ABSTRACT The ‘exceptionalism’ of Spain’s lack of far-right populism has come to an end with VOX. This has spurred a debate that has converged upon another exceptionalism, that of Catalan secessionism, as the explanation of support for VOX. Challenging this consensus, this article revisits extant data to question the conclusions of past studies, framing their limitations within broader trends in populism studies that must be problematised. This problematisation is done through an innovative application of Essex discourse theory to mass-level data gathered in in-depth interviews with low-income VOX voters. The results propose a different interpretation of the success of VOX that links deprivation and values to economic policy, which had been previously discarded by studies framing VOX as exclusively ‘cultural’. Building on this analysis, this paper speaks more broadly to populism studies by proposing innovative methods, by transcending dominant conceptual schemes, and by indicating a need for alternative forms of theorisation.