Toledo police charge protesters at Abascal rally; government seeks explanations

Charges in Zocodover square

Police officers charged a group of demonstrators in Toledo's Zocodover square before Santiago Abascal, the Vox leader, spoke to the media on Friday, 13 November. According to El Mundo, the group carried Palestinian flags and blew whistles while insulting Abascal, which drew angry responses from other people in the square. Officers moved in and charged at the protesters who were trying to disrupt the Vox event. During Abascal's speech, a man asked him why he had never worked, and the security team of the Vox leader removed him from the square. ABC reported that the group was pushed out, with some people leaving along Calle Barrio Rey, and that attendees of the Vox event shouted against Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez. Eldiario.es described a separate push by a group with antifascist symbols that tried to break into the act from across the street and knocked away the phone of a journalist filming the scene.

Delegate asks for explanations

José Pablo Sabrido, the Government delegate in Castilla-La Mancha, said he learned of the incident when journalists asked him about it. He has requested explanations from Carlos Ángel Devia, the Government subdelegate in Toledo, and from the police commissioner, and he expects to receive them. He told reporters that anyone harmed by such actions bothers him greatly, and he asked that the campaign be about the exchange of ideas rather than police action. Sabrido said the security forces should act with moderation and proper criteria, and that any overreach should be acted upon.

“We have asked the subdelegate and the commissioner himself for these explanations, and we are sure they will give them to us in full detail.”

Sabrido also said that, so far, no one has been identified in connection with the incident, and that he will pass on the explanations once his office receives them.

Abascal opens the campaign in Madrid

On the same Friday, Vox held its first large campaign event at Plaza de Colón in Madrid, the site the party chose to launch its official campaign. The organisers said more than 2,000 people attended despite cold and wind, and the crowd waved red and yellow Spanish flags. José Antonio Fuster, the party's national spokesman, opened the event, and Ignacio Garriga, its secretary general, reminded the crowd of the protests the square had seen eight years earlier. Videos of international right-wing leaders, including Javier Milei, Viktor Orbán, Matteo Salvini, Giorgia Meloni, Flavio Bolsonaro, Alice Weidel and Marine Le Pen, were shown before Abascal took the stage at around nine in the evening. Garriga called the 29N general election the last chance to reverse what he described as chaos and decline.

“They are existential for Spain, we are risking everything.”

Abascal told supporters that the vote on 29 November is not an ordinary election, and he urged them not to become complacent about the polls.

Feijóo and the ministries

In Toledo, Abascal addressed Alberto Núñez Feijóo, the PP leader, after Feijóo proposed scrapping ministries such as Equality and Housing if his party governs after the 29 November elections. Abascal advised him to stop thinking about which posts would go to whom. He compared the plan to the 2023 mistake of selling a bear's skin before the bear is caught.

“It is a strategic error to start dressing in the robes of president.”

Abascal also denounced intimidation, violence and manipulation against Vox without specifying what he meant, and said he expects such incidents to continue for the rest of the campaign. The general election is set for 29 November.