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Spanish People's party lashes out at 'revenge' politics of far-right Vox

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Spain’s conservative People’s party (PP) has turned on its sometime allies in the far-right Vox party, accusing them of practising a politics based on “fear, anger, resentment and revenge”.

The PP’s unexpectedly blistering attack on its far-right rival came as MPs debated the motion of no-confidence that Vox had brought against Spain’s Socialist-led coalition government over its handling of the coronavirus pandemic.

The motion, widely seen as an attempt by Vox to embarrass and outflank the PP on the right, failed on Thursday afternoon when the far-right party’s 52 MPs were the only ones to vote in favour. All the rest – 298 – voted against.

Although the PP relies on Vox’s support to prop up its regional governments in Madrid, Murcia and Andalucía – and had shifted further to the right since Vox emerged as a serious adversary last year – it rounded on the far-right party in furious fashion.

The PP leader, Pablo Casado, said Vox’s behaviour had played into the hands of the Socialist prime minister, Pedro Sánchez, and helped deflect attention from the country’s health crisis. He said Vox’s leader, Santiago Abascal, had brought a “fraudulent motion” before parliament at a desperate time for the Spanish people.

“You’re making us waste time right in the middle of a pandemic that has infected a million people,” said Casado, adding that Abascal’s angry and rambling speech on Wednesday had verged on the unhinged.

“The nonsense we’re witnessing isn’t a motion of no confidence against Sánchez, but against China, [George] Soros … the EU, regional governments and even how politicians dress,” said the PP leader. “You even talked about Hitler and the Soviet Union.”

The PP opted to vote down the motion rather than simply abstain.

Casado told Abascal the Spanish left “have spent 30 years wishing for a party like Vox and you’ve given it to them”. He said Abascal, a PP member before he abandoned the party, and Vox were “part of the problem in Spain” and could not be part of the solution.

“You brag about being populists with your demagoguery that offers easy – and usually fake – solutions to complex problems,” he said. “The People’s party doesn’t want to be another party of fear, of rage, of resentment and revenge, of insults and skirmishes, nor of manipulation, lies and backwards opposition.”

The Vox party leader, Santiago Abascal, in parliament on Thursday
The Vox party leader, Santiago Abascal, said he was ‘surprised’ and ‘baffled’ by Casado’s speech. Photograph: Pablo Blazquez/AFP/Getty Images

Casado said he had resisted Vox’s provocations out of respect for the party’s voters – many of whom, he acknowledged, were drawn from the ranks of the PP – but added he could not accept Abascal’s “irresponsible and corrosive strategy for Spain”.

The deputy prime minister and Podemos leader, Pablo Iglesias, congratulated the PP leader on “a brilliant political speech” in the finest intellectual traditions of Spanish conservatism. However, he could not help pointing out that it had come rather late.

Juan Fernández-Miranda, a columnist for Spain’s rightwing ABC newspaper, said Casado had won the no-confidence debate of which he had been the true target.

“The PP leader has delivered his finest speech,” he wrote. “And in doing so, he opted for the hardest option: no to Vox’s motion, no to Vox’s arguments, and no to Vox’s ways.”

Casado’s words, he added, had revealed the differences between him and Abascal.

“Casado wants to be Merkel and Abascal wants to be Le Pen. That is the difference between the two rights. The PP leader defended the right’s unfailingly conservative and liberal tradition, while Abascal yesterday defended ‘the patriotic movements’ of the European right.”

Like many commentators, Ignacio Escolar, the editor of the progressive online paper Eldiario.es, noted that Abascal had been left reeling by Casado’s verbal blows. But, he added, the punches had been pulled for too long.

“This was a smart decision from Casado,” he wrote. “Not because it’s going to guarantee him a good electoral result – that remains to be seen – but because the other option would probably have been even worse. Walking at Vox’s side and chuckling at its jokes would have boxed the PP into a corner and left it without any chance whatsoever of governing Spain.”

El País’s account of the speech bore a simple headline: “The day Casado told Vox enough is enough.”

Abascal said he had been “surprised” and “baffled” by Casado’s speech, but insisted his party would not withdraw its support for the regional governments it had placed in the PP’s hands.

“I’d really like it if you would actually say thank you to us for giving you governments in Andalucía, Murcia and Madrid in return for no seats at the table whatsoever,” he said.

Vox’s motion, the fifth since Spain’s return to democracy following the Franco dictatorship, attracted the lowest support to date.

The last no-confidence vote, held in June 2018, allowed Sánchez’s Socialist party to topple the PP government of the then prime minister, Mariano Rajoy, after a succession of corruption scandals.

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