Photo credit: the Guardian
Young people in Spain are helping to drive a surge in support for the far-right party Vox amid growing concern over immigration.
The I Paper reports that the hard-right party has vowed to send back all illegal migrants if it takes power. The party is the third largest in the Spanish Parliament.
Some 17.4 per cent of Spaniards support Vox compared with 12.4 per cent at the last election in 2023, according to a poll by 40dB published by Spain’s El País newspaper last month.
Younger Spaniards are increasingly turning to the right-wing populist party. The survey found that 29 per cent of Vix voters were aged 18-24, whereas only 9.9 per cent were aged 65 and older.
Among the youngest group of Vox voters, 38 per cent were men, while 20 per cent were women.
In Catalonia, a right-wing Catalan independence party, Aliança Catalunya, formed in 2020, has soared in popularity, with one poll giving the party between 10-14 seats in the Spanish parliament if an election were held today.
Anthony Sanchez, an activist and historian, said, “The massive immigration in recent years has degraded our public services and our culture [in Catalona]. The large volume of offenders from abroad has endangered our publiuc security.”
According to analysts, Vox is attracting support because its populist message on issues like immigration strikes a chord with young people.
Miquel Ramon, a journalist who specializes in the extreme right, said, “The extreme right sells itself as the fight against established power. There is disappointment with the Left on issues like the housing crisis.
“The right has been identifying itself in the issue of immigration with ideas of security and scarcity of resources. Some young people buy this idea.”
Parties like Vox and far-right social movements like Nucleo Nacional, a paramilitary organization, have exploited anti-immigrant feelings among some young people.
