The expulsion of two councilors in Valencia at the end of October adds to a year of internal conflicts in Vox. The far-right party chaired by Santiago Abascal has faced ruptures with Javier Ortega Smith and José Ángel Antelo, in addition to the mobilization of critical voices around Iván Espinosa de los Monteros. The disputes have focused on how decisions are made within the party and on complaints of a lack of internal democracy. The latest clash has opened in Huelva.
The Vox deputy in the Parliament of Andalusia, Rafael Segovia Brome, has asked Tomás Fernández to resign from heading the candidacy for Congress for Huelva for the third consecutive time. After the candidate's refusal and the public defense of his designation by the provincial president, María López Zambrano, Segovia has extended his request: he wants both her and Wenceslao Font, both responsible for the Provincial Executive Committee, to resign.
"If it does not happen voluntarily, I publicly ask the national leadership to agree to their replacement," Segovia states in the communiqué, disseminated personally and to which 'ElConstitucional.es' has had access.
Segovia places the origin of the confrontation in 2019, when he presided over the provincial management committee and already opposed Fernández's designation. He maintains that Vox then had candidates from Huelva capable of heading the list and accuses Fernández of having shown upon his arrival an "arrogant, authoritarian and disrespectful attitude towards the members of Vox Huelva."
The parliamentarian assures that the conflict worsened from 2023. He attributes to the provincial leadership decisions such as removing people from the lists who, according to him, could compete with their superiors, withdrawing coordination functions from critical councilors, and promoting the expulsion of another councilor. He also maintains that false evidence was used against an official who did not follow the committee's instructions.
According to his account, in January 2025 he presented a motion of no confidence against the Provincial Executive Committee and agreed to withdraw it at the request of the national leadership, trusting that the commitments for change would be fulfilled. Fernández's new candidacy, he explains, was what led him to make the confrontation public: "The recent decision to re-designate Tomás Fernández as head of the list has meant for me the confirmation of a deception and the trigger that has led me to make these statements public."
Segovia contrasts the results of the general and regional elections
The deputy uses the electoral results to question Fernández's suitability. According to the figures he includes in his letter, Vox went in the general elections from 52,485 votes and 20.94% in November 2019 to 37,572 votes and 14.63% in 2023. That is almost 15,000 fewer votes and a drop of 6.31 points, the largest for Vox among the Andalusian provinces, according to Segovia.
In contrast to that decline, the parliamentarian highlights that the party went from 17,636 votes in the 2018 regional elections to 27,270 in 2022 and 36,466 in May 2026. Although he acknowledges that these are different elections, he uses the comparison to advocate for a change of candidate and links the growth in the regional elections to his work as an Andalusian parliamentarian.
Asks Vox to act before 29-N
Segovia assures that his request goes beyond the candidacy for Congress and seeks to renew the provincial leadership and recover the collaboration of those who, in his opinion, have been sidelined from the party. He also rules out that he intends to occupy any of the positions whose replacement he demands: "I do not aspire to any position, candidacy, or organic responsibility, nor do I expect to obtain any personal benefit from these statements".
The deputy believes that the national leadership still has room to intervene before the general elections on November 29. At the close of the statement, he insists on his two requests: that Fernández resign from heading the list and that López Zambrano and Font leave their responsibilities on the provincial committee.
