When they met the results of the andalusian, a couple of minutes before ten in the evening, the first spontaneous outburst of jubilation occurred at the headquarters of Vox. It happened in the PP. The popular erupted with cries to see that the left lost the most, while in the party of the extreme right were rubbed eyes. Unbelievers, many wondered if there had been an error or even missing to include the greater part of the count. Nor are they expected such an outburst. With 12 seats, have revolutionised Spanish politics, which is doubtful now about those almost 400,000 voters who have backed the formation of Santiago Abascal. Where they have gone. And, above all, why they have decided to support them. “There are about 400,000 andalusian fascists”, analysed as Íñigo Errejón, we Can.
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The reasons for the voters of Vox: immigration and the unity of Spain The extreme right feeds their support of the PP and of Citizens
The vast majority of the supports of Vox come from a voter-conservative, had backed the PP, or Citizens in the past appointment with the polls. Only 7% comes from the left, according to the survey of 40dB. published on Sunday THE COUNTRY. But, what do they have in common? “Each one will have their reasons, but if there is something that binds us all together is ES-PA-ÑA”, boots James —emphasizes each syllable of the last word— a sexagenarian was seized in three schools of Seville. He represents one of the sectors that baby Abascal. The most obvious one. Comes from the leader himself: the traditional voter of the PP that changed the ballot by the “warmth” of Mariano Rajoy.
Emilio Sierra, a baker of 44 years of Alcudia de Guadix (Granada), still popular activist, sums it up in that was decided by Vox to give “a slap on the wrist” to Genoa: “We have seen a PP soft. “It is a punishment vote to the right the Spanish because he did not dare to say that it was right-wing. Do not be afraid to speak,” continues Francis G., an ex military man, 53 years old, who supported Vox in Algeciras (Cadiz).
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Boredom ‘antiestablishment’
yes, only 12.5% of those who bet by this force did so primarily because the popular will “disappoint”, as 40dB. So many other ingredients are combined in the cocktail that pushed to opt for the radical party, according to support themselves. They speak, for example, a “glutton” with the forces of traditional —with a PSOE that takes 36 years in power and a PP unable to evict you—, with a speech antiestablishment, reminiscent of Donald Trump. “Vox says the things clear. Not like the other parties, who just want a chair and don’t dare to say things as they are,” says Celia Fuentes, 37 years ago, in his small neighborhood shop in Algeciras.
Governed with an absolute majority by the PP since 2011, this town of cadiz has become one of the obligatory stops to understand the success of the training. The party of Abascal has managed to remain the third force, ahead of the popular, with almost 9,000 votes (19.5% of the total) in a town with a 49.3% of abstention. It is the city of more than 100,000 inhabitants, where the best result have been collected. “Here is a glutton widespread. I voted in the previous elections to Citizens, because you would see Albert Rivera and thought that I wanted to change things: he said that he was going to abolish the county Councils, to reform the Senate… But, after, we’ve all seen how pactaba with PP and the PSOE and not doing anything,” says Guerrero, who owns a bar with his brothers near the center.
Manuel Hawk, voter of Vox, in its position of mercado de abastos de Algeciras. Paco Bridges
But in Algeciras, the argument that more is heard among the voters of Vox revolves around immigration. “There are a lot of people who are without papers and has to have a little more control”, explains Manuel Gavilán, 54 years old, and for almost box decades placed their post of goodies at the market, just a few metres from the port and in an area very frequented by north africans.
The foreign-born represent only 10% of the census of the municipality, but they have become one of the principal axes of a discourse that has permeated in some working-class and conservative retirees, who access difficulties to social aid while repeating that not to pay taxes to support a system which, according to them, benefit the immigrants.
“I See people living on the street which is Spanish and not help. We are not in solidarity with us”, says Sources. “There are people who come to live off our pay,” adds Diogo Rodriguez, a student high school 18 years, he wants to be military and that is decided by Vox in the first time I went to vote. “It is important to support them for the Spanish to not be the last in the lists of employment, to receive a house of official protection… it Is screaming out loud: ¡The spaniards first!” they repeated their candidates at the rallies.
Alicia and Diogo Rodriguez, in Algeciras. Paco Bridges
The survey of 40dB. he concludes that 41% of their voters supported mainly by its position on immigration. In addition, 32% are boarders and 40% are over 55 years.
In that context, the supporters of Abascal repeated that they are not against all immigrants, but of those who have entered “illegally.” But, for them, Vox proposes that Restbet never could regularize their situation. Even if they are 50 years in the country. Or reach of children and have been raised here. “We don’t want to expel the immigrants. In The Ejido they need more than any site. But, if we need you to come 20,000, as that come these. Not to 70,000. It is of logic. Is that to be xenophobic or racist?”, he asks rhetorically, José Antonio Herrera, age 61, who runs the bar Las Palmeras in El Ejido (Almería), the great bastion of Vox, which came out December 2, as the first force.
