Spain before the election: Franco’s heirs back on the road to power

When Santiago Abascal, leader of the ultra-right party Vox, gets out of his station wagon before campaigning, he is greeted by his supporters like a celebrated bullfighter star. His fans greet him with yells, strong pats on the back and sayings like bullfighters heard in times long gone: “Vista, suerte y al toro”, very loosely translated: Good luck, he should grab the bulls by the horns.

A little later, like recently in Valencia, when the bearded man, armed with notes, strides to the lectern in the reddish evening sun, it resembles the dramatic scenes familiar from American western films when the gunman takes action to ensure justice is done. At the microphone, Santiago Abascal then railed against migrants, against whom he would like to lead a “cultural crusade” in order to reconquer his country for the Spaniards. He shoots at the EU, at the separatists in Catalonia, at homosexuals, at Spain’s progressive legislation protecting women and at feminists, whom he calls “feminazis”. With him in political responsibility, “men in Spain should finally be real men again”.