In the final TV debate on the eve of European parliamentary elections, the top candidate for Spain’s national conservative VOX party reminded voters that the country’s two main parties vote the same way “90% of the time” in the European Parliament (EP).
Jorge Buxadé pointed out that VOX is the only party that rejects the EU’s Green Deal and the UN’s Agenda 2030—radical decarbonisation plans that critics say will push up prices and extend transnational technocratic control over nation states.
In a fiery debate, Buxadé also accused the governing socialist party (PSOE) of being allied with Hamas terrorists, the Taliban, and Iran, following the government’s anti-Israel policies and decision to recognise Palestinian statehood. He said Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez had “destroyed the image of Spain to cover up the moral, political and economic corruption of his government, his party and his family,” adding that there was an “obvious correlation” between illegal immigration and national lack of public safety.
However, the lead candidates for the three left-wing parties attacked Buxadé for associating migration with crime. The candidate for the far-left Sumar party, Estrella Galán— former director general of the Spanish Commission for Refugee Aid (CEAR)—even attacked the EU’s migration pact, which she accused of “aggravat[ing] the human tragedy.” She accused Buxadé of using “slogans that break coexistence.”
Buxadé responded: “When they insult VOX they are insulting millions of Spaniards and even their own voters who also suffer from inseguridad [lack of public and personal safety].”
He went on to say that the PSOE and its supposed main opposition, the establishment centre-right Partido Popular (PP), vote the same way 90% of the time in the European Parliament: “The other alternative is that of VOX and our allies,” he added. “Those of us who go to Brussels with a firm commitment: never to vote against the Spanish people.”
VOX has grown in popularity in recent years due to rising discontent over high immigration and regional separatism. At last month’s Europa Viva 24 conference, which the party hosted in Madrid, party president Santiago Abascal described the PP as “the cowardly right and swindlers” for trying to reach agreements with the governing PSOE on key national issues.
Final polls before the election suggest VOX could win up to seven seats in the European Parliament, an increase of three since the last elections.