José Antonio Herrera, in the bar The Palm trees of The Ejido. Paco Bridges
An area of Andalucía where Vox also links the arrival of “illegal” foreign to the insecurity. And it does so even though crime has fallen in the province: the total of criminal offences has been reduced by 19% between 2010 and 2017; the thefts, 11%; robbery with violence, 44%; and the theft of vehicles, a 57%. “I’m going to run through my neighborhood and I don’t see Spanish. I just look at negritos and moros. And I are looking…”, says also Sources to refer, for its part, to Algeciras.
In a certain way, all the voters of Vox feel that there is a threat either to their safety, to the unity of Spain, or to its values and traditions (bullfighting or hunting). “In Alcudia there are virtually no problems, but you see what comes out of the net and gives a poquito of fear,” says Sierra. And that threat is personified in the “illegal” immigrants, the independents, feminists, “political correctness”, or the members we Can, at that point as its antithesis. “The rise of Vox is clearly a reaction to all those voices-amplified: feminism exacerbated, the animalistic, the extreme left…”, continues Carlos D., a self-seville-from 50 years old, married with three children. Two of them, 17 and 16 years, are excited about the Vox.
Another symptom, by the way, the connection of the party Abascal with the youth. It is the second training that most attracts the new voter. According to 40dB., the 2% of those who supported him went to the polls for the first time. Only the PSOE exceeds that figure (2.9 per cent). Behind it is a little bit Forward, Andalusia (1.7 per cent). And, in the spectrum of the centre-right, are located far away from the PP (0.8%) and Citizens (by 0.5%). “I knew I was going to vote for a right-wing party, and Vox was the one that convinced me in the last week,” says Alicia Rodriguez, 20 years old, student of early Childhood Education and sister of Diogo.
Detail of the bracelets worn by a follower of Vox. Paco Bridges
“With the turnaround of the PP to the centre, we understood that our principles, way of life, culture and tradition were watching vilified by the rest of parties,” says another voter of Vox in Los Remedios, a neighborhood of seville class, affluent, with an average income of 42.984 euros per inhabitant, where Vox was second force —behind-the-popular— with 24% of the votes. For this profile, the most seen after the 2-D, has also been fed a lot of Vox.
But the catholic values or the proposals on gender-based violence does not appear among the main reasons mentioned for their voters. On the other hand, stand out, in addition to immigration, the rise of the pro-independence Catalan and the current autonomous State. Abascal says that it is an unnecessary expense and that there is that suppress the regional Parliaments, despite the fact that Esperanza Aguirre placed him in the Community of Madrid with a salary of nearly 100,000 euros to the year after being a deputy being a basque. “I see well, to delete the communities because it does not happen what is happening in Catalonia”, says Emilio Sierra, who is not opposed, however, to the homosexual marriage. Neither Antonio Guerrero: “to suppress it is a chalaura”. Hawk does not want to speak about it: “Of those things I prefer not to talk”.
Celia Fuentes tries to clarify the position: “We are not against gays, but maybe that will call another form…”, the woman explains that it rejects, however, the law against gender violence: “We want a law equal for men and women.” Vox wants to repeal this rule because it denies that the number of women abused and murdered by their partners is higher than that of men. He repeats that are hidden cases of males, despite the fact that these data are published by the Judiciary; and that there are many false complaints, although the prosecution the figure at just 0.1%.
Celia Fuentes, in his fashion store in Algeciras. Paco Bridges
Epic nationalist
The party now faces its own success. According to the source of Vox, at the beginning of the week, the address transmitted to its local offices that did not speak with journalists. They want to control the message to avoid being located beyond the extreme right. A term that many reject because they consider that they are not neo-nazis, fascists or francoists. And others are willing to accept. “To me, does not bother me. We are in an extreme, but within the field of play to be constitutional,” says Carlos D., who believes that Vox is not nurtured “only the facha typical”. “I assume that you call us extreme right. Because it is like we Can, which is radical left, but on the other side”, continues to Diogo Rodriguez, referred to Vox as the force capable of doing great to Spain again.”
Because in this peak election not lack the epic —they call themselves the “resistance” and an appeal to the “reconquest” of the country. A formula which, according to the leaders of the party has attracted a lot of soldiers, civil guards and national police, to which the leaders of Vox extol continuously. And their followers imitate them. Including 2-D, when two officers entered the hotel of Vox and two of the party members is set to your step. The cry of “¡Viva España!”.
