Vox breaks promise to repeal VIOGEN law, fracturing base

Vox and VIOGEN: broken promises fracture the far-right electorate

The scene repeats whenever Santiago Abascal speaks in Congress: one part of the bench watches with devotion, while another grits its teeth. This week, the Vox leader defended his party’s stance on gender-based violence, and outside the chamber, social media erupted. “Abascal inspires both shame and disgust,” summarized an anonymous user. The reason: Vox has effectively accepted the VIOGEN law, the very legislation they promised to repeal.

The controversy is not new, but it reached a critical point in June 2026. Vox maintains its official position: rejecting the concept of “gender violence” as ideological and advocating for a neutral “intra-family violence” law. However, in regional governments where they hold power—Extremadura, Castilla y León, Aragon—they have not included the repeal of VIOGEN among their demands. “Vox broke the previous government because they couldn't stomach the blue PSOE; now they have surrendered to them to touch power,” can be heard in analyses from their most critical base.

The dilemma of strategic voting versus ideological purity

One school of thought argues that pragmatism is inevitable. “Without a strong Vox, a purer party will never emerge,” they argue, pointing to the Italian case: Meloni was created to block Salvini, and later an even more right-wing formation appeared. According to this reasoning, Vox is the mother of all alternatives: the larger they are, the more space they open for more radical options. The other possibility is that the left-wing government continues “inventing new forms of VIOGEN.”

But the other side of the coin is disappointment. “Vox has buried every issue one by one except immigration,” summarizes an analysis circulating online. The party that burst onto the scene in 2018 with a disruptive discourse on economic, social, and identity issues has become, according to detractors, “a PP with bullfighting hobbies, little culture, and bad manners.” Immigration is the only wildcard left to mobilize voters, and that, they warn, is exhausting.

What does Vox’s official position say?

Vox’s stance on gender violence, as of June 2026, has not formally changed. They reject the VIOGEN law because, they argue, “it establishes exceptional courts based on the sens of the aggressor/victim.” Instead, they propose a domestic violence law that protects everyone equally: women, men, children, and the elderly. However, this proposal has not translated into legislative initiatives in the communities where they govern, fueling the sense that the concession is tactical, not ideological.

Pacts with the PP have been the main battleground. In Castilla y León, for example, Vox conditioned its support on eliminating hiring bonuses for women in underrepresented sectors, but failed to include a review of VIOGEN. “Mañueco lives comfortably settled in feminism, now endorsed by Vox,” critics ironize.

The data that disorients

Nevertheless, dissatisfaction has not led to a massive flight of votes. “Abstainers are trash with Dunning-Kruger effect,” a Vox supporter snapped at those threatening not to vote. The reason is that the alternative is not more attractive: choosing not to vote or voting for marginal formations like Alvise (who remains in the background) only guarantees more time of PSOE government. Meanwhile, Vox remains, for many, the only possibility to damage the system.

The gap between the initial promise and the reality of governance has created a breach that, depending on the state of the debate, remains open. And the worst thing for Abascal’s party is that, the more time passes without repealing VIOGEN, the harder it will be to explain to their base that this betrayal was necessary.