Santiago Abascal urged voters in Ponferrada to distrust election polls and turn out on 29 November. He rejected claims Vox would privatise pensions, saying payments would continue whatever the cost.
At the heart of Santiago Abascal’s pension argument in Ponferrada was his claim that the danger came from public finances, not Vox’s plans. The party’s candidate for La Moncloa blamed what he called excessive public spending and taxation. He also cited the deficit and public debt as risks to the pension system, while rejecting claims that Vox planned to privatise it.
Abascal said Vox would maintain pension payments and argued that pensioners were entitled to receive what they had contributed over the years. He called allegations of a planned privatisation false. It was a political assurance; in the remarks reported, he offered no details on how the payments would be funded.
On 20 October, Abascal held Vox’s first campaign rally in Ponferrada, in León province, ahead of the 29 November general election. Carlos Pollán, first vice-president of the Junta of Castilla and León, attended, as did Vox’s León MP Pablo Calvo Liste. Abascal urged voters not to stay home or treat the result as settled by polling. He said surveys four years earlier had pointed to a different outcome from the one that followed. He also said he would watch to ensure the electoral process was clean.
Polls published on 19 and 20 October put the People’s Party (PP) at 31.7% and the PSOE at 26.8%; Vox stood at around 18.6 to 18.7% in an average of 16 polling firms compiled by Democrata. Individual surveys put Vox at 19.5% and 19.6%. ABC’s estimate suggested the party could win about 65 seats in Congress. A separate seat projection gave the PP 136 and Vox 65, or 201 combined. These were polling estimates, not election results. Vox said it would run candidates for Congress across all 52 provinces and both autonomous cities. It would maintain its independent electoral strategy rather than join a proposed PP alliance for the Senate.
Abascal attacked Pedro Sánchez after the prime minister predicted that Spain would again have a progressive government. The Vox leader accused Sánchez of being capable of stealing the election and called for voters to reject him. The PSOE has also selected Sánchez as its candidate for the 29 November contest, as reported earlier.
