Far-right in Europe vs. Iberian Peninsula

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Far-right in Europe vs. Iberian Peninsula

Postby Aethan » Wed Jul 05, 2017 9:07 am

Being myself from Spain, I find really interesting the well-known rise of far-right parties all along Europe. Those parties, mostly nationalist, anti-immigration, anti-EU, xenophobic... have find their place in some of the biggest countries, such as the Front National in France, Party for Freedom in The Netherlands or Alternative for Germany.

Mostly those parties does not have representation or have a little representation because of the voting system in those countries (still, we have Law and Justice in the power in Poland). Usually its rise is linked with the economic crisis, citizens tired of seeing the traditional parties not doing something else to change their lifes... However, I find interesting that those parties have not found their place in the Iberian Peninsula (Portugal and Spain) despite the huge economic crisis both countries have suffered, and the massive immigration they receive. While some parties in those two countries sometimes talk in bad ways about immigration or discrimination, that is not the main line of any of the big parties. In Portugal, there is no active far right party, with the last one, Nova Democracia (not even really far right) dissolved in 2015.

Now my interest is about Spain, my own country. Here we have a lot of political parties in our Congress, the lower chamber (the upper chamber is almost useless), with PP (Popular Party, center-right to right wing), PSOE (Spanish Socialist Workers Party, Center-lefft), Ciudadanos (they define themselves as center, most citizens identify them as center-right in economics and center-left in civil liberties, or directly center-right) and Unidos Podemos (United We Can, left wing to far-left). The other minor parties are Esquerra Republicana (center-left to left wing), EAJ-PNV (Basque Nationalists, center-right), and the mixed group, with PDeCat (center-left), Compromis (left wing), UPN (center-right to right), Bildu (left wing), CC and FAC (Center-right) and NC (center-left). With such different parties, one usually thinks, how does it come there is no single far-right party in this camera?

The way seats are given may be one of the reasons: each autonomous community has asigned a determinated amount of seats to give to the most voted parties, which have to pass a percentage of 3% of the votes to receive at least one seat. That is the main reason why some parties that only present themselves in a few constituencies (parties from Catalonia and Basque Country, get some seats in our Congress despite having less percentage of vote at the end than others, as EH Bildu, which received only 0.77% in all Spain, got a seat but PACMA, the animalist party that received 1.19% didnt get seats). For example, in Madrid, where I live and vote, we give 36 seats out of 350, with PP receiving 38% and 15 seats, Podemos 21% and 8, PSOE 19% and 7, and Ciudadanos 16% and 6. The next party was PACMA with 1.13% (less than 3%) and finally we have a far-right party, VOX, with 0.48% of the votes, which is 16,608 people voting for them (in a community with 3.462.270 voters).

Basically, the main far-right parties in Spain are the following: VOX, Falange Auténtica, España 2000, Falange Española de las JONS, La Falange, Alternativa Española... most of them linked with franquism. Even merging all the votes those parties received, they wouldnt even reach 250,000 votes (VOX is the most popular and it received only 46,000 votes out of 20 million). In fact, they dont even have the power in any community or big city, they only govern in less than 20 small villages all around Spain.

But why is this? Some people have studied it and they have come to some conclusions: first of all, franquism is very recent in Spain (it was just 40 years ago) and the restriction of liberties and civil rights have still hurt Spain, and almost nobody wants to be linked with this period, and all the far-right parties link themselves with franquism. The other reason is that the PP receives what is called the "useful vote", meaning that citizens that want to vote for a far-right party but they know it won't get any seats, decide to vote for the right-wing party which they know will receive a bigger amount of votes. The chosen party is almost always the PP. They are currently in the Government of Spain (don't ask me my opinion about having them in the power because I will start to shout :p) and while they are generally center-right, they have a diverse group of thoughts inside them, with some far-right members and words that were highly censored by the rest of political parties and citizens in general. Luckily in my community, even if we have the Popular Party in power, our president (Cristina Cifuentes) is one of the most left-winged people inside it.

So, what do you think about this? What might be the reason of not having far-right parties in the Iberian Peninsula? What do you think about the situation of the far-right in your countries?

PD: sorry to not talking so much about our neighbours of Portugal, but I have said all I knew
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Re: Far-right in Europe vs. Iberian Peninsula

Postby Mbites » Tue Aug 08, 2017 12:14 pm

I honestly think its a Historical Thing, you experienced the Franco Regime and its not been a short visit.
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Re: Far-right in Europe vs. Iberian Peninsula

Postby Aethan » Wed Aug 09, 2017 6:30 am

I also think it. Luckily we have some kind of historical memory, and while is the descendant of a francoist party (AP), it has changed its thoughts a lot since then, despite still having some problems related to the low or light condenm they have done to the regime, and the financial support they give to the Francisco Franco Foundation (if you ask me, I still cannot believe how is it possible that a dictator's foundation exist, as I cant think about a Hitler or Mussolini Foundation, and I don't know if they exist)

However, other countries have also been experiencing dictatorships and the far-right is getting votes again (Germany is the best example)
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