixed Group and accuses Abascal of "kidnapping" the party

Javier Ortega Smith has chosen for his farewell to Santiago Abascal a letter that the leader of Vox knows very well. The missive with which the ultra founder announces his departure from the parliamentary group is written over the one that Abascal himself sent to Mariano Rajoy in November 2013, when he left the Partido Popular shortly before participating in the founding of Vox.

Almost thirteen years later, the roles have been reversed. Ortega Smith now directs that farewell against his former friend and accuses him of representing an "immovable" leadership that has "kidnapped" the structure, the militants, and the social base of Vox. The rupture culminates months of open war and leaves the ultra formation with one less deputy in Congress.

The parliamentarian for Madrid has filed this Friday a document before the Board of the Lower House to request his withdrawal from the Vox Parliamentary Group and his incorporation into the Mixed Group. He will keep his seat and Abascal's party will go from 33 to 32 representatives.

A farewell written to make Abascal uncomfortable

Ortega Smith presents his departure as "one of the hardest decisions" of his life and assures that he leaves the group with "sadness" and "a feeling of inner tearing". However, the content of the letter constitutes a direct attack on the internal functioning built around Abascal.

The former secretary general maintains that the far-right Vox was for a time "an extraordinary tool," but considers that its leadership has betrayed the values that drove the birth of the party. He also denounces congresses that were never called, controlled assemblies, and an internal machinery dedicated to punishing any dissent.

"The real dissidents of Vox are you. This is as far as we go, president," writes Ortega Smith after assuring that he no longer finds any possibility of changing the course of the organization from within.

The deputy also issues a warning about the future of the formation. He is convinced that "many others" will make the same decision over the coming months, pushed by the "decisions and indecisions" of Abascal as party leader.

The reference to the letter sent to Rajoy is acknowledged by Ortega Smith himself in a footnote. The text recovers part of the tone and structure used at that time by Abascal. The man who helped the current far-right leader break with the PP now uses that same formula to certify his fall from grace within Vox.

From Abascal's right-hand man to the last seat

The departure from the parliamentary group completes a degradation that began almost four years ago. Ortega Smith controlled the General Secretariat of Vox for seven years, directed much of its territorial apparatus and participated in the preparation of candidacies during the party's period of greatest electoral growth.

Abascal replaced him with Ignacio Garriga in October 2022, after Vox had reached 52 deputies and consolidated itself as the third force in Congress. That replacement opened a distance that grew with each new decision by the national leadership.

In January 2024 he lost the party's Vice Presidency and was reduced to a member of the Executive. In November 2025 he was removed as deputy spokesperson in Congress and replaced by Carlos Hernández Quero. A month later he definitively left the National Executive Committee and in January he also lost the Justice spokesperson position.

His parliamentary activity was reduced to a minimum. Ortega Smith was removed from the Permanent Deputation, lost his seat near Abascal and ended up relegated to the upper rows of the chamber. His last intervention in Congress took place on January 27, months before deciding to leave the group.

The Madrid battle precipitated the expulsion

The final confrontation came in the Madrid City Council. The national leadership ordered his replacement as municipal spokesperson in February and chose Arantxa Cabello to replace him. Ortega Smith rejected the decision, argued that it was up to the councilors to choose the spokesperson and attended the plenary session maintaining the position.

Vox responded by provisionally suspending his membership and opening a disciplinary file for disobeying an order from the National Executive Committee. The Guarantees Committee decreed his definitive expulsion on March 6 for an infraction considered "very serious".

The former leader appealed the measure internally and then went to the courts, considering his fundamental rights had been violated. A judge refused to provisionally suspend the expulsion, which ultimately led to his transition to the status of non-affiliated councilor in the Madrid City Council.

The crisis also reached councilors Carla Toscano and Ignacio Ansaldo, close to Ortega Smith and disciplined after supporting his resistance. The fight left the small municipal group divided and extended the war against Abascal to the two institutions where Ortega Smith retains his seat.

The old guard is swept away from Vox

The split adds to a long list of leaders removed or at odds with Abascal. Macarena Olona left the party in 2022 after her candidacy in Andalusia. Iván Espinosa de los Monteros left Congress in 2023 and was definitively expelled from Vox at the beginning of this month after calling for an extraordinary congress.

Rocío Monasterio and Juan García-Gallardo were also left out of the front line, while José Ángel Antelo was removed in Murcia during another internal war with the national leadership. A good part of the names who accompanied Abascal during Vox's growth have ended up resigning, expelled, or relegated.

Ortega Smith had publicly shown his closeness to some of them. In 2025 he attended the presentation of Atenea, the think tank promoted by Espinosa de los Monteros, and asked the party to listen more to civil society. He also criticized Vox's following of Donald Trump and distanced himself from Abascal's boycott of the October 12 parade.

The leadership responded by closing ranks around Garriga and Abascal's trusted core. The political disagreements turned into dismissals and the dismissals finally resulted in disciplinary proceedings.

One less deputy for Vox

Ortega Smith will be the ninth member of the Mixed Group, where he will coincide with the four parliamentarians from Podemos and the representatives of BNG, Compromís, UPN, and Coalición Canaria. His arrival will allow him to negotiate speaking times and initiatives, although belonging to the Mixed Group does not guarantee having a parliamentary quota of one's own either.

For Vox, the immediate consequence is the loss of a seat and a vote in a legislature marked by very tight majorities. Ortega Smith maintains his ultra ideology intact and will likely coincide with his former party in numerous votes, but he will now be able to decide his position without submitting to Abascal's discipline.

The letter also leaves open the continuation of his political career. The deputy assures that he will seek "the most appropriate and effective way" to make his voice heard, an expression that allows for anything from his own platform to collaboration with other former Vox leaders.

Ortega Smith keeps his seat in Congress and his position in the Madrid City Council. Abascal loses the man who for years controlled the party apparatus and accompanied him in his break with the PP. The relationship ends with the same words that the Vox leader used before Rajoy in 2013: "Goodbye and good luck for Spain".