Socialists Won In Spain-- But Fascism Made A Comeback

On Friday, just as Spain was preparing to vote, Bob Dylan played at the Bizkaia Arena in Bilbao. His set list as been unchanged for the whole European tour-- until the Friday night gig when he added a rare song he doesn't play much, "Dignity." An old friend married a donostiarra and settled in her hometown, San Sebastián, about an hour and a half from Bilbao. They drove there for the concert with their 3 kids, all of whom took the song as an anti-fascist message in the middle of an election where the fascists were making a comeback attempt through the Vox party. Voter turn out was way up-- basically because of support for and opposition to the fascists... 76%.

As it turns out, Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez's Socialist Party (PSOE) won 123 seats, while their anti-austerity allies, Podemos. has taken 42-- so 165 seats, 11 fewer than they would need without forming a coalition with some smaller regional parties. The big loser Sunday was the center-right Popular Party (PP), whose seats were halved to just 65-- winning no seats at all in the area Dylan played-- none in Bilbao, none in San Sebastián, none anywhere in the Basque region. (And just one in Catalonia.) Another center-right party, Ciudadanos, picked up 57 seats. The fascist Vox party, founded in 2013, will make its debut in Parliament with 24 deputies (the lower end of what pollsters had predicted). That makes 146 seats for the right and 165 for the left.

Winner

Vox, as you might guess, is Spain's Trumpist party-- xenophobic, misogynist, racist, Islamophobic and 100% in thrall to the wealthy. Steve Bannon has been supporting Vox through his fascist "think tank," The Movement. Vox's Rafael Bardají is the link between Spanish fascism and the Trump regime. He advocates building a wall around the last two Spanish colonies in Morocco, Ceuta and Melilla, and forcing Morocco to pay for it. It would be more likely that Morocco would just kick Spain out of the two enclaves entirely. Santiago Abascal, the head of Vox, is also advocating for an end of gun control in Spain. Russia has been secretly assisting Vox's efforts in the hopes of destabilizing and ultimately destroying the European Union. Vox did best in Madrid (3.64%), Castile y León (2.50%), Aragon (2.33%) and Murcia (2.32%). It was below 2% everywhere else, doing worst in Catalonia, Basque Country, Galicia and the Canary Islands, less than 1% in each.