Vox declares that it has less than half as many members as a year ago

The early call of the Vox general assembly for next January 27 – in which the leadership currently headed by Santiago Abascal must be renewed – has forced the ultra party to reveal its number of members and the figure, 32,690, is surprisingly low. , less than half of those declared a year ago. According to the communication sent by the internal Electoral Committee (CEL) to all members, those who want to dispute the leadership of Vox with Abascal must present the endorsement of 10% of the electoral roll, which amounts to 3,269 members.

In this communication, the CEL explains that the census is made up of all party members up to date with the payment of their dues on December 31 and who were affiliated before April 1 of last year; That is, at the end of last year they had already been in office for nine months and were full members, since Vox imposes a period test to those who enter.

However, according to Vox accounts, audited and presented to the Court of Accounts, the ultra party declared to have a total of 66,059 members at the end of 2022, so it would have lost 33,369 last year, 50.05% of the total. . Although the party has suffered numerous casualties – among others, its former general secretary in Congress, Macarena Olona – these have not been reflected in its accounts, in which it has always declared an increase in membership: 62,374 members in 2020; 63,468 in 2021; and 66,059 in 2022. Four years ago, the then general secretary, Javier Ortega Smith, set the goal of reaching 100,000 members.

Furthermore, the communication from the Electoral Committee (CEL) to the members indicates that they will have a period of seven days, from January 10 to 16, to endorse, through the Vox website, the different candidates to lead the game. It does not explain, however, how the candidates will be announced, since so far only Abascal has announced that he is seeking re-election. He did so at the press conference held at the Vox headquarters last Monday. The internal process includes holding a five-day electoral campaign, from January 20 to 25, so that the different competing candidates can be made known to members by sending an email and calling a telematic meeting. , but these means will only be available to those who, through their own means and without counting on the membership census, have managed to obtain the endorsement of 10% of the internal census.

In the last election of this type, in 2020, the Canarian militant Carmelo González tried to compete for the Presidency of the party, but the CEL proclaimed Abascal president after ensuring that he was the only one who had obtained the necessary endorsements. He never reported how many Abascal received or how many his rival received. This time the process has a guarantee that did not exist then: affiliates can download a printed copy of their endorsement after issuing it, which allows it to be recorded, while four years ago it was said that it was technically impossible.

Critical members maintain, however, that the entire electoral process is flawed since the statutes provide that the election of the National Executive Committee (CEN) be held every four years in an ordinary assembly, not in an extraordinary one like the one that has been called. The main difference between the two is that the ordinary one must be called at least a month in advance and the extraordinary one only 15 days, which makes it difficult for rivals to compete for leadership against Abascal. Only in the event of the dissolution of the CEN can a new one be elected in an extraordinary assembly, but Vox has not reported that its national leadership has resigned. In reality, it could not do so at this moment either, since it is the exclusive responsibility of the CEN to designate the candidates for the Galician elections of February 18, whose names the ultra party has not yet made public. The advance of the Vox assembly, which was scheduled for early March, will allow Abascal to be re-elected as leader of Vox for four more years before the electoral results are known in Galicia, where all the polls predict that he will take a strong blow. and will not be able to enter the regional Parliament.

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