In 2013, Santiago Abascal was directing the Madrid regional administration-linked Fundación para el Mecenazgo y Patrocinio Social, one of his last posts before leaving the Partido Popular at the end of that year. Reporting placed him at the foundation from 2012 to 2013 and put his salary at about €80,000. Much of his career was spent in elected office, with party and public-sector roles alongside it.
Abascal left the party late that year and soon joined other former PP members in creating Vox. The party made its public debut in January 2014; months later, Abascal became its president. His work has since centred mainly on politics.
Born in Bilbao in 1976 and raised in Amurrio, Álava, Abascal joined the PP at 18 and entered the party’s Álava provincial committee at 20. At 23, in 1999, he became a Partido Popular councillor in Llodio, Álava, and started work as an adviser to the Subdelegation of the Government in Álava. He held the advisory post until 2003. From 23 November 2000 to 2005, he also led Nuevas Generaciones del PP in the Basque Country.
That institutional work overlapped with his studies: Abascal graduated in Sociology from the Universidad de Deusto in 2003. He served as a procurator in the Juntas Generales de Álava from 2003 to 2004 and as a member of the Parlamento Vasco in two periods: January 2004 to February 2005, then October 2005 to January 2009. His first entry into the Basque Parliament followed Carlos de Urquijo’s appointment as Government delegate in the Basque Country; he returned after PP parliamentarian Encina Regalado resigned.
After the Basque Parliament was dissolved in January 2009, Abascal took on posts in Madrid. In 2010, Esperanza Aguirre’s government appointed him director of the Agencia de Protección de Datos de la Comunidad de Madrid. He also represented the regional government on the Consejo Consultivo de la Agencia Española de Protección de Datos. The Madrid setting also appears in coverage of Ayuso's Valencia visit, a separate political story. Abascal remained at the data agency until it was dissolved at the end of 2012.
His earlier roles also included helping establish the Fundación para la Defensa de la Nación Española (DENAES) in 2006, which he chaired for several years. The foundation he directed in 2013 was the Fundación para el Mecenazgo y Patrocinio Social, an entity linked to the regional administration. After leaving the PP, Abascal became a leading figure in Vox, which made its public debut in January 2014.
