It seems to be an endless series of elections recently, with the Galicians, the Basques, the Catalonians and now along comes the Europeans. The three regional ballots threw up a few interesting results – the Partido Popular did well in Galicia, the two regional parties PNV and EH Bildu scored neck-and-neck in Euzkadi (the PSOE will be the decider) and the PSC (the regional name for the PSOE) took the largest vote in Catalonia, the two independent parties coming second and third, and the PP in fourth place. And, of course, the final disappearance of Ciudadanos – the oh-so-centrist conservative clone.
The news and opinion has been full of the results and the intrigues: how did our party do? Are we growing or sinking? Should we run another survey already?
Can we extrapolate the regional results for Europe?
Perhaps not. Spain only has 61 out of 720 MEPs.
But, on the other hand, the populists are doing well across Europe, so the chances are that both the PP’s Alberto Núñez Feijóo (whose platform seems to be more about destroying Spain’s government and the socialist party than providing any policies of his own), and the Vox leader Santiago Abascal, may be rewarded come June 9th.
...
Abascal was entertaining his friend the Argentine president Javier Milei the other day during the Vox ‘Europa Viva 24’ summit (I call it ‘the anti-human-rights summit’ says one lefty commentator), along with a number of other far-right leaders (a pity Trump couldn’t come, although of course he’s busy at the moment).
The conference, enthused La Gaceta, ‘brought together dozens of patriotic leaders from Europe and Latin America’. The future is ours, say the populists, or to put it another way, ‘Tomorrow belongs to me’.
‘Madrid became, this weekend, the epicentre of fascism’ said elDiario.es here. 
Things then went a bit awry, when Milei told his captivated audience that Pedro Sánchez' wife was una corrupta. The Spanish president was not amused and promptly called the ambassador home from Buenos Aires.
Unsurprisingly, the Partido Popular were careful not to defend the President of Spain, saying "Our job is to oppose the president of Spain, not the president of Argentina".
Meanwhile, Javier Milei tweeted from his flight home to his followers and admirers: “I’m surfing on a wave of socialists’ tears. Long live Freedom, shit”.
Back in April, Milei received the ex-president of Spain José María Aznar in Buenos Aires.
The Argentinian bruiser also met several business-leaders on Saturday, including the chairman of the CEOE (the Spanish Confederation of Employers' Organizations) – Spain having major business interests in Argentina – but was not able to fit in time to visit the Spanish president (both leaders no-doubt releasing a satisfied breath over this breach of procedure).
Well, that's what the far-right does, no? Catches up with the chain-saw guy. But it gets worse. While President Sánchez was recognising Palestine on Tuesday (together with Ireland and Norway), the irrepressible Abascal was in Jerusalem (in a 'surprise visit'), shaking hands with Benjamin Netanyahu and promising him that when he, Abascal, is president of Spain, he will tear-up any agreements and recognitions of Palestine.
There are those who say that the photo will haunt him for the rest of his political career.
...
The drift across Europe, say the editorials, is towards the right. We see that the conservatives are bedding down with the populists (a tactic that has so far seen mixed results here in Spain, as the tail so often ends up wagging the dog).
For the flag-wavers, illegal immigration is their cause juste, although the immigrants are needed to help pay the social security and thus the pensions of an ever-aging population. They’ll also do the jobs that none of us want to do, from picking strawberries to cleaning bathrooms.
The other pin in the populist cause is Islam, since the suspicion is that they will one day rise up and murder us all in our beds.
Probably just to shut us up.
The threat of the European far right – and its possible acceptance – gets a timely reminder of what happened less than a century ago with the cover of Der Spiegel: a German flag draped over a disturbing symbol from the past.
So, what does the European Union do and why should we vote (those who can)?
We read that ‘All 27-member states hold inclusion, tolerance, justice, solidarity and non-discrimination as crucial pillars of the European Union’.
Unless – you see – the far-right gets in.
No comments:
Post a Comment