Far right party Vox seeks acceptance in Spain, one suburb at a time
(22 Nov 2018) Angry protesters gathered recently outside a modern hotel complex in the southeastern Spanish city of Murcia, where a political rally was held by the country's newest party - Vox. The party is reaching out to workers in city suburbs and the countryside in an attempt to emerge from the shadows in a country that has been slow by European standards to embrace the far-right. The last far-right Spanish lawmaker lost his seat in parliament in 1982. Academics have attributed their absence since then to painful memories of the country's long right-wing dictatorship and the prominence of the conservative Popular Party across all the space from centre to right. But some saw that barrier falling when Vox garnered a 1.4-percent share of votes in official polls last month, setting the four-year-old party on track to enter the lower house of parliament in general elections due before 2020. Vox politicians are frequently ridiculed by mainstream media for their defence of everything Spanish, from bullfighting to the monarchy, and a nostalgia for historical events - such as the 15th-century ousting of Muslims from the Kingdom of Castile and the colonisation of the American continent. Speaking in Murcia to a packed auditorium of some 1,500 sympathisers, party leader Santiago Abascal went one step further, urging "rich Arabic countries" to take in Muslim migrants "who think like them and want to impose Islamic law." "We think is that one percent of Muslim population in a country is fine but a Muslim population of 50 percent in a European country is something else," Abascal told The Associated Press after the rally. Much like other populist leaders, Abascal proposes a weaker European Union where migration is controlled "according to national economic interests and cultural proximity," which draws him to rule out those who do not respect "the Judeo-Christian values, the Greco-Latin ideals" The protesters outside the hotel and others alike, however, have no doubts as to the true nature of Vox. Javier, a local student, said the party was trying to take advantage of the wave of fascism that has swept through Europe recently. During its rallies, Vox also blames high unemployment rate in Spain on mass immigration. George, a Nigerian migrant who has lived in Spain for over 15 years rejects the claim. "The jobs that we are stealing are the jobs you want to give to immigrants, the better jobs are for Spanish people." Vox is finding it difficult to connect with other European peers because some of them have expressed sympathy for Catalan separatists, a no-go zone for Vox. But the party's leader is unfazed by this as he is about voter mood changes over parties like his. "Vox is going up, and we are responding to problems that are Spanish. We are going to grow when others wane." Find out more about AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/HowWeWork Twitter: / ap_archive Facebook: / aparchives Instagram: / apnews You can license this story through AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/metadata/you...
