The Far-Right Populist Wave is Gradually Rising in Spain After Recent Regional Elections

Spain’s right-wing to far-right populist Vox party made gains in Sunday’s regional elections in Andalusia, the country’s most populous and second largest region.

Vox took 12 seats in the regional parliament while the ruling Spanish Socialist Workers’ Party won 33 seats, but not enough for a majority coalition even with smaller left-wing to far-left parties such as Unidos Podemos.

Founded five years ago in 2013 and splintered from the conservative center-right People’s Party, Vox is anti-abortion, opposes same-sex marriage for LGBTQIA+ peoples, and is strongly against immigration in the wake of the recent migrant crisis.

Nationally, the Spanish Socialist Workers’ Party (PSOE), in coalition with other leftist and regionalist parties, currently control parliament in the capital city of Madrid until general elections in 2020.

This is not the first time a right-wing to far-right populist party has made grounds in Europe.

Since Brexit, many of these parties, once often in the fringe strains in parliaments across the continent, are now gaining stem with the National Rally in France under the Le Pens, the Party for Freedom in the Netherlands under Geert Wilders, the Freedom Party of Austria, the Five Star Movement and Lega in Italy, and UKIP in Britain.

This movement could be tested in future European Union elections next year in 2019.