On Thursday, Idoia Ribas, the former parliamentary spokesperson for Vox in the Balearics who is no longer a member of Vox, launched a scathing attack on the party's national leadership. She claimed to have been pressurised into transferring "huge amounts of public money to Vox" (she refused to do this) and maintained that "the true interests of Santiago Abascal (the national leader) and his small group of men leading the party are not those of Spain, but rather the accumulation of public money in the Fundación Disenso, of which Abascal has become president for life".
Ribas was responding to statements on Wednesday by the party's general secretary, Ignacio Garriga. In Palma, he said: "I want to apologise to all those who trusted Vox in the national elections and have had to witness embarrassing episodes caused by some who ran under the party's name. Those who disguise themselves and come to implement Partido Popular or left-wing policies have no place here. No more scammers will sneak in." He was referring to Ribas and others who have been expelled from Vox.
Internal divisions have dogged Vox in the Balearics ever since the regional elections in May 2023. These divisions have also complicated what was an already awkward alliance that the PP had sought. In minority, Marga Prohens and the PP rely on Vox for parliamentary support.
Vox, in Ribas's opinion, has become "a pyramidal scam with a cult-like structure". Abascal's interests, she insisted, are to do with money.
"And while they're making a fortune, they're selling smoke to the people, recruiting followers with patriotic rhetoric, and quietly implementing a massive political shift in the party, abandoning liberal-conservative principles to embrace a populist and radical right ... who hate anything that smacks of freedom."
"Sr. Garriga daring to call us swindlers is an exercise in shameful and intolerable cynicism. The real political scam is Abascal telling us he defends life while allying himself in Europe with the pro-abortion Marie Le Pen. If Sr. Garriga is concerned about political swindles, he should be targeting his party bosses and not the elected officials in the autonomous regional communities, who have chosen to be loyal to the citizens of our respective regions and of Spain; and not end up kissing the boots of four men who couldn't care less about what happens in Spain because they're making a fortune in an office in Madrid."