Abascal and the Persecution Narrative: VOX's Political Strategy

Abascal turns the attack on his shop into a political weapon

Can a political career be built on victimization? Santiago Abascal, leader of VOX, appears to have made this question his manual of instruction. In a series of messages spread throughout 2020 and 2021, the Basque politician denounced the attack on his family business, distinguished between 'sincere' displays of solidarity and those of 'posturing'—attributed to those who, according to him, have contributed to the demonization of his family—and attacked the Government for taking the King to a 'communist coven' instead of allowing him to go to Barcelona. The thread collecting these interventions, with more than 3,900 replies, has become a thermometer of how Spanish politics has mutated into permanent confrontation.

The attack on the family shop: from the 1999 armor to the persecution narrative

Abascal is no newcomer to street conflicts. In one of the most shared messages, the leader of VOX recalled that the windows of his family business have been armored since 1999, the year when, according to his account, the partners of Sánchez and Iglesias already tried to burn the establishment in February and tried again in August. The anecdote, repeated to the point of exhaustion in the thread, serves to construct a narrative of political harassment with decades of history. The response of the leader of VOX to the shows of support was surgical: he thanked sincere solidarities and despised those of 'posturing,' launching a veiled accusation against those who, from his point of view, have fueled the climate of hostility toward his family.

The King, the coven, and the battle for the institutional narrative

The criticism of the Government for preventing the King from visiting Barcelona and taking him, instead, to an event with 'partners of the narcotyrannies'—in reference to the parliamentary allies of the Executive—is another key piece of Abascal's discourse. The image he qualified as 'da repelús' reflects, according to him, the goal of a Government that 'tramples Spain by humiliating the King.' This type of messages, collected in the thread, show how VOX has transferred the political battle to the symbolic terrain: the Crown, national unity, and institutional dignity as axes of confrontation.

Euthanasia and the 'government of death'

On December 17, 2020, Abascal qualified the approval of the euthanasia law as one of the 'most fateful days of democracy.' In a message collected in the thread, the leader of VOX accused the 'government of death' of condemning the most defenseless and disheartening the weakest. The law, approved by Congress, was one of the points of greatest political tension during the period. The position of VOX, opposed to the regulation, aligns with conservative and religious sectors who see in the norm an attack on human dignity.

León, Agenda 2030, and the abandonment of depopulated Spain

In the territorial sphere, Abascal has focused part of his discourse on depopulation and deindustrialization. At an event in León, he denounced that Agenda 2030 condemns the province to deindustrialization and depopulation, with 'accomplices in all governing parties, from the PP of Mañueco to the communists.' The criticism of Agenda 2030—which VOX links to the ruin of the countryside—has become a mobilization axis in rural areas, where the party has experienced significant electoral growth.

The 'Pedro Sánchez person' and mockery as a political tool

The thread also includes jokes about the President of the Government. One participant joked that 'Pedro Sánchez person' goes for a run every day during quarantine alongside 'President Pedro Sánchez' so as not to get bored. Another commented that the president does not have enough image advisors. These displays of political humor, although apparently frivolous, reflect the perception of a part of the electorate that Sánchez acts more as a media figure than as an administrator.

VOX's strategy: between victimization and mobilization

The thread reveals a dual strategy: on the one hand, VOX presents itself as a victim of political and media persecution; on the other, it uses this same victimization as fuel to mobilize its base. The distinction between sincere solidarity and posturing, the denunciation of the 'government of death,' or the criticism of the 'communist coven' are pieces of the same narrative: Spain is being destroyed by its rulers and only VOX can save it. A narrative that, judging by the activity of the thread, continues to generate both adherences and visceral rejections.

---

In the end, the question is not whether Abascal exaggerates or not. The question is how much of that persecution narrative is real and how much is electoral calculation. And the answer, as almost always in politics, is probably in the voter's pocket.