POLL: Right Wing Populism Rising In Spain As Election Approaches
Jose Nino
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Right wing parties in Spain are poised to make noise in upcoming local, regional, and European elections on May 26, 2019. The Center-right Partido Popular (PP), along with the centrist Ciudadanos Party and the right wing VOX party, are positioned to rout the current Left-leaning governing coalition in Spain.
Recent polls have the Center-right coalition winning in major urban centers like Madrid and Valencia, which have been in leftist hands for the past 4 years.
The recent surge in the Spanish Right is no coincidence. Immigration is arguably the chief issue that has propelled them to the top of the polls as people are beginning to question Spain’s recent immigration policy. With Matteo Salvini as Interior Minister in Italy, over the past year many immigrants have been redirected to Spain as a result of Italy’s recent policies to secure its border.
Under Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez’s watch, immigration tripled from 11,464 to 33,215 during 2017 to 2018. Establishment parties in Spain are not alone in their mass immigration push. The Gefira Foundation, an organization that monitors global demographic shifts, uncovered that the Spanish government had been working with open-borders NGOs like Open Arms to bring 200,000 immigrants to Spain in 2019.
The radical socialist party Podemos has also made it public that it intends to bring 4 million immigrants to Spain by 2020. Once these immigrants reach the Spain, they would then be given citizenship and welfare benefits the second they reach Spain. Thankfully, Podemos is a minority party in the Spanish government.
Despite politically correct dismals of concerns toward immigration, the Spanish have every right to question their government’s immigration policies. The Swedish immigration case study serves as a stark reminder of the perils of open borders combined with generous welfare policies. The welfare state has impaired immigrants’ ability to integrate and contribute to the Swedish economy. In turn, many of these immigrants have formed their own ghettoes that are rife with crime and all sorts of anti-social behavior.
This trend is also rearing its ugly head in Spain. A recent story of an 18-year-old girl being raped by six Moroccan immigrants is just a sign of what is to come should Spain continue embracing these misguided policies. Thankfully, coolers heads are prevailing as right wing parties become more politically relevant in Spain.
Spain’s political class, and the rest of the European Union for that matter, should be questioning the open borders dogma globalists peddle. Virtue signaling should never form the basis of public policy.
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