Spain: Far-right entry into Andalucia's regional parliament welcomed by conservative parties
05 December 2018
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Spain
Far-right entry into Andalucia's regional parliament welcomed by conservative parties
5.12.18
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Vox, a far-right political party, has won 12 seats in Andalucia's regional parliament, prompting the leader of Spain's Popular Party (PP) - the country's chief conservative formation - to say that a potential alliance presents "an enormous opportunity" that he "would not let pass".
The Spanish Socialist Worker's Party (PSOE) won the election but saw its vote share fall massively, from 47 seats in the regional parliament to 33. The PP won 26 seats (down by seven); Citizens (Ciudadanos, another conservative group) won 21 (an increase of 12); Adelante Andalucía (a new coalition that includes the left-wing group Podemos) won 17 seats; while Vox won 12 seats, up from zero.
This means that a coalition of the PP, Citizens and Vox could make up a majority in the parliament, although there have been no formal proposals as of yet. The PSOE have called on the "constitutionalist" parties to consider a coalition, which would include Citizens and the PP - although the PP reportedly has no interest in any such idea.
The leader of the PP in Andalucía, Juanma Moreno, has indicated that he will be talking to the regional leadership of both Citizens and Vox.
El Diario has quoted Moreno as saying that Andalucía has entered "a new political stage." The paper also cites party sources saying that "either Moreno is invested as president of Andalucía or there will be new elections."
As pointed out in The Guardian:
"Even with the support of the Podemos-led Adelante Andalucía coalition – which won 17 seats – the PSOE would still be short of the 55 seats needed for a majority in the regional parliament."
Whether Citizens would participate in a pact with Vox is so far unknown - the party's secretary-general Teodoro García-Egea saying that those are "decisions we have not yet taken".
The newspaper Público, meanwhile,has published an article stating that the rise of Vox is "less inexplicable if one takes into account the powerful impulse the group received from the sectors of the extreme right within the National Police, such as the platform Jusapol," an officers' organisation that campaigns for equal salaries between national and regional police officers and also includes members of the paramilitary police force the Guardia Civil.
Sources
El PP se lanza a un pacto con Vox: "Es una grandísima oportunidad que no vamos a dejar pasar", El Diario, 3 December 2018
Far right wins seats in Spanish region for first time since Franco, The Guardian, 3 December 2018
El PP andaluz lanza su órdago a Ciudadanos: "O Moreno es presidente o repetición de elecciones", El Diario, 4 December 2018
Vox se infiltró en Jusapol y los sectores ultra de la Policía apoyaron su despegue electoral, Público, 5 December 2018
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