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Hard-right leaders across Europe have rallied behind Spanish party Vox ahead of Sunday’s elections, as the country’s ruling Socialists warn that the EU faces a “very significant unbalancing” if the party enters government.
Vox has won public backing from Hungary’s Viktor Orbán, Poland’s Mateusz Morawiecki and Italy’s Giorgia Meloni, who by video link told a Vox rally in Valencia last week that “the hour of the patriots has arrived”.
The centre-right People’s party is forecast to win the most seats but fail to secure a majority, according to most polls. Although PP leader Alberto Núñez Feijóo has expressed dislike for Vox’s policies, his party has formed regional coalitions with the hard right group and has not ruled out a national coalition.
Electoral advances by Vox or a role in the next government would be potentially significant for Europe’s politics, giving the right a foothold in the EU’s fourth-largest economy just as it holds the EU’s rotating presidency.
Vox accuses the EU of persistently exceeding its powers and legislating on national issues, and alleges that Brussels has surrendered to environmentalists and “radical ideological” lobbies. Santiago Abascal, Vox’s leader, said at an election rally last week that Spain’s domestic policy was “decided either by the bureaucrats in Brussels or the Basque and Catalan separatists”.
Opponents such as José Manuel Albares, Spain’s foreign minister, warned that Vox would have a “great impact on Europe” if it succeeded his centre-left party and entered government pressing an anti-integrationist agenda.
“This would lead to a very significant unbalancing away from moderate, sensible, progressive, pro-European forces towards a government that doesn’t share the values of European construction,” he said, speaking on the sidelines of a summit between European and Latin American leaders this week.
Spanish foreign minister José Manuel Albares © Reuters
The elections come at a pivotal moment for the EU, which is attempting to drive through legislation on issues such as migration, reform of Europe’s electricity market and the EU budget before European elections next year.
Cécilia Vidotto Labastie, an associate expert on the EU at the Institut Montaigne think-tank, said it was unlikely Vox would totally scupper the “particularly important” presidency of the EU council of member states. But “the more divergent opinions you have, the more difficult it will be to reach a consensus”, she said.
Hard right national leaders have shown an ability to hold up the European agenda in recent weeks. Morawiecki and Orbán together blocked joint conclusions on migration at a meeting of member states in June due to dissatisfaction with an EU deal on asylum policy.
Orbán said he shared Vox’s concerns about “illegal immigration” and “gender ideology”. In a Vox campaign video this week, he said: “Europe is in a tight spot. The bureaucrats in Brussels are burying it in ever greater crisis . . . Only strong national governments can save Europe.”
Vox’s election would reinforce a “civilisational” trend among European governments, where concerns about “immigration, identity and Islam” take centre stage, said Hans Kundnani, a Europe expert at Chatham House.
Kundnani said Vox would more likely emulate Meloni, who has adopted a co-operational approach with the centre-right, leading to policy successes such as a pact with Tunisia to limit migration.
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A senior figure in the European People’s party, the centre-right grouping in the European parliament, said any alliance in Spain would not carry across to the European level and that Feijóo would limit their influence.
“Feijóo is probably the most moderate leader that the PP has ever produced. Framing him as a Vox guy is utter nonsense,” they said.
Source link : https://www.ft.com/content/ad62fa41-24fd-4040-9d2b-8a13598e9a3b
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Publish date : 2023-07-21 07:00:00
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