Abascal frames his sit-in against Jordi Wild as a "strategic decision": "I accept the criticism and the consequences"

Social media profiles related to Vox were still celebrating the result of Santiago Abascal's interview on La Revuelta (RTVE) when, yesterday, the party announced that its leader would be absent from the round of electoral interviews being conducted by YouTuber Jordi Wild. The reaction on digital platforms was reversed.

The podcaster, also a podcaster, on his channel The Wild Project, accumulates more than seven million followers, and another 3.5 million citizens are watching his activity on Instagram - more than double the 1.6 million Spaniards who follow Abascal on this social network. A profile with a high reach among young people to whom, however, the leader of Vox has canceled the planned interview. A turn of events that today the leader has framed in a "strategic decision" of his electoral campaign.

Abascal has taken responsibility for the rejection that has aroused in recent hours the "unilateral" cancellation - according to Wild - of the planned conversation. "I accept the criticism and the consequences of my decisions, especially when they are irreversible," the leader of Vox said on Antena 3 this Thursday, asked about the youth response that the sit-in has sparked.

As the party already did yesterday in a statement, Abascal has explained his cancellation of the interview as a reaction to what happened in La Revuelta: Vox says that RTVE "is hijacking" 40 minutes of the recording, which were not broadcast because the program is not live and is always edited to fit the time available. "We are convinced that it is Moncloa who is behind not publishing everything," Abascal stated, to justify his approach to Wild under the following argument: "We made the decision that never again will a Vox candidate transfer the exclusive rights of an intervention or an interview to any type of entity, neither public nor private."

"That's the approach: we wanted to record it too. He considered it an insult to his work," the leader elaborated. However, the YouTuber said yesterday in a statement that he allowed Vox to also record the interview. The game canceled the recording, scheduled for yesterday, Wednesday, just one day before, something that Wild ruined. Abascal has said he "feels sorry for him" and believes that the podcaster "has been the victim of a previous [Vox] mistake."

Given the barrage of criticism on networks, the leader has taken first-hand responsibility for the suspension of the interview - "a decision that I personally make with my team" - and has pointed out that Wild's potential audience "is free to interpret however they want" his sit-in. To young people, the YouTuber's target audience - and the main source of voters for Vox - Abascal has also sent a message, as he sees them as "concerned." "I was neither a hero after leaving La Revuelta nor am I a villain after deciding not to attend this interview," he stated.

A Vox leader also had a response to those who, like Wild himself, have suggested that his absence from the podcast could be due to the fact that granting this conversation "was a risk." "It seems like it was so brave to go to La Revuelta... Maybe you also have to have courage to cancel an interview with such an important YouTuber [...] and know that you are going to be subject to criticism," he defended.