Spain: Far-right party Vox enters local government in several regions

Spain: Far-right party Vox enters local government in several regions
Santiago Abascal, leader of the Spanish far-right party Vox. Credit: Wikimedia Commons

The Spanish centre-right Partido Popular (PP) will govern alongside the far-right party Vox in six of Spain's provincial capitals, with growing rumours of a united right-wing coalition to emerge from next month's snap general election.

The six provinces in which PP have won but will depend on Vox's support to govern are Aragón, the Valencian Community, the Balearic Islands, Cantabria, Extremadura y Murcia, 20 minutos reports. If this is repeated at the national level, the right-wing coalition government would be the first time that the far-right has been in power in Spain since the death of former dictator Francisco Franco in 1975.

PP had previously ruled out governing alongside Vox, with party leader Alberto Núñez Feijóo stating that he did not "share Vox's discourse". However, last month's local elections have seen him change his narrative, when both parties unseated the Spanish centre-left PSOE in various regions. 

These losses led Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez, who leads a minority government alongside the radical left-wing party Podemos, to call a snap election on 23 July. Current polls put PP in front of PSOE, with Vox in third place. 

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On Sunday, Sánchez told El País of his fears that a PP win would result in Vox entering government.

"It would be terrible news for Europe if Spain were to go down the route of a Partido Popular government with Vox, in other words, if we were not at the forefront along with the rest of the great nations of the European continent," he stated. "They already unambiguously assume that they have to govern in a coalition."

However, Sánchez's likeliest option to return as PM will also be to go into coalition, with neither PP nor PSOE expected to command an absolute majority in the national parliament.

In PSOE's case, this would mean entering government with the left-wing electoral cartel Sumar, spearheaded by the Spanish Labour Minister Yolanda Díaz. The movement is a result of a merger between various left-wing parties including PSOE's coalition partner Podemos. 


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