Santiago Abascal, party chairman Vox, will not attend this year’s central state ceremony for Día de la Hispanidad in Madrid According to the party on 9 October, he will spend 12 October in Ceuta. He will be accompanied by Jordan Bardella, leader of the French party Rassemblement National and head of the Patriots for Europe group in the European Parliament. Bardella is also due to be introduced at a breakfast meeting in Madrid on Tuesday.
For the second year running, Abascal will leave his place on the grandstand of honour near King Felipe VI and Queen Letizia vacant, and will also miss the reception afterwards at the Palacio Real . In October 2025, he had explained his absence by saying he wanted to avoid institutional appearances with Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez so as not to “legitimise” him; at the time, he watched the parade from the street.
Vox has justified this year’s change of location by pointing to the political focus on the Spanish enclave in North Africa. The party highlights Ceuta’s border location and has been calling for tougher measures against irregular migration for months. Abascal had already travelled to Ceuta on 2 August 2026, after a major border crossing triggered a nationwide debate. He repeatedly described the events at the time as a serious crisis and accused the government of failing to act decisively enough. These assessments are party positions; there has been no independent classification of the events as an “invasion”.
At the time of the announcement, there had been no official statements from the central government or the Royal Household about Abascal’s absence. No new assessments had initially been published by Ceuta’s regional administration either. Media reports and party statements agree that Abascal intends to attend engagements in Ceuta on the public holiday; no specific details beyond his presence were announced.
Spain’s National Day, the Día de la Hispanidad, is traditionally marked by a military parade in Madrid and a reception at the Royal Palace. The occasion regularly becomes a political battleground between government and opposition. The Vox leader’s latest decision not to attend underscores the continuing polarisation: while the government emphasises national unity and institutional normality, Vox is deliberately shifting political attention to Ceuta on the external border.
Editor: Mira Cadena (Article created with AI assistance).