Fascist Vox party makes substantial gains in Andalusia elections
By
Paul Mitchell
4 December 2018
The results of the regional election in Andalusia herald the open return of fascism to Spanish politics, 43 years after the death of dictator General Francisco Franco in 1975 and the transition to democracy.
The Vox party, which only decided to stand candidates at the last minute, won 12 seats in the 108-seat Andalusian parliament and almost 11 percent of the vote compared to zero seats and 0.46 percent in 2015.
It is highly likely that the party will enter the regional government in the role of kingmaker, as it holds the key to forming a new coalition administration with the right-wing Popular Party (PP) and Citizens party. The PP candidate for regional president, Juan Manuel Moreno, and for Citizens, Juan Marín, are already talking about forming a government that includes Vox.
The head of the National Rally (formerly the National Front) in France, Marine Le Pen, tweeted, “My warmest congratulations to our friends in Vox who tonight in Spain have obtained a very significant result for a young and dynamic movement.”
Vox was founded by Francoist members of the PP in 2013. Its policies include the suspension of Catalan regional autonomy, the banning of parties and other organisations that “promote the destruction of [Spanish] territorial unity and its sovereignty”, reversing limited measures relating to Franco’s crimes, closing mosques, bolstering the Catholic Church, lowering income and corporate tax, and deporting migrants.
It isn’t that there has been a groundswell of support for such reactionary policies—the huge abstention rate of almost 46 percent indicates the widespread opposition to all the official parties. Those who usually vote for the Socialist…