{"id":9865,"date":"2025-01-23T14:52:03","date_gmt":"2025-01-23T13:52:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/nccr-onthemove.ch\/blog\/?p=9865"},"modified":"2025-01-30T12:55:21","modified_gmt":"2025-01-30T11:55:21","slug":"the-sirens-song-iberian-variations-of-the-populist-radical-right-script","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nccr-onthemove.ch\/blog\/the-sirens-song-iberian-variations-of-the-populist-radical-right-script\/","title":{"rendered":"The Siren\u2019s Song: Iberian Variations of the Populist Radical Right Script"},"content":{"rendered":"

With a widespread rise of populist radical right (PRR) parties, Vox in Spain and Chega in Portugal have adapted the anti-immigration and anti-establishment narrative to address country-specific issues like national unity and economic inequality. The focus on these issues accounts for programmatic singularities that, while consistent with a broader PRR ideology, attract a national audience, especially disillusioned voters who feel neglected by their political leaders and threatened by globalization. A closer look at these singularities may help understand variations of the PRR script regarding mobility and migration \u2013 and, ultimately, these parties\u2019 success. <\/strong><\/p>\n

The Iberian Peninsula was long perceived as \u2018immune\u2019 to a siren\u2019s song luring many across Europe: the populist radical right (PRR). Although Spain and Portugal had seemed exceptionally resistant to PRR parties (Alonso and Rovira Kaltwasser 2015), the end of \u2018Iberian exceptionalism\u2019 came in 2019 and, by now, Vox and Chega are the third-biggest political forces in their respective countries.<\/p>\n

Like other PRR parties, Vox and Chega flourish on political dissatisfaction, attracting young voters and those with anti-globalization, anti-elite\/-establishment and anti-immigration sentiments. However, some of their unique programmatic features highlight how the PRR script has been adapted to national contexts and gained traction in Spain and Portugal.<\/p>\n

Vox and National Unity<\/strong><\/h5>\n

Although some authors point to the nationalist, more than the populist, character of Vox (Ferreira 2019; Franz\u00e9 and Fern\u00e1ndez-V\u00e1zquez 2022), there is a consensus on its classification as a PRR party (Vampa 2020; Turnbull-Dugarte et al. 2020; K\u00fcppers 2024). Within an overarching nationalist rhetoric, anti-elite sentiments are apparent in Vox\u2019s identification of \u2018the enemies of Spain\u2019, such as the government led by the socialist party (PSOE) and Prime Minister Pedro S\u00e1nchez, foreign and \u2018global\u2019 elites, as well as autonomic (i.e., regional) elites (Vox 2023: 7).<\/p>\n

Despite adhering to the overall PRR script, it was Vox\u2019s recentralizing stance amidst Catalonia\u2019s separatist claims that largely determined its success in the 2019 general elections. It seems, therefore, no coincidence that the rise of Vox occurred when a regional bid for independence became a particularly salient issue. Against this backdrop, Vox developed a program that opposes regional autonomy, emphasizing national unity to justify an aspiration to recentralize the state. Although Vox presents a unique interest in this issue, the party\u2019s position is consistent with the PRR ideology: the key programmatic aim at recentralizing the state can be seen as an expression of nationalism.<\/p>\n

While the national sentiment is a unifying element of the PRR electorate, the specific issue of national unity in Spain allowed Vox to emerge as a political contender, attracting a younger, male, more religious than average and less economically deprived electorate (Turnbull-Dugarte et al. 2020; Heyne & Manucci 2021).<\/p>\n

Chega and Welfare Benefits<\/strong><\/h5>\n

Although he is trying to distance himself and the party from Estado Novo<\/em>\u2019s authoritarian legacies, Andr\u00e9 Ventura and Chega seem to contradictorily resort to political slogans such as \u2018God, Fatherland, Family, and Work.\u2019 The addition of \u2018work\u2019 to a slogan borrowed from Salazar\u2019s regime is telling of the central issue Chega focuses on: welfare and public services.<\/p>\n

It can be said that Chega vilifies welfare recipients on the whole: the \u2018virtuous Portuguese [portugueses de bem],\u2019 those who Ventura claims to represent, are the \u2018half of the country [who] work to pay for those who do not want to work\u2019 (Ag\u00eancia Lusa 2021). However, this stigmatization often assumes the contours of welfare chauvinism, as minority groups, such as the Roma community and immigrants, are accused of draining public funds.<\/p>\n

According to Chega, national and local elites are also to blame due to widespread corruption and \u2018socialist fiscal policies\u2019 deemed as \u2018inadequate\u2019 as well as \u2018persecutory of wealth creation,\u2019 penalizing \u2018the salaries of those who work the most\u2019 (Chega 2024: 56). Chega\u2019s stances on resource distribution, privatization, and provision of welfare have attracted dissatisfied male voters, without higher education, but who are not necessarily economically deprived. These include particularly rural voters who perceive their geographical areas as politically neglected (Magalh\u00e3es & Cancela 2025).<\/p>\n

Variations of the PRR Script on Mobility and Migration<\/strong><\/h5>\n

The issues of national unity and distribution of welfare are reflected in the parties\u2019 stances on mobility and migration: Vox alludes to both large- (post-imperial) and smaller-scale (rural) ideas of \u2018Spain\u2019 in their policy direction, while Chega departs from ideas of economic desirability.<\/p>\n

