On Sunday, Spain will be elected – and the ultra-right party Vox will probably make the leap into parliament. In Andalusia, this has already been achieved at the regional level.
From nothing to the strongest political force. The ultra-right party Vox has managed that in the 80,000-inhabitant city El Ejido in Andalusia. Here Vox took in the regional election in December, almost 30 percent, overtaking all other parties.
Juan José Bonilla is proud to co-ordinate Vox’s work in the city: „El Ejido has always been a place where a great many people have voted for the conservative PP party, but most likely the PP’s policies do not have the most inhabitants here Achieved more, they wanted something new: a party with which they can identify more strongly than with the PP. “
A lot of agriculture, many foreigners
El Ejido is not a southern Spanish city like any other. If you walk across the main street, you will see above average numbers of dark-skinned women and women wearing a headscarf. The foreigners rate is 62 percent. And that is related to the main industry in the area: industrial agriculture.
There are greenhouses around El Ejido; Hundreds, thousands; hardly a spot is not built with them. Almost exclusively Africans work here.
Immigration plays a big role for the inhabitants of the city, says Vox man Bonilla. He speaks of insecurity in the area and that people have enough of illegal immigrants.
In fact, almost everyone in El Ejido deals with the subject if one addresses him to the political situation. For example Pepe. He hopes that the term of Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez will end: „Sánchez has done the same as his predecessor Zapatero: given to anybody who wanted it, that can not be done, Spain can not accept so many people,“ he says. „The Spaniards have too few jobs, where is work for all the people ?! We are not racists, but there are just too many people here.“
„We do not take jobs away from them“
El Ejido is the municipality of Andalusia with the lowest unemployment, it is twelve percent. In many other parts of the region, more than 30 percent of the population is registered as unemployed.
Spitou therefore can not understand the skepticism about foreigners. He comes from Senegal and works in agriculture – in one of the thousands of greenhouses under plastic tarpaulins. There was a temperature of 50 degrees in the shade. No Spaniards would go in there, he says. „It’s just not true that we’re taking the jobs away from them, I have 30 Africans working in the factory where I work, not a single Spaniard, if a Spaniard comes in, it’s our boss.“
Racism has just made the Vox big on the Andalusian coast, says political scientist Ángel Cazorla from the University of Granada.
Catalonia conflict triggers nationalistic feelings
But looking at the whole of Spain, the Catalan crisis plays a more important role according to him. A major problem demonstrated by Vox is the inability of the classic parties to deal properly with the Catalan conflict, said Cazorla. „It has sparked nationalist sentiment among many people and made them bigger in their pride in being a Spaniard.“
For the political scientist Vox is a party that manages to give a name to problems in Spain. A typical right-wing populist party that plays with emotions and often presents complex issues to people in an easy-to-solve way. „Here come many factors together – and all find themselves in Vox again.“
The party is a brand that allows it to express itself. Vox is not new. Before her, the conservative People’s Party was a kind of reservoir for right-wing politicians. But Vox had made a course acceptable, which had previously been only in secret.
