Georgia Meloni’s political earthquake fuels Spain’s far-right ambitions – The Irish Times

During the four decades of Spain under Francisco Franco, advocates of the regime encouraged a legend that tells how no light went out in the dictator’s study window in his El Pardo palace. The photo was supposed to indicate that Franco never rested as he worked to implement his Catholic nationalist ideology, a kind of fascism.

This story was actually based on a visit to Italy by the leader of the Spanish far-right Falange party, José Antonio Primo de Rivera, where he met Benito Mussolini and remarked that, late at night, “only El Duce remained at work, beside his lamp, in The corner of a huge empty room, watching his people.”

Since that time, it has been easy to make countless parallels between Spain and Italy. They have similar populations (Italy 60 million, Spain 47 million) and economies of similar size each highly dependent on services, particularly tourism. Both, along with Portugal and Greece, were reluctant members of the countries unfortunately called “PIGS” whose high debt levels fanned the flames of the eurozone crisis more than a decade ago.

Since Georgia Meloni’s victory in Italy’s election last Sunday, debate has raged in Spain over the extent to which the two countries are politically committed, with many wondering if Spain’s far-right party, Vox, can emulate its neighbours.

“I hope my victory will pave the way for a Vox victory in Spain,” Meloni told Spanish news agency EFE following her victory.

Vox leader Santiago Abascal responded to the Italian result by saying: “Melone has shown the way to a Europe that is proud, free, sovereign and able to cooperate for the security and prosperity of all.”

[ Kathy Sheridan: Brace yourselves for where Giorgia Meloni and Italy end up ]

[ Italian election: Giorgia Meloni’s right-wing bloc storms to victory ]

Vox has undoubtedly benefited from the political earthquake in Italy, given how much ideological ground the Meloni party, Brothers of Italy, shares with its Spanish counterparts. Evidence of these similarities was in a speech Meloni gave in the Spanish city of Marbella in June, when she traveled to campaign on behalf of Vox ahead of regional elections in Andalusia.

“They’ll say you’re dangerous, that you’re an extremist, a racist, a fascist, a denier, and a homophobic,” she said at the Fox rally. “They will say that you are despicable, that you have no leaders capable of ruling, and that it is pointless to vote for you because you will not win anyway.”

Vox’s aggressive anti-immigration streak — his calls to repatriate illegal immigrants and echoing Meloni’s demands that the Navy return those who reach Italian shores — has already caused such accusations to be faced. Her hostility to LGBT organizations and feminism has exacerbated this criticism. But the common belief that Vox “won’t win anyway” is perhaps where the differences between the Italia and Vox brothers became visible.

[ Andalucían election campaign brings culture war to centre of Spanish politics ]

Although Vox made big gains in the last election, in 2019, and became the third-largest attendance in Parliament, it is currently far behind the conservative Popular Party and the ruling Socialists in the polls. Although many new parties have arrived in Spain over the past decade – Vox, Podemos and Ciudadanos – the country’s relatively stable politics, dominated by two major parties, persists.

Many believe Vox has already reached its electoral ceiling, given that while the party has plenty of support among high-income Spaniards, it has little appeal to poorer voters, such as those suffering from the current cost-of-living crisis. Also, the issue of the Catalan territories, which was so crucial to the rise in popularity of the fierce unionist Fox three years ago, has been relatively quiet.

The most realistic ambition of Spain’s far right is to enter into a governing coalition as the junior partner of the People’s Party after next year’s general election, a formula already in place in the regional government in Castilla y León. The leader of the People’s Party, Alberto Nunez Figo, is careful to avoid allowing the partnership with the far right to tarnish his moderate image, but he may have few alternatives.

Elsewhere on the political spectrum, there is speculation that the arrival of the eurosceptic Meloni, who appears to have little chemistry with Frenchman Emmanuel Macron, may benefit Spanish socialist leader Pedro Sanchez on the international stage.

Catalan commentator Enrique Giuliana says the potential deterioration in relations between France and Italy should be watched carefully by Spain. He noted that “the Spanish prime minister may emerge as a major defender of Europeanism in southern Europe, alongside Portuguese Prime Minister Antonio Costa.”

Meanwhile, the lamp in the window invoked in Franco’s apocryphal – the lamp of the far right and fascism, as many see it – is still burning in Spain, although not quite as brightly across the Mediterranean.

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