Overview

• Vox leader Santiago Abascal skipped the official tribune at the October 12 parade and the royal reception, a move he said avoided legitimizing the government.
• PP leader Alberto Núñez Feijóo criticized the gesture as excessive, said Vox is “losing it,” and likened the absence to Bildu’s no-show.
• Abascal rejected the comparison as incomprehensible, pointed to Feijóo’s own earlier absence from the judicial year opening, and questioned the PP leader’s credibility on migration and ideological laws.
• Arguing that Sánchez is attempting to “kidnap the Crown,” Abascal cited the Royal Household’s lack of public congratulations to Nobel laureate María Corina Machado as evidence of government pressure.
• Abascal said he informed King Felipe VI of his decision in advance, voiced no reproach toward the monarch, and downplayed any impact on Vox’s cooperation with PP-led regional governments.