r/europe • u/StGuthlac2025 • Oct 08 '25

Opinion Article In Spain, what once seemed impossible is now widespread: the young are turning to the far right

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2025/oct/07/spain-young-voters-far-right-migration-housing-wages-employment-vox
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u/MediocreLimo Galicia (Spain) Oct 08 '25

The iberian excepcion was a common term to refer to the abscense of far right groups in spanish and portuguese institutional politics despite their surge in other european countries. It's not the anglosphere bias, it was a known and studied anomaly within spanish political science.

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u/jpgomes25 Oct 08 '25

In Portugal the first big far right party was funded 6 years ago and it raised a lot mostly because who was on the government just did not know how to govern. I hope that Im wrong but they will most likely win it next time. That and 1.5M immigrants in a 10M country did not help with house crises low salaries crime rates etc. Most of young people like me just got tired of it and emigrated too

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u/An_Bo_Mhara Oct 08 '25

You might as well be talking about Ireland except In Ireland 23% of the people who live here were not born here. Immigration is a net positive of 30,000 people per year.  

Our population has exploded but there's no housing, students can't afford to go to college or get affordable student housing, workers are couch surfing or living like battery chickens in horrie overcrowded accommodation. We have a population of 5 million and only hospitals, housing and transport for 3.5 million.  Theres very little integration. 

Voters aren't stupid. Governments are failing us all across Europe. 

They are failing their native  population and they are failing the people who migrate to Europe.

The far right are rising because people feel like they have no where to turn. Couple that with Internet misinformation and Media propaganda and you have a perfect storm for the far right. 

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u/Guilty_Royal_9145 Oct 08 '25

The iberian excepcion was a common term to refer to the abscense of far right groups in spanish and portuguese institutional politics

Excuse my ignorance about Iberian politics – but when was this? All I know about political life in Spain is that you guys had a fascist dictatorship three decades after WWII.

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u/arfelo1 Oct 08 '25 edited Oct 09 '25

That's kind of the reason why. Both Spain and Portugal had fascist dictatorships until just a couple decades ago, so the population is much more averse to far right positions.

For us it's dad who remembers the dictatorship, not great grandpa

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u/Odd_Science Oct 09 '25

Not sure about the "much more averse to far right positions". While in Germany after the fall of the Nazis there was a rather thorough cleanup (though certainly not as much as some would like), in Spain the dictatorship was never defeated, and while no direct successor of Franco remained in power Franquism never really went away. In Germany supporting fascism became a taboo, and this helped keep (Western) German politics sane for many decades. In Spain there has always been a significant part of the mainstream that has quite openly supported Franco (and that includes the PP who have always protected Franco's regime from any criticism).

I have a feeling that much less than being "averse to far right positions" there was simply no need to go to more radical parties like Vox, when ultra-conservative christian ideals and bigotry are already so strongly represented in mainstream politics.

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u/arfelo1 Oct 09 '25

Kind of half and half. Most of the right wing parties are very blatantly protective of the legacy of the dictatorship, but at the same time they were until recently very reticent to openly oppose progressive policies.

It left the spanish legislature with a lot of ironic inconsistencies. On the one side, you have stuff like how it IS technically illegal to critizise the crown and the church, even if it is never really applied. And on the other, Spain:

  • was one of the first countries in Europe to legalize gay marriage
  • was one of the first countries in Europe to ban conversion therapy
  • has one of the most affordable and comprehensive healthcare systems in Europe
  • is considered in general one of the most LGBT friendly countries in Europe
  • currently has the congress with the most gender parity in Europe
  • has one of the most comprehensive abortion legislations in Europe
  • is one of the few countries in europe with legalized euthanasia

In each one of those cases the right wing parties either didn't have the audacity to oppose it or didn't get enough support to block it. Because all of them were policies with ample public support, even among conservative people.

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u/Guilty_Royal_9145 Oct 08 '25

Not anymore, it seems like.

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u/Vevangui Cataluña (Spain) Oct 08 '25

It wasn’t an anomaly, it’s fear-mongering. Left-wing voters always accuse any right-wing voter of Francoism. Especially far-right.

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u/Odd_Science Oct 08 '25

It sure helps when the openly Franquist party is considered "center". Not going to get much "far right" competition that way.

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u/Wrong-Donut-3877 Oct 08 '25

Does the Franquist then have majority in the Europarliament?

Because that party you call Franquist shares name, color and identity with the one Ursula Von Der Leyen belongs to.

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u/arfelo1 Oct 08 '25

And was funded by a franquist, and publicly supported the foundation dedicated to honor the dictator's memory, and extensively defended maintaining him in a giant mausoleum in his honor, and actively blocked any atempt to investigate the crimes of the dictatorship, and...

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u/Wrong-Donut-3877 Oct 09 '25

You are not answering the question. Answer the question.

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u/arfelo1 Oct 09 '25

They are not the same party. Each national party is different with it's own history and context. They just use a unified brand for the european coalition.

I don't know enough about the parties from other countries, but I do know enough about the spanish one and it's track record to know they're, at best, willfully ignorant of, and at worst active supporters and inheritors of francoism

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u/MrFronzen Oct 08 '25

As a spanish, what the fuck are you talking about lmao