Far right surges as crises threaten Sanchez: Could Vox lead Spain?

Snap vote could bring PP and Vox to power as polls show falling support for Sanchez, one of Europe’s last leftist leaders. Save Share Madrid, Spain –“What I really hate about [Prime Minister Pedro] Sanchez is how keen he is to allow more migrants into our country,” said Alberto Munoz, who wears the red and gold wristband of Vox party supporters. The 24-year-old computer programmer from Barcelona is among a growing group of young Spanish people who are attracted to the far-right, anti-immigration party. Eight years ago, Vox was a tiny party on the fringes of Spanish politics. But polls suggested it is getting closer to power as Spain heads to snap elections on November 29. To reach a parliamentary majority, 176 seats are needed. According to a recent survey by the leading centre-left newspaper El Pais, the conservative People’s Party (PP) and Vox – whose support is predicted to double from the last elections in 2023 – would secure 198 seats. If the PP forms a coalition with Vox, it would be the first time the hard right would return to power in Spain since the death of Francisco Franco in 1975. In the most recent elections in 2023, the PP won the most votes but not enough to lead on its own, and it did not enter a coalition with Vox. Sanchez of the Socialist Workers’ Party instead formed a government with the help of the Catalan nationalist party, Together for Catalonia. Since then, the PP has formed four regional governments with Vox, and the parties share power in about 100 councils. A coalition between them now would likely see Sanchez defeated. “There is hope for Spain with these elections. We will fight for victory and to convince Spaniards we are worth voting for,” Jose Antonio Fuster, national spokesman for Vox, told Al Jazeera. “But the PP cannot make the same mistakes as 2023 and must not start dividing up ministries until we have won.” Sanchez’s party is predicted to win 112 seats in November, down from 121 three years ago. If the Socialists lose, it would spell the end of one of the last left-wing governments left in Europe after advances for the far right in France, Germany, Italy, Austria and Finland as populism sweeps Europe. Steven Forti, an expert in the far right who lectures in contemporary history at the Autonomous University of Barcelona, said, like other far-right parties in Europe and Latin America, Vox distances itself from the Franco dictatorship....