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Santiago Abascal

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Santiago Abascal
MP
Abascal in 2026
Abascal in 2026
President of Vox
Incumbent
Assumed office
20 September 2014
Vice President Jorge Buxadé
Ignacio Garriga
Preceded by José Luis González Quirós
President of Patriots.eu
Incumbent
Assumed office
16 November 2024
Vice President Kinga Gál
Preceded by Gerolf Annemans
Member of the Congress of Deputies
Incumbent
Assumed office
28 April 2019
Constituency Madrid
Director of the Data Protection Agency of the Community of Madrid
In office
4 February 2010 – 28 December 2012
President Esperanza Aguirre
Preceded by Antonio Troncoso
Succeeded by Position abolished
Member of the Basque Parliament
In office
4 October 2005 – 6 January 2009
Constituency Álava
In office
16 January 2004 – 22 February 2005
Constituency Álava
Member of the General Assembly of Álava
In office
13 June 2003 – 3 February 2005
Constituency Vitoria
Member of the City Council of Llodio
In office
13 June 1999 – 16 June 2007
Personal details
Born Santiago Abascal Conde
14 April 1976
Bilbao, Basque Country, Spain
Party Vox (since 2014)
Other political
affiliations 		People's Party (1994–2013)
Spouse(s) Ana Belén Sánchez Cenador
(m. 2002; div. 2010)
Lidia Bedman
(m. 2018)
Children 5
Parent Santiago Abascal Escuza (father)
Education University of Deusto

Santiago Abascal Conde (Spanish: [sanˈtjaɣo aβasˈkal ˈkonde]; born 14 April 1976) is a Spanish politician who has been the president of Vox, a far-right political party, since 2014. He has also been the president of Patriots.eu since 2024, and has been a member of the Congress of Deputies representing Madrid since 2019.

Before the creation of Vox, Abascal was a member of the centre-right People's Party. As member he served as legislator in the Basque Parliament, founded the Spanish nationalist group Fundación para la Defensa de la Nación Española ('Foundation for the Defence of the Spanish Nation', abbr. Fundación DENAES), and was appointed the director of two public agencies of the Community of Madrid.

Early life

Abascal was born on 14 April 1976 in Bilbao,[1] and grew up in the Province of Álava. His father Santiago Abascal Escuza was a politician and a member of the People's Party, and his grandfather Manuel Abascal Pardo was obliged to be the mayor of Amurrio from 1963 to 1979, during the Francoist era and Spanish transition to democracy.[2] Because of their political work, Abascal's family was routinely threatened by the terrorist group ETA,[3] which forced him to routinely move around with armed security since he was in his early 20s.[4]

Political career

Abascal became a member of the People's Party when he was 18, in 1994.[5][6] He was city councillor of Llodio for two terms (1999–2007).[7] He served in the Basque Parliament from January 2004 to February 2005 representing Álava.[8] He later served again in the regional legislature from October 2005 to January 2009.[9]

After he left Basque politics, Esperanza Aguirre, regional president of the Community of Madrid, hired him as director of the Community of Madrid Data Protection Agency, where he served from February 2010 to December 2012. Abascal was later appointed to another post as Director of the Foundation for Patronage and Social Sponsorship (2013),[5] a publicly funded entity without known activity during Abascal's spell.[10][11]

Abascal left the PP in 2013[6] and helped found a new party, Vox, which was formed on the same day that the Foundation for Patronage and Social Sponsorship dissolved.[10][12] After Vox's bad result in the May 2014 European Parliament election in which it failed to obtain any seats, inner strife followed between a faction represented by party members such as Ignacio Camuñas, José Luis González Quirós and Alejo Vidal-Quadras, and a hardline faction, featuring Abascal along with other figures of the DENAES Foundation.[13] The moderate faction became estranged from the party,[13] and Abascal became the new president on 20 September 2014.[14]

Abascal is a member of the Congreso de los Diputados representing Madrid since May 2019. His party came third in the election for the 14th Congreso, characterised by the BBC as a "far-right surge".[15]

During the 2020 and 2021 electoral campaigns for regional elections in the Basque Country and Catalonia, multiple electoral events featuring Abascal as one of the speakers were attacked by political opponents.[16]

Political positions

Abascal's political programme for 2018 included the expulsion of all illegal immigrants, the construction of "impassable walls" in the Spanish African enclaves of Ceuta and Melilla, the prohibition of the teaching of Islam, the exaltation of "national heroes", the elimination of all regional parliaments and opposition to Catalan nationalism.[17] He used anti-Muslim rhetoric in 2019 and called for a new Reconquista of Spain. Vox increased its share of the vote from 0.2% to 10% in the general election of 2019.[18]

Abascal says if Spain is to have immigration, it needs to be legal and to favour countries from Latin America which already speak Spanish, and share common values. He calls for quotas of immigrants.[19] He has stated that an immigrant from Latin America is not the same as an immigrant from a Muslim country.[20]

Abascal believes that global warming is the "greatest scam in history".[21] He is opposed to Agenda 2030.[22]

