VOX wants to demonstrate with its new congressional spokesperson, 28-year-old Pepa Millán, that it has a future. Recent poor electoral outcomes and the sudden departure of Iván Espinosa de los Monteros, the party’s previous congressional spokesperson and one of its founders, seems to call for a new face
Espinosa announced last week, shortly before the parliament opened its new session, that he was stepping down, citing “personal and family” reasons. During the press conference, he stated specifically that his “parents are now older” while his children are “not so old” and that he had spent too many nights at the hospital recently to continue his political work. He is the father of four and his wife, Rocio Monasterio, remains president of VOX Madrid and the party’s leader in the regional parliament. Indeed, though Espinosa cited personal reasons, speculation abounds about the internal conflicts within the party that may have motivated his demission.
Regarding his replacement, some in the party have used a football metaphor to understand the position Millan finds herself in, comparing her sudden appointment to being called up from the farm team in the middle of a game to substitute for star charger Cristiano Ronaldo.
Indeed, VOX president Santiago Abascal made it clear that her appointment demonstrated that VOX has vibrant new blood behind the familiar faces of the party’s mostly male founders.
“VOX loses a great spokesperson, but we also get a great spokesperson, as is Pepa Millán,” he said. “I think VOX is showing that it has a quarry, that it has a team, that it is capable of representing the interests of the Spaniards who have trusted us. I am very optimistic about the future of the party.”
Millán, a lawyer, first joined VOX in 2020 as a consultant and advisor for the regional party in Andalusia. She jumped into the regional senate in 2022 and became the party’s spokesperson there, thanks partly to the law of gender equality in the parliament that obligated VOX, in that instance, to put a female in the position. Even from Seville, she proved herself unafraid to stand up to then-president Pedro Sánchez.
“These are difficult times for Spaniards. Not for you, Mr. Sánchez, because we pay both your electricity and gas bill,” she said in one of her memorable interventions.
With her sharp discourse, legal background, and Andalucian origins, she is reminiscent of the party’s former congressional spokesperson, Macarena Olona, who left the party after VOX underperformed in regional elections in Andalucia in 2022.
Personally, she is a devout Catholic—a devotee of Pope John Paul II, who she often references—and a lover of classic, quintessential Andalucia culture, from bullfighting to flamenco. She refers to Spain as “the Kingdom of Spain.”
She made her congressional debut on August 17th.
Hopefully, in a party at something of a crossroads, her political career will be more successful than Olona’s, the last woman in her position.
