Carla Toscano, a longtime Vox councillor, has resigned from Madrid’s city council after her expulsion from the party. Her departure ends a seven-year run in local politics and reveals the depth of Vox’s internal divisions in the capital.
Toscano’s resignation follows her refusal to obey orders from Vox’s national leadership. The party’s attempt to enforce discipline cost it three of the five councillors elected in 2023. Only Arantxa Cabello and Fernando Martínez Vidal now represent Vox in Madrid’s city government.
Information from ABC, Toscano had already submitted her resignation as a city councillor on September 1, 2025, but stayed on at Ortega Smith’s request.
The split began with a power struggle between Javier Ortega Smith and Vox’s national executive. When the leadership tried to remove Ortega Smith as spokesperson, Toscano and Ignacio Ansaldo sided with him, defying party instructions. All three were expelled and continued as unaffiliated councillors, attending council sessions without party backing.
In a statement on social media, Toscano said her decision came down to principle and health. She explained that the values that brought her into politics now led her to leave, citing a growing gap between her beliefs and the party’s direction. Toscano criticized Vox’s shift toward rhetoric focused more on feminism and LGTBI issues, away from its original positions.
Her resignation follows a series of departures. Toscano left her seat in the national Congress in January 2024 and submitted her resignation as a city councillor in September 2025, though she stayed on at Ortega Smith’s request. The final break came after she refused to follow what she called an illegitimate order from party leadership, leading to her expulsion in July.
El Mundo notes that after Vox expelled Toscano and two other councillors, only Arantxa Cabello and Fernando Martínez Vidal remained on Madrid’s city council, sharply reducing the party’s representation.
Vox’s troubles in Madrid recall the collapse of Ciudadanos in 2023, when that party lost most of its councillors just before elections. Internal disputes and leadership struggles can quickly erode a party’s local base, leaving it exposed ahead of basic votes. Madrid’s political scene has seen similar upheaval before, with high-profile resignations reshaping city government.
With Toscano gone, Cristian Toro, Vox’s national sports spokesperson, is next in line for the council seat, though it is unclear whether he will accept. Ortega Smith, now calling himself a "proscribed" Vox councillor, says the party has become a personal project for its current leaders and abandoned its founding mission.
With elections approaching in 2027, Vox’s divisions in Madrid are now out in the open.
