Spain: 1st regional coalition with far-right raises concern

Madrid: Spain’s conservative opposition is joining hands with increasingly influential national-populist politicians to govern Spain’s northwestern Castilla y León region, marking the first major power grab for the far-right Vox party.

The “legislature agreement” was announced Thursday in a tweet by Alfonso Fernández-Mañueco, the incumbent chief of Castilla y León.

His center-to-right Popular Party won a February election but was short of a majority of seats in the regional assembly that would have allowed him to form a one-party regional administration.

Vox, whose proposals range from deporting migrants who enter the country irregularly to suspending gender violence laws or banning school programs on sexual and gender diversity, has in recent years gained popularity.

The party is now third in the number of seats it holds in the national parliament. Its votes in the regional parliaments of Madrid and Andalusia, the most populous of Spain’s 17 regions, have been key to supporting Popular Party administrations or passing conservative legislation.

But until Thursday Vox had never been admitted into leading regional positions.

According to the parties, Vox party members will take the speaker position in the Castilla y León assembly, the vice-presidency of the regional administration, and at least three regional ministerial positions.

Critics say those positions will become a platform to amplify Vox’s “hate speech” and allow it to significantly influence policy.

“Today is a bad day for Spain’s democracy,” said Adriana Lastra, a lawmaker with the center-left Socialist party and close aide of Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez, blaming the Popular Party for entering “a pact of shame” with the far-right.

The Socialists and the Popular Party have for much of the past four decades taken turns in power, but the political landscape has become increasingly fragmented.

The conservatives are reshuffling their national leadership in April following an ugly internal clash that led to the resignation of Pablo Casado as chief of the Popular Party.