El Dioni, from armored van heist to Vox candidate in El Molar, Spain

El Dioni, from the van to the town hall: Vox candidate in El Molar

Forty years after the robbery that made him famous, El Dioni is back in the news. This time it is not for a street heist, but for an electoral announcement: he wants to be mayor of El Molar (Madrid) with the backing of Vox. And he does so with disarming confidence: he claims to have 80% of the vote. The paradox is rich: a self-confessed thief presenting himself as a champion of law and order.

A résumé that doesn't scare anyone off

Four decades after the armored van robbery, the man has racked up a checkered biography. Critics point to episodes beyond the heist itself: according to reports circulating, he allegedly traveled to Paraguay to buy a gun while on the run in Brazil. That past does not seem to be an obstacle for the party that signed him up, but it does fuel the argument of those who see his candidacy as a fruta risk for Vox.

The 80% under suspicion

The level of support the candidate claims is not backed by any known poll. In the comments the news has generated, nobody takes it seriously. Some see poetic justice in a convicted incivil campaigning against law and order. Others go further: they argue that society demands to be swindled, which is why characters like him thrive. The only consensus is that the candidacy turns El Molar into a laboratory of what happens when politics mixes with farce.

Will El Dioni end up in the mayor's office? It will depend on whether the locals share his optimism or whether, as his detractors suspect, the 80% is just the first lie of the campaign.