Next Thursday, in Madrid, the one who was a founder, spokesman in the Congress of Deputies and one of Vox’s most precarious faces, Iván Espinosa de los Monteros, will launch its foundation: Athena. A “Think Tank” that will have other retired politicians, in addition to professionals from different sectors, and that is born with a mission: to influence public life, but not from the ring. From the barrier.
The act will be attended by number two of the Popular Party, Miguel Tellado, along with other colleagues. A gesture that does not go unnoticed and that highlights, above all, by the absence of the leaders of the Green Party. It is not expected to go any. A decision consistent with the isolation to which Abascal has submitted Espinosa since his march, in 2023.
Genoa sources point out that, in no case, they want to “use” the figure of who is an “active” in the right -wing. Although an approach to your profile can be beneficial at a time when Vox is going through a democopic spring. Most polls coincide in pointing out a rise that would place them in their best brand. And in Alberto Núñez Feijóo’s team they admit that they “become good” that Espinosa “is not associated with Vox” because an important nucleus of voters “continues to weigh his decline.” And that of so many other names, yes, with less shaft.
Even so, in the PP they insist: “We are going to treat you with respect, we do not use anyone.” This Monday, at a press conference, number three of the party, Alma Ezcurra, revealed Tellado’s assistance to the presentation of Athena. He did it with Dardo included: «Mr. Espinosa, Vox was a bit small and that’s why he has mounted this platform. We wish you good luck in this task. Moreover, our general secretary will go to the presentation ». Some words that generated great stir and that the popular try to unlink from an interest in scratching votes on the right.
But the background is what it is. And in Genoa they do not want to miss the opportunity to anchor their banks to a face that seduces Vox voters. “Possibly Iván Espinosa is more respected in the Popular Party than in the one in which he militates, but we are not going to do this organic policy.”
Of their figure, the popular point out that it represents a double problem: “For the PSOE, because it defends a way of understanding Spain different from the one in the government,” and also for Vox, “if they decided that this party was better without him than with him.” Waiting for their project to begin to walk, they do not rule out “incorporate” to their program “Ideas or proposals that come from this foundation.” So they anticipate: “We will read with interest the papers that its foundation emits and we will see what points can be inspiring and which are disposable.”
Since Espinosa de los Monteros communicated his decision to leave all organic positions in Vox, after the trigger that was for the right the result of the 2023 generals, much has been speculated with a possible return to politics. From the hand of a new game led by himself, or through a signing of bells in the PP. Neither the one, nor the other. In the last spring, he published his book, an advance of what he was forged, which he presented with Cayetana Álvarez de Toledo, popular spokesman. Now continue with a laboratory of ideas that will keep you linked to politics. From outside.
In the last two years his relationship with Vox has been cooling to the point that he no longer maintains any contact with his leader. This was recognized in his last interview with La Razón. A crack that has to do, among other things, with the ideological positioning of the Green Party: blind support to Trump, alliances with Viktor Orban in Europe … the strategy that has followed since that fall in the generals move away from who was one of its founders, which in turn has approached, bet or not, to the PP. With a Feijóo determined to grow on the right, now Espinosa can be a strut. But in the popular dome Zanjan: “No interest in appropriating a person.”