Both Vox and Chega, even if not openly Euroskeptic, are at least Eurocritical. According to these parties, there is a link between supranational elites, with so-called \u2018globalizing\u2019 agendas and \u2018progressive,\u2019 \u2018woke\u2019 ideologies, and \u2018open-doors,\u2019 \u2018irresponsible\u2019 policies promoting \u2018illegal,\u2019 \u2018uncontrolled,\u2019 and \u2018massive\u2019 immigration.<\/p>\n

Anti-immigration is a known element of the PRR script, although both parties consider that a degree of immigration is acceptable or even desirable. Chega argues a selection based mostly on labor demands, and Vox adds a nostalgic element, with a preference for immigrants coming from the \u2018Iberosphere\u2019, with a shared language, culture and ancestrality via past colonization (Vox 2023: 101). Securitization, welfare chauvinism, defense of traditional values, and distrust of non-nationals, particularly those of Muslim faith, are unsurprisingly present in both Vox\u2019s and Chega\u2019s discourses.<\/p>\n

Regional and national emigration is also a concern. Vox looks at the issue through the lens of depopulation and social as well as territorial inequalities that, according to the party\u2019s discourse, stem from an emptying process of \u2018the rural Spain,\u2019 imposed by \u2018anti-countryside policies\u2019 (ibid: 147), and furthered by independentist movements. Against rural depopulation, Vox prescribes natalist policies and incentives to stay that target the youth.<\/p>\n

Chega has a nostalgic, twofold take on national-level emigration. On the one hand, unemployment and low salaries are perceived as \u2018social catastrophes\u2019 leading to brain drain and curbing economic freedom: \u201cYoungsters are less free than their parents or grandparents were\u201d (Chega 2024: 62); in other words, the past was better.<\/p>\n

On the other hand, the diaspora is an \u2018asset\u2019 to the Portuguese economy, and its moral fiber is exalted. Chega\u2019s proposal to create a ministry dedicated to the diaspora aggrandizes the nation (instead of 10 million, Portugal is considered to have 15 million inhabitants), being arguably reminiscent of Salazar\u2019s imperialist propaganda of the 1930s, \u201cPortugal is not a small country.\u201d<\/p>\n

Tailoring Populism<\/strong><\/h5>\n

Vox and Chega use both inward and outward migration to tailor a broader PRR ideology to the specific anxieties of their national audience. These parties not only take an anti-immigration stance with caveats shaped by historical legacies and the national context, but they also diagnose social and political unease that associates the issue of emigration with their ideological and programmatic goals.<\/p>\n

The examples of variations in migration narratives with a focus on country-specific issues, provided by Vox and Chega, suggest that the success of PRR parties is not just about how appealing the ideology may be to predisposed demographics but also relies on the malleability of the PRR script itself.<\/p>\n

Sara de Athouguia Filipe<\/em><\/a>\u00a0is a PostDoc at the\u00a0nccr \u2014 on the move<\/a><\/em>, working on the project \u201c<\/em>A European Desert? The Territorial Economics and Politics of Emigration in Crisis Regions<\/em><\/a>.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

This blog post is part of a series on the rising populist radical right. To read more, click here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

References:<\/p>\n

\u2013Ag\u00eancia Lusa (2021, January 10). E a meio do discurso de Ventura surgiu um esqueleto – candidatura fala em \u201cboicote\u201d<\/a>. Expresso.
\n<\/em>\u2013Alonso, S., & Rovira Kaltwasser, C. (2015). Spain: No Country for the Populist Radical Right?<\/a> South European Society and Politics<\/em> 20 (1): 21\u201345.
\n\u2013Chega (2024). Limpar Portugal. https:\/\/partidochega.pt\/index.php\/2024legislativas_programa\/<\/a>.
\n\u2013Ferreira, C. (2019). Vox como representante de la derecha radical en Espa\u00f1a: un estudio sobre su ideologia. Revista Espa\u00f1ola de Ciencia Pol\u00edtica<\/em> 51: 73-98.
\n\u2013Franz\u00e9, J., & Fern\u00e1ndez-V\u00e1zquez, G. (2022). El postfascismo de Vox: un populismo atenuado e invertido. Pensamiento al margen: revista digital sobre las ideas pol\u00edticas<\/em> 16:57\u201392.
\n\u2013Heyne, L., & Manucci, L. (2021). A new Iberian exceptionalism? Comparing the populist radical right electorate in Portugal and Spain<\/a>. Political Research Exchange<\/em>,\u00a03<\/em>(1).
\n\u2013K\u00fcppers, R. (2024). The far right in Spain: An \u2018exception\u2019 to what? Challenging conventions in the study of populism through innovative methodologies<\/a>. European Journal of Cultural and Political Sociology<\/em>,\u00a011<\/em>(4), 517\u2013557.
\n\u2013Magalh\u00e3es, P., & Cancela, J. (2025). Political neglect and support for the radical right: The case of rural Portugal<\/a>. Political Geography<\/em>, 116<\/em>, 103224,
\n\u2013Turnbull-Dugarte, S. J., Rama, J., & Santana, A. (2020). The Baskerville\u2019s dog suddenly started barking: voting for VOX in the 2019 Spanish general elections<\/a>. Political Research Exchange<\/em>,\u00a02<\/em>(1).
\n\u2013Vampa, D. (2020). Competing forms of populism and territorial politics: the cases of Vox and Podemos in Spain<\/a>.\u00a0Journal of Contemporary European Studies<\/em>,\u00a028<\/em>(3), 304\u2013321.
\n\u2013Vox (2023). Un Programa para lo que Importa<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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