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WORLD NEWS Tuesday 12 November 2019

Spain's reinvigorated far right makes its presence felt

By ARITZ PARRA Le Pen in France and Mat-
SERGIO RODRIGO teo Salvini in Italy praised
Associated Press Abascal for the strong
TORRE-PACHECO, Spain showing.
(AP) — To understand The result also delivered a
Spain's polarized politics, blow to Spain's chances to
a visitor to the southern sort out its political dead-
farming town of Torre-Pa- lock any time soon. Interim
checo needs only to read Prime Minister Pedro Sán-
the graffiti scrawled near a chez, who had called the
main square. election expecting to wid-
Next to a bull's-eye drawn en his support, now must
on a wall are the crossed- find backing in an even
out words "Go away, more fragmented parlia-
Moors" — an old term for ment.
Muslims from north Africa. Abascal was quick to
These words are replaced say that Vox would vote
with the phrase, "Go away, against a Socialist adminis-
racists." And a third mes- tration, presenting his party
sage reads, "Go away, as "a containment dam
reds." against separatism and the
The town, which relies totalitarian legislation of
heavily on foreign work- the progressists who, for the
ers, nevertheless voted in Santiago Abascal, leader of Vox Party attends a press conference in Madrid, Spain, Monday, Nov. first time in a long time, will
droves Sunday for a party 11, 2019. have a firm opposition."
that vows to build walls to Associated Press Political analysts also say
contain migrants and priori- the Socialists' traditional
tize Spaniards in its policies. of-center parties to take quering" Spain in terms that his own analysis of the re- opposition, the conserva-
Vicente García, a 55-year- over many city and region- echo the medieval wars sults at a social center with tive Popular Party, is likely
old retired truck driver, al governments, influenc- between Christian and newspapers spread on a to be even more reluctant
backs the nationalist Vox ing policy there. The party's Moorish forces, said Mon- table nearby. to abstain and allow a Sán-
party as "the only ones say- proposals include imprison- day that "those suffering "The right thing is to take chez-led government be-
ing the truth," adding that ing those who advocate the consequences of illegal care of the country, of all cause, despite rebounding
he believes public subsidies for separatism, banning ille- migration" had delivered the country. Not Catalo- in the election, it now must
and other services should gal migrants from enjoying their victory in southern nia, nor Seville, nor Murcia, compete with Vox for the
go "first to Spaniards, sec- free healthcare and cut- Spain. but all the country," he votes furthest to the right in
ond to Spaniards, third to ting off funding for gender The win was a rebound said. "Politicians should be- the political spectrum.
Spaniards and, if something reassignment surgery. They from a loss of momentum gin by lowering taxes and Vox won't be limited to try-
is left, then for others." also want to restrict abor- over the summer, said An- giving us a bit of space to ing to break the political
Hyping the threat of mi- tion and protect both hunt- drew Dowling, an expert breathe." stalemate but rather will
gration, but mostly playing ing and bullfighting. on Spanish contemporary Vox won 52, or roughly 15%, make an impact on Spain's
up Spanish nationalism in In Torre-Pacheco, Vox politics at Cardiff University. of all the seats in Spain's political culture, said José
response to a fresh bid to came out on top with 38% He said it was mostly due to Congress of Deputies. That Ignacio Torreblanca, the
make the region of Cata- of votes among its 35,000 protests in the restive Cata- was more than double than Madrid office chief of the
lonia independent, Vox inhabitants. The province lonia region that erupted in the April election, when European Council on For-
emerged from the election of Murcia, where the town last month, at times with the party finally broke into eign Relations think tank.
as the third political force in is located, was hit badly rare instances of violence the national parliament Because Vox is "a cam-
a country that long saw it- by the past decade's eco- over the imprisonment of five years after branching paign party rather than
self as being immune to the nomic crisis. Murcia also nine separatist politicians. out from the conservative an institutional party," Tor-
wave of nationalist popu- turned out to be the first "Vox was the party best party. reblanca said, its success
lism that has been sweep- Spanish region where the able to capitalize on its The win of the national- will hinge on whether Spain
ing Europe recently. far-right finished first. strong anti-independence populist party reverberated returns to a stable path or
Vox has already joined forc- Vox leader Santiago Abas- message," Dowling said. across Europe, where like- instead holds another elec-
es with the other two right- cal, who speaks of "recon- Garcia, the retiree, offered minded politicians Marine tion soon.q