The Western media establishment has broken out into panic about the rise of the so-called “far-right” in Europe as the populist VOX party is widely predicted to join the next Spanish government.
Spaniards will head to the polls on Sunday for a snap election that was called early by socialist Minister Pedro Sánchez after his Socialist Workers’ Party suffered an embarrassing defeat in the local elections in May.
The failures of the leftist government to bring prosperity to the country and secure the nation’s borders have seen the rise of the centre-right Popular Party (PP) in the polls. However, according to most opinion surveys, the Popular Party will not secure enough support to hold an outright majority in the parliament, meaning that they will likely need to enter into a coalition government with the populist right-wing VOX party.
VOX, led by outspoken Basque country politician Santiago Abascal, has so far never entered into government since its foundation in 2013. While the PP initially cast doubt on forming a government with VOX, if the polling bears true, it appears that it may be their only choice. Despite their apparent reticence to form a coalition, the PP has already entered into governing partnerships with VOX at the local level in around 140 cities and towns following the May elections.
The prospect of VOX entering into government has sent shivers down the spines of the establishment media, which has attempted to cast the populist party as the return of fascism to Spain, with outlets such as the Washington Post claiming that so-called climate denial, a rejection of LGBT ideology, and anti-feminism are somehow signifiers of the party being “far-right”. Others, such as the BBC, CNN, and The Guardian have attempted to compare the party to the military dictatorship of Francisco Franco.
Santiago Abascal has maintained that his party is not of the far-right, but rather “antifascist, anti-Nazi and anticommunist” in nature.
For VOX to be branded as “far-right” perhaps demonstrates how far left the Overton Window has shifted in Western society on issues of immigration, climate change, and gender. Understood through this lens it is not surprising that populist parties on the right are picking up steam across Europe, even in traditionally liberal countries such as Finland and Sweden.
It comes amid a wider move to the right across Europe following a decade-plus of open borders and green agenda spearheaded by Berlin and Brussels that has left the bloc vulnerable to the impacts of the Ukraine war, with waves of refugees straining the already maxed-out asylum facilities in Europe and the lack of domestic sources of reliable energy seeing threats of shortages become the new normal.
Laying out its immigration agenda, VOX said in its election manifesto: “Spain must immediately take the necessary measures so that our cities do not follow the model of societies multicultural that has proven to be unsuccessful in countries like Belgium, France or the United Kingdom.”
The populist party has called for a national referendum to be held on immigration and deportation policies. VOX has also called for a naval blockade to be put in place in the Mediterranean to prevent illegal boat migrants from crossing from Africa often in extreme danger.
“Pedro Sánchez and his government have been allies and promoters of all globalist policies and multiculturalism that bet on the disorderly arrival of millions of illegal immigrants. The consequences have not been suffered by those who have imposed these policies from their offices and mansions with private security, but by Spanish families who suffer insecurity and degradation in their neighbourhoods,” the party has argued.
Other supposedly far-right policies from VOX include harsher penalties for rapists and sexual offenders, as well as stepping up enforcement measures against paedophilia and child pornography.
The party has also called for the “elimination of all” legislation that establishes differences between Spaniards based on their sex, orientation, sexual identity and race in terms of hiring practices, such as affirmative action-style quotas. On transgenderism, VOX has called for policies to prevent “men who perceive themselves as women” from competing in female sporting competitions.
Like their populist allies in Poland and Hungary, the Spanish party has vowed to push for pro-family policies, such as the elimination of income tax for families who earn less than €70,000 per year with four or more children. They have also called for the reduction of the Value Added Tax (VAT) for families seeking to purchase their first home.
Some have criticised the party for failing to provide fiscal impacts of their policy agenda, however, the potential role of VOX in the Spanish government will not be to be the principal governing party but rather a coalition partner that can force the centrist-conservative Popular Party to the right politically.
According to the latest study of polls from El Pais, the Popular Party is projected to earn around 142 seats in the parliament on Sunday’s election, short of the 176 needed for an outright majority. VOX is projected, however, to pick up 35 seats, meaning that the two parties could secure a majority through a coalition government.
Meanwhile, Sánchez’s socialist party is on pace to maintain 108 seats and the Sumar bloc of smaller leftist parties is expected to pick up 34 seats. Yet, with many voters left undecided and a large number of Spaniards on summer vacation out of the country, postal votes and undecideds could swing the results away from the projections.