In Spain, chances of pact between conservatives and far-right Vox grow

(CN) — With about a month to go before Spaniards cast ballots in national elections, it increasingly looks likely that Spain’s mainstream conservatives – now in the opposition – are prepared to govern with the far-right Vox party.

Not long ago it seemed unthinkable that Vox – given its extreme views on gays, immigrants, women’s rights and the European Union – could enter into national government. But with the far-right party’s popularity growing, Spain’s center-right Popular Party may be forced to align with it following July 23 elections.

Polls show the Popular Party winning the elections with about 34% of the vote, but they look destined to need the support of Vox to obtain an absolute majority with which to govern. Surveys show Vox picking up about 14% of the vote.

Meanwhile, Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez’s center-left Socialists are projected to come in second with about 26% of the vote; but surveys suggest a left-wing coalition headed by the Socialists appears unlikely to gain enough support to stay in power.

Until recently, Alberto Núñez Feijóo, the seemingly moderate leader of the Popular Party, appeared unwilling to govern alongside Vox.

A year ago, after the local Popular Party in the region of Castile and León joined forces with Vox to form a government, Feijóo expressed his dissatisfaction by saying: “Sometimes it is better to lose the government than to win from populism.” The regional pact was a groundbreaking moment for Vox and the mainstream conservatives because it opened the door for far-right voices to enter government.

At different points in the past, Feijóo’s also said he doesn’t “share Vox’s discourse” and he’s questioned its ability to lead because they “have never managed a single public euro in their lives.”

But since the Popular Party – also known simply as PP – and Vox emerged victorious in local elections in May, the two parties have forged alliances in various municipal governments and in a second regional chamber.

Vox and PP have struck agreements to form governments in the Valencia region and in the cities of Burgos, Ciudad Real, Guadalajara, Toledo and Valladolid. They are in talks to form similar pacts in the regions of Aragón, the Balearic islands and Extremadura.

On Sunday, Sánchez warned that the normalization of Vox was a dangerous development.

“A few months ago, a European leader told me the Spanish election is very important because if things swing towards a PP-Vox government, the balances within Europe will be upset,” Sánchez said in an interview with El País.

“There’s something that’s far more dangerous than Vox, and that’s having a PP that assumes the policies and postures of Vox. And that’s what we’re seeing: a denialism when it comes to social, political and scientific consensus,” the prime minister said.

The rise of Vox is part of a wider trend across the European Union of far-right parties expounding nationalist, traditionalist, anti-immigrant, anti-EU, anti-LGBTQ and anti-environmental views. On Spanish politics, Vox is vehemently opposed to regional independence movements, such as those in Catalonia and the Basque Country.

Its members also express admiration for former Spanish dictator Francisco Franco and Vox fought to stop the removal of Franco’s body from the Valley of the Fallen, a massive mausoleum outside Madrid.

Last week in Valencia, Vox named retired bullfighter and Franco admirer Vicente Barrera as the region’s new vice president and culture minister. Valencia is where the PP and Vox have formed a pact.

Euractiv, a European news agency, reported that Barrera commented on social media in 2020 that “politicians of the right should cure themselves of the anti-Franco complex.”

He added that “the political class of Francoism was brilliant and surely the most educated and prepared we have had in centuries; no one should be ashamed of having been a minister under Franco, or that their father or grandfather was one.”

Vox created another stir last week when another top party member in Valencia, José María Llanos, told Spanish public broadcaster RTVE that “gender-based violence does not exist, male violence against women does not exist.” Vox doesn’t like terms such as “gender-based violence” and calls it instead “intra-family violence.”

Feijóo quickly denounced the statement from Llanos.

“Gender-based violence exists and our society is profoundly shaken every time a woman is murdered,” Feijóo said on Friday. “The PP will never take a step backwards in the fight against this scourge. We will not abandon our principles, whatever the cost.”

If elected, the PP has vowed to row back pieces of legislation passed by the left-wing ruling coalition, such as for funding to find remains of victims killed by the Franco dictatorship and expansions of transgender, abortion and euthanasia rights.

Sánchez has been at the head of one of Europe’s most progressive governments in recent years after he opted to align with the far-left Unidas Podemos.

Courthouse News reporter Cain Burdeau is based in the European Union.

Follow @cainburdeau