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Coherence makes its way once again among Spanish politicians. Jorge Buxadé, Vox MEP, appeared on Monday, January 9, to assert the internal coherence of the party. Specifically, he recalled that Vox condemns all acts of violence against democratic institutions, motivated by the assault on institutions by a group of people in Brazil.
Last Sunday, January 8, followers of former president Jair Bolsonaro assaulted the buildings of the National Congress, the Supreme Court and the Presidency. A few weeks after the victory of the former socialist president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva by a minimal difference with respect to the then president Bolsonaro, in a context of political polarization of society, a group of 1500 people perpetrated this assault. President Lula condemned what had happened, and leaders from all over the world immediately seconded the words of the socialist president. Specifically in Spain, leaders of the left-wing parties wanted to shift the blame from the Bolsonar supporters to the Spanish right-wing parties. For example, Pablo Fernandez, of the extreme left-wing party Unidas Podemos, affirmed that this fact is perpetrated by the Spanish right wing using judges instead of civilians.
In the face of such a capacity of relationship on the part of the left, once again, Vox traces a greater equidistance with the Spanish left. Far from having defended the facts, Vox has recalled its position through Jorge Buxadé: always against all violence exercised against democratic constitutional institutions. The MEP took advantage of the intervention to make comparisons. If on the one hand, Vox showed coherence in its discourse once again, on the other hand, he remembered the parties and personalities of the left who have shown to have a “double yardstick”. If on the one hand, Vox has had no problem in condemning the events, on the other hand Buxadé recalled how the left was silent before the acts of mass violence and vandalism happened in Chile in 2018 and encouraged by Gabriel Boric, and also of those happened in Colombia in 2021 instigated by Gustavo Petro. “They now denounce what happened in Brazil, but however they have never denounced what happened in Chile or Colombia.”
The democratic criterion in Vox versus unreason
In this way, coherent conservatism once again reveals the shamefulness of an undefined left. The term “extreme right” is used again and again by the left to disqualify the opposition while they try to cover up the shame of the disastrous socialist coalition management. The lack of criteria of the Spanish left is not something that simply focuses on the defense of democracy. It is not something new. The left has not applied a coherent defense of democracy when they have assaulted the judiciary. Nor an effective defense of women, passing laws that have reduced sentences for rapists in the last year. And even while in government, neither have they demonstrated an ability to define a model of a country, having pardoned the Catalan pro-independence leaders who perpetrated a coup d’état in 2017.
According to the latest polls, the double standard of the left seems to have weakened to death. With municipal, autonomic and general elections set for this 2023, polls predict an institutional shift to the right at all levels. Spaniards need a coherent project, and more and more the embarrassments of the left provoke desperate reactions such as linking the Spanish right with the events in Brazil. In the face of empty words that crumble with the passage of time, a coherent discourse resists the appreciation of more and more Spaniards.