Spain's right-wing Vox party makes major gains, enters Congress

In "Right-wing populism on the march: today Estonia, tomorrow ???" (WWW 3/3/19) Walt rejoiced at the rise in support for right-wing, populist parties throughout the length and breadth of Europe, not to mention the Excited States of America and even (gasp!) Canada. Where next, I asked?

The answer -- may I have the envelope please? -- is Spain! Yes, where parties of the right were thought to be discredited and defunct since the fall of Francisco Franco's Falange. Well, the Falange may have been pronounced dead, but its philosophy and policies -- against separatism and for a strong, unified country; opposition to immigration; limits on wimmin's right and "inclusion" -- continue to speak to the long-held and deep-seated wants and needs of increasing numbers of Spaniards.

Those are some of the principles which animate Spain's new(ish) Vox party, which some lefties denounce as "Falange 2.0". And the Spanish people are responding favourably. In "Populism marches on! Today, Spain! Where next?" (WWW 21/1/19), Walt applauded the success of Vox in elections to the Cortes (= parliament) of the province of Andalusia. And I quoted political scientist Eduard Güell who predicted that Vox would make similar gains at the national level. "All signs indicate that Vox has come to stay," he said. And he was right!

In a time when Spain is increasingly polarized -- it's not only the USA! -- its Socialist Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez called a snap election, held yesterday, to determine the future direction of the country. The lamestream press is crowing that the Socialists won, but downplaying the fact that they were reduced to a minority in the Congress of Deputies -- 123 of 350 seats. At a victory rally last night, Sr Sánchez said, "The Socialist Party won, and we are now going to build the Spain (((George Soros))) wants." [Ed., please check that quote. My Spanish isn't very good. Walt]

Down "below the fold", the WaPo gets around to mentioning that some voters chose "Vox, a far-right faction founded on anti-immigrant, anti-feminist and anti-Catalan sentiment." In fact, WaPo acknowledges grudgingly, Vox won 24 seats to become the first far-right party to enter the Spanish parliament since the country's transition to democracy in the late 1970s!

In an op-ed piece for Deutsche Welle, Bernd Riegert calls the rise of Vox the real story of yesterday's election. He writes:

Voters longed for the return of the good old, supposedly stable and safe times. Supporters of Vox truly feel that the dictator Francisco Franco and the unscrupulous conquerors of Latin America were the ones who made Spain "great." Vox only won 10% of the vote in this election, but as has happened in other European countries such as Poland, Hungary, Italy and Austria, the right-wing swamp has the potential to grow and eventually become the nation's main political movement. This trend is nothing new, and Sunday's election served as proof that it has now caught on in Spain.

Herr Riegert's bias is showing! "Right-wing swamp" is rather Nazi, even for a German liberal believer in Merkelism. But his observation and conclusion is spot on! Which is what Walt told you in March. Today Spain, tomorrow??? Stay tuned!

Footnote: The liberals, including the government of Germany, which owns Deutsche Welle, are afraid -- very afraid -- of the resurrection of Franco's Falange, with its "illiberal" ideas. Ed. hasn't been able to get a link to the video embedded in the DW article, but I suggest you check it out -- a great example of the paranoia of the ruling elites.