Abascal criticised Spanish PM Pedro Sánchez's unilateral recognition of a Palestinian state, saying that it amounts to legitimising the "satanic terrorism" of Hamas, the Palestinian Islamist group responsible for the 7 October attacks.[23] He further criticised Sánchez for knowing "nothing of Israel's history".[24] Months before, the Spanish prosecutor's office had opened an investigation following Abascal's suggestion during an interview with the Argentine newspaper Clarín that a time might come when people would want to "hang [Sánchez] by the feet".[25]

In January 2026, Abascal strongly opposed the Sánchez government's plan to regularise up to 500,000 undocumented migrants, denouncing the measure as a reward for illegality and a threat to public services. He accused Sánchez of encouraging mass immigration through what he described as a "pull effect" and framed the amnesty as part of a broader policy that would undermine Spanish sovereignty and national identity.[26]

Personal life

He married Ana Belén Sánchez, who was herself a PP candidate in local elections in Llodio and Zuia; they had two children. They subsequently divorced.[27] In June 2018, he married the Spanish blogger and influencer Lidia Bedman[28] with whom he had three children.[29][27]

Abascal is a longtime member of the Spanish Ornithological Society.[30] Abascal is an affiliate of the ultraconservative association HazteOir (HO) and was the recipient of a HO Award in 2012.[31]

Due to recurrent death threats for his political views and work, Abascal is licensed to carry and use a handgun for self-defence.[32] Namely, the licence type B, granted to civilians proved to experience a real and high risk of being attacked. Under strict Spanish gun laws, such licenses are rare, as only about 0.02% of the population own them.[33]

Hobbies

Outside politics, Abascal enjoys football, hiking, horseriding and motorbiking.[34]

Football

Abascal is a football fan, though describes himself as "not much of a football fan [these days]". He has a "deep affinity" for the Spain national team and is a supporter of La Liga club Real Madrid.[34]

Abascal was controversially invited to the VIP zone at a La Liga match between Real Madrid and Athletic Bilbao (the club of his home city of Bilbao) in 2019.[35] He was also controversially invited to watch a Segunda División match between Rayo Vallecano and Albacete by Rayo Vallecano President Raúl Martín Presa,[36] which prompted Rayo fans to dress up as cleaners and clean the stadium the following day.[37]

Abascal is critical of the politics of Athletic and Barcelona (Real Madrid's arch rivals), accusing them of mixing politics with sport.[35]

