The most likely government to emerge - most analysts predict - will be a coalition including a hard-right nationalist party for the first time in Spain since the death of fascist dictator Francisco Franco in 1975.
More left-leaning Spaniards are frantically texting contacts, urging them to make sure to vote - despite the heat and it being holiday time for many - to “stop the fascists” in their tracks.The rhetoric this election season has been toxic, with voters becoming increasingly polarised.
It’s a fight over values, traditions and about what being Spanish should mean in 2023.
This kind of heated identity debate isn’t peculiar to Spain. Think of Italy, France, Brazil or the post-Trumpian debate in the US.
At EU HQ in Brussels, there are huge concerns about a resurgence of hard-right nationalist parties across Europe.
The far right vow to “Make Spain Great Again”.
…where have i heard this super nifty phrase before???
Oh yeah, lets march back to where they would pick you up in the middle of the night, handcuff, blindfold then chuck you off a cliff.
Great times.
As if our little town just didn’t lay to rest the remains of some such people less than a year ago.
Or rather, Make England Great Again. It’s an old slogan, and it’s been used a lot.
The idiots of Vox literally copy their ideology from the US far right. They are so extremely uncapable of thinking by themselves that they’re trying to capitalize on transphobia in a country that is heavily supportive of trans rights:
As if that wasn’t enough, the mainstream right-wing party is trying to appeal to them even though their average voter isn’t that deranged out of some weird fear that they actually are.
Transphobia isn’t their main point lmao
Ik you only hear about it from second-hand sources, but their main points are usually criticizing the current government and the equality ministry, which despite its name could be qualified as little more than a glorified poster printer (printing posters with a huge budget is probably the only effective thing it does, as there has been no genuine advance in equality done by them)
However, it’s true that they also criticize the “trans law”, which allows people to almost instantly change their legal gender, with some disgusting comments
We all heard them bring up different minorities they want to criminalize out of the blue at the debates for no good reason, no need for second hand sources for that.
I am getting tired of liberals (in the European sense, not the American sense) clutching their pearls at the resurgence of the fascist right when they did everything they could to kill off the socialist left everywhere in Europe. If you shift the Overton window so that your corporate neoliberal asses are the left side of it, what the fuck do you expect to be at its right side?
Haha yeah, us Americans did that nearly a century ago!
sad late-stage capitalism noises
India did that about 20 years back and for the past 9 years we’ve (mis)governed by violent right-wing Hindu supremacism. :(
the Communist holdout of Kerala is the only state in India where the BJP does not have a foothold.
they could to kill off the socialist left everywhere in Europe?
Yeah, if you put it that way, seems logical. You mean during Franco, Mussolini & Hitler?
But, after the WW 2 it was mainly Stalin that purged the Socio-democrats in (Eastern) Europe. In US there was a purge though.
And in the 60/70’s there was a major resurgence of socialist political parties in Europe, afaik. I think that the old political dynamics ideals and politics have changed quite a lot. To me, you have power mongering people, oligarchs or influencers on both side of the political spectrum. I therefore don’t take their political ideologies as a grand determination for their character, unless they are extremist ofc. Many polticians also often switch sides depending on the outcome, opportunistic .
I prefer to focus on if and how the power is (ab)used in real life. If the poltician is working for the will & good for the people, or for his own wallet and corruption.
Pretty much what’s happening here in France. The majority sides with the hard right on a lot of decisions. It’s also happening in the EU parliament. We’re heading right towards very very hard times.
The Murdoch Infection Continues Apace
There really needs to be a worldwide epidemiological study on how Murdoch’s empire has shifted global politics to the right.
study on how Murdoch’s empire has shifted global politics
Good point.
There have been many media influence studies, and their results are alarming. Though not necessarily about Murdoch’s influence, afaik. But Murdoch though very powerfull, is one of the many, don’t forget Axel Springer, Berlusconi, Orban etc.
Attention Spanish bigots, choosing fascism isn’t going to stop climate change or make your lives better.
When the middle class struggles, they eventually embrace anybody who promises a break from the status quo.
Moderate parties need to ask themselves what have they done so poorly that these extremists are now becoming popular. We’ve seen these sort of authoritarian far-right movements across the globe and I’m not seeing moderates offer a great answer.
Personally, I would rather see a shift towards a sustainable future where the necessities of life, such as food, housing, education, health care and public transit were enshrined.
Middle class suffers slightly: “let’s start blaming minorities, immigrants, gay people, and start removing human rights for them.”
More like: we can’t put food on the table, get a roof over our heads, and we can’t even get a doctors appointment. And politicians are more worried about other countries?
Slighly? People can’t afford housing, public healthcare is in decline, and the burden of taxes to fix government overexpending (frequently in less important things) mostly applies to the middle class. The middle class today wants what their parents had and most has realized that it will be impossible.
How the fuck is this the minorities problem? That sounds like a government problem
moderates are the reason why the extremist right groups exist per martin luther king’s explanation: https://letterfromjail.com/
tldr: I have almost reached the regrettable conclusion that the Negro’s great stumbling block in his stride toward freedom is not the White Citizen’s Counciler or the Ku Klux Klanner, but the white moderate, who is more devoted to “order” than to justice; who prefers a negative peace which is the absence of tension to a positive peace which is the presence of justice; who constantly says: “I agree with you in the goal you seek, but I cannot agree with your methods of direct action”; who paternalistically believes he can set the timetable for another man’s freedom; who lives by a mythical concept of time and who constantly advises the Negro to wait for a “more convenient season.” Shallow understanding from people of good will is more frustrating than absolute misunderstanding from people of ill will. Lukewarm acceptance is much more bewildering than outright rejection.
I understand Martin Luther King’s quote in its context, but I fail to see the parallel to the situation at hand. Can you elaborate?
How are “white moderates” who tolerated racial injustice similar to moderate parties who suffer electoral losses to far right populist parties? I’m honestly not seeing how the situation is analogous.
I don’t fully agree with absolving the blame on the people for this because the middle class struggles. It takes a real idiot to fall for the same traps that people fell for back in the two world wars, how fucking hard is it to connect the dots?
If the world comes to shit again, I’ll feel no sympathy for them, because despite their obviously poor education, they are bad at being humans as well. The one thing that the far-right loves more than anything is dividing people and creating “bad guys” in order to redirect the hatred and pain of the people, but when all the other “bad guys” are killed off / locked up/ slaved, then only they will remain to take up the role.
There will always be people who fall for these traps. Of course they are individually to blame for being duped however just blaming them doesn’t solve anything. The solution is to try to reduce how many do by providing great education (formally and culturally), minimising the ability for fascists to find platforms to spread their messaging and offering real solutions to the problems that those people have so they don’t feel they need to latch onto anyone offering to do so for them.
As such, anyone who should be expected to understand this and who is in a position to achieve those goals. Is to blame for the inevitable consequences of not doing so (ie, neo-liberal political entities.)
