Feb 24 • 04:30 UTC 🇪🇸 Spain El País

It is authoritarianism

The rise of Vox in Spain is attributed not to structural factors but to individual decisions, challenging common explanations about its support base.

The article discusses the rise of the Vox party in Spain, emphasizing that this growth is not predicated on structural factors such as poverty or age demographics but rather on individual choices. It critiques popular narratives suggesting that young voters support Vox due to ignorance about Spain's past dictatorship, while older voters supposedly support it out of nostalgia. These claims serve more to comfort observers than to illuminate the underlying reasons for Vox's growing influence.

The piece highlights data from the January 2026 CIS survey showing that only 11.6% of voters aged 18 to 24 support Vox, indicating a significant majority of young people do not. Among older voters, support drops to 7.8% for those over 75. This data counters common stereotypes about who supports Vox, suggesting that the party's appeal is more nuanced and cannot be easily attributed to demographic characteristics or educational background.

In summary, the growth of Vox calls for a deeper understanding beyond surface-level explanations. The article argues that the rise of such authoritarian and xenophobic ideologies should provoke more introspection and critical evaluation within the democratic parties of Spain, rather than reliance on comforting but misleading narratives about the electorate's motivations.

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