References

  1. Back to citation Amón, Rubén (3 December 2018). "Santiago Abascal, el fan de Marine Le Pen". El País (in Spanish). Retrieved 11 April 2026.
  2. Back to citation "Abascal, el 'ex' del PP que lleva la extrema derecha a la política nacional". Eitb (in Spanish). 3 December 2018. Archived from the original on 4 October 2020. Retrieved 16 January 2019; "Muere Santiago Abascal, exdirigente del PP vasco y padre del líder de VOX". Efe.com (in Spanish). Vitoria. 23 July 2017. Retrieved 16 January 2019; Los Genoveses (27 April 2019). "Santiago Abascal: un ultra con sueldo y pistola". El Plural (in Spanish). Retrieved 1 May 2019; "Santiago Abascal: su pasado, su familia, sus dos mujeres y sus aficiones". Voz Populi. 11 November 2019.
  3. Back to citation Veiga, Diego Rodriguez (9 November 2020). "Abascal revive sus dos dramas con ETA: el ataque familiar y el asesinato de su amigo cartero". El Español.
  4. Back to citation "Abascal: "Nací con la democracia pero llevo tres años con escolta"". ABC (newspaper). 15 June 2002. Retrieved 18 July 2026.
  5. Back to citation occurrence 5.0 Back to citation occurrence 5.1 Gutiérrez, Óscar (5 December 2018). "¿Quién es Santiago Abascal, líder del partido Vox?". 20minutos.
  6. Back to citation occurrence 6.0 Back to citation occurrence 6.1 Amón, Rubén (3 December 2018). "Santiago Abascal, el fan de Marine Le Pen". El País.
  7. Back to citation "Santiago Abascal: del PP vasco a sacudir la política española en Andalucía". La Vanguardia. 3 December 2018.
  8. Back to citation García Martín, Javier (28 April 2019). "La post-España de Santiago Abascal". 20 Minutos (in Spanish). Retrieved 1 May 2019.
  9. Back to citation "Santiago Abascal Conde" (PDF). Voxespana.es (in Spanish). 2019. Archived from the original (PDF) on 21 April 2019. Retrieved 1 May 2019.
  10. Back to citation occurrence 10.0 Back to citation occurrence 10.1 Pérez Mendoza, Sofía (13 January 2019). "La fundación que dirigió Abascal se extinguió sin dejar rastro de su último año de actividad". eldiario.es.
  11. Back to citation Guzmán, Cecilia (6 November 2013). "Santiago Abascal se 'forra' al amparo del PP madrileño". El Plural. Archived from the original on 20 November 2023. Retrieved 2 March 2025.
  12. Back to citation Maestre, Antonio (9 December 2018). "Manual de VOX para antifascistas emocionales". La Marea.
  13. Back to citation occurrence 13.0 Back to citation occurrence 13.1 Sangiao, Sergio (23 January 2019). "Los tránsfugas de Abascal". CTXT.
  14. Back to citation "Santiago Abascal, nuevo presidente de Vox con el 91% de los votos". Publico.es. 20 September 2014. Retrieved 16 January 2019.
  15. Back to citation "Spanish elections: Socialists win amid far-right surge". BBC News. London, U.K. 11 November 2019. Retrieved 7 December 2019.
  16. Back to citation "Vox arranca la campaña en Euskadi con mítines blindados entre piedras y botellas". 26 June 2020; "Lanzan piedras a Abascal en un acto de Vox en Girona". 30 January 2021; "Intento de agresión a Abascal en un acto electoral en Gerona". 30 January 2021.
  17. Back to citation de Laguérie, Henry (14 November 2019). "Santiago Abascal, l'homme derrière le retour de l'extrême droite en Espagne". Le Parisien (in French). Retrieved 20 January 2021.
  18. Back to citation Walker, Kira (29 April 2019). "Spain's far-right makes election gains using anti-Muslim sentiment". The National.
  19. Back to citation "VOX prefiere los inmigrantes procedentes de América Latina". La Vanguardia. 29 March 2019.
  20. Back to citation Sosa, Carlos (17 April 2018). "Abascal (Vox): "No es lo mismo un inmigrante hispanoamericano que la inmigración de los países islámicos"". elDiario.es.
  21. Back to citation Chapelle, Sophie (22 October 2020). "Déni du réchauffement, mépris pour les renouvelables, haine des réfugiés climatiques: le "fascisme fossile"". bastamag.net (in French). Retrieved 20 January 2021.
  22. Back to citation Abascal, Santiago (19 April 2023). "Santiago Abascal denuncia la sumisión de Pedro Sánchez ante Marruecos: "¿Por qué razón lo hace?"". VOX España. YouTube.
  23. Back to citation "VOX Opposes Spanish Socialists' Decision on Palestine". The Conservative. Retrieved 7 July 2024.
  24. Back to citation "Leader of Spain's Vox party criticizes Sánchez over Palestinian state recognition".
  25. Back to citation "Spain's far-right Vox leader probed over 'hang' Pedro Sánchez diatribe". Politico. Retrieved 7 July 2024.
  26. Back to citation Millar, Paul (28 January 2026). "Why Spain is offering amnesty to 500,000 undocumented migrants". France 24.
  27. Back to citation occurrence 27.0 Back to citation occurrence 27.1 "Así es la primera mujer de Santiago Abascal: la expolítica con la que compartió partido y desahucio". El Plural (in Spanish). 25 January 2020. Retrieved 25 January 2020.
  28. Back to citation Villar, C. (9 October 2018). "La boda cool de Santiago Abascal (VOX) con la bloguera Lidia Bedman este verano". El Confidencial (in Spanish). Titania Compañía Editorial, S.L. Retrieved 1 May 2019.
  29. Back to citation "Así es Lidia Bedman, la pareja 'egoblogger' de Santiago Abascal, líder de VOX". La Vanguardia. 30 March 2016. Retrieved 16 January 2019.
  30. Back to citation "Abascal: un aficionado a los pájaros casado con una 'influencer'". Cadena COPE (in Spanish). Radio Popular S.A. 27 November 2018. Retrieved 16 January 2019.
  31. Back to citation Bastante, Jesús (7 December 2018). "Las conexiones de Vox con HazteOir, los 'kikos' y una docena de obispos españoles". eldiario.es (in Spanish).
  32. Back to citation "El permiso tipo B que tiene Abascal: ¿qué armas permite llevar, qué requisitos tiene y cómo se concede?". 20 Minutos. 18 June 2020.
  33. Back to citation Verdu, Daniel (25 October 2016). "Who are Spain's gun owners?". El Pais.
  34. Back to citation occurrence 34.0 Back to citation occurrence 34.1 "¿De qué equipo de fútbol es Santiago Abascal, líder de VOX?". OneFootball. 5 February 2026.
  35. Back to citation occurrence 35.0 Back to citation occurrence 35.1 "Highly controversial far-right politician spotted in VIP zone during Athletic clash". Tribuna.com. 23 December 2019.
  36. Back to citation Lowe, Sid (8 February 2022). "Rayo Vallecano have never been better, but divide between owner and fans has never been greater". ESPN.com.
  37. Back to citation "Watch: Rayo Vallecano supporters clean Estadio de Vallecas after visit of VOX leaders - Football España". 27 April 2021.
Government offices
Preceded by
Antonio Troncoso 		Director of the Data Protection Agency
of the Community of Madrid
2010–2012 		Office abolished
Party political offices
Preceded by
José Luis González Quirós 		President of Vox
2014–present 		Incumbent
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