The leader of Vox, Santiago Abascal, responded today, without citing her, to Macarena Olona, former secretary general of his group in Congress, who has accused his former party of having diverted 11 million euros of public funds: seven to the Disenso Foundation; and another four to the company Tizona Comunicación, owned by Kiko Méndez-Monasterio, personal advisor to the leader of the ultra party, and Gabriel Ariza, son of Julio Ariza, patron of the unofficial Vox channel, El Toro TV, formerly Intereconomía.
Interviewed by OKdiary, Abascal has defended the million-dollar transfers from the party to the foundation, but has omitted payments to his advisor’s commercial company. “No detour. The party decides that it annually gives an amount to the foundation to meet its objectives. What is the purpose of Dissent? The cultural battle. The fight against socialist and communist ideas. That we have given seven million? If we could, it would be 77. We are absolutely proud, determined, calm,” he responded.
According to Abascal, Disenso “carries Vox’s international policy” and, thanks to it, the ultra party “has become a benchmark in Latin America.” Furthermore, he stressed, the foundation’s accounts are audited and controlled by the Court of Accounts and Dissent, it has the same president and the same treasurer as the party that finances it. However, according to Disenso’s statutes, which are not available on its website, unlike what happens with other foundations, Abascal is a trustee of the foundation in a personal capacity and not as president of Vox; which means that, even if he were no longer the leader of the party, he would retain his position as patron of Disenso for life.
For his part, the general secretary of the party, Ignacio Garriga, has avoided responding to Olona’s complaints and, in statements to TVE, has limited himself to being ironic. “I left the text comments in high school,” he said. At the journalist’s insistence, he added that “the accounts [de Vox] “They are audited and the Court of Auditors has been clear.” The report of the supervisory body on the accounts of the ultra party in 2018 and 2019 was “favorable with qualifications.” Among other irregularities, he reported that more than 320,000 euros were deposited through ATMs, dividing the deposits into amounts less than 300 euros so as not to have to identify their origin, for which the party could be sanctioned.
Olona assures that there are “very serious indications” in the Vox accounts, that “they reek of corruption,” and she has challenged her former colleagues to denounce her: “If I lie, let them sue me. If I’m telling the truth, let them take out the papers. If there is nothing to hide, we will see you in court.” The former leader of Vox believes that she will not be denounced because that would force Vox to provide the courts with documentation on the ultimate destination of the Dissent payments, which the Court of Accounts does not review. Although Vox has sued journalists for less serious accusations, party sources rule out doing so against Olona for now and invite her to be the one to do so.
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