SURPRISE VOX

The Olive Press analyses four of the most controversial members of Spain’s far right party with the general election looming this month wing PP party, the chance of Vox getting into a coalition government inches ever nearer. strongly advocates the eradication of useless public bodies he refers to as chiringuitos, Abascal actually benefited from one in the past.

While left wing coalition, Sumar, is making in-roads and threatening to grab up to 15% of the vote, it may not be enough to save Sanchez.

Here, we take a look at four controversial characters in Vox.

In 2013, in fact, he was appointed Director of the Foundation for Patronage and Social Sponsorship in Madrid. This was a public body with no obvious activity and only one employee, in addition to Abascal, who was assigned a staggering wage of €82,491 per year.

Abascal, a former PP member who has never worked outside politics, created VOX on December 17, 2013, the very same day the Foundation for Patronage was dissolved. He later described this organisation as ‘unnecessary.’ But didn’t, of course, give the money back.

The VOX leader has also - no surprise as a fan of former dictator Franco - vehemently supported the return of compulsory military service in Spain, which ended in 2001.

Something Abascal never undertook, coincidentally, as he asked for three consecutive extensions that allowed him to postpone his enlistment, until it was scrapped.

THE CLIMATE DENIER Marta Fernandez

Marta Fernandez is a 56-year-old lawyer who became Chairwoman in the government of Aragon last month.

Fernandez, from Zaragoza, be- came infamous for her several tweets dismissing the existence of gender violence, the covid pandemic and, even, wait for it, climate change!

Indeed ‘gender violence does not exist,’ she insisted just two years ago, telling feminists ‘you are the granddaughters of the Christians, who kicked Muslims out of the Iberian Peninsula so you can now walk around topless in the street.’ Granddaughters, Marta? How well did you do at history?

Fernandez, who thinks climate change is invented, also thinks that the Covid-19 pandemic was a conspiracy.

“Wash your hands regularly, because the Government and media are responsible for brainwashing,’ she railed.

And of course, she is also against the LGBT movement and, predictably, defined the arrival of migrants as an ‘invasion.’

ANTI-ABORTIONIST Javier Ortega Smith

Javier Ortega Smith is one of the VOX founding members and most controversial characters.

Smith, a 54-year-old lawyer, became well-known in 2018 after swimming (yes splashing in the briny) to Gibraltar to erect a Spanish flag of 180 metres wide. “Gibraltar is Spain. Pirates out of the rock,” he later He also has an unserved arrest warrant, only effective in Gibraltar, for stealing a concrete block in British waters in 2014.

The councillor for VOX in Madrid, he was criticised for boycotting a minute of silence for the victims of gender violence by carrying a banner that said ‘gender has no violence.’

Smith, who will be number four in the Madrid list for the general election, also believes ‘abortion is not a right’.’ “A woman can decide what to do with her own body. She can decide what haircut she wants, her nail colour, or what to eat, but when you have created life, it is not your body, but an independent living being.”

WIFE-ABUSER

Carlos Flores mother of his three children.

Sanchez himself is outright furious about it. He recently insisted: “It’s evil, it’s making use of the suffering of the victims without scruples nor principles.”

And ETA victims are equally unhappy. “The victims deserve to be treated with RESPECT,” wrote the sister of Gregorio Ordoñez, who was killed by ETA and heads up the victims association.

“Using a hashtag to trivialise the murder of so many innocent people, including my brother Gregorio, shows a lack of principles and how unimportant we are,” she added. As for the man who carried the sign first using the phrase, no one has been able to track him down. But sources at El Confidencial claim he is a keen Vox supporter.

Whoever he was, he has created a slogan that has likely done untold damage to Pedro Sanchez and his electoral hopes.

As fellow politician, Pablo Iglesias, the former deputy prime minister and founder of Podemos, insisted: ‘the phrase has won the elections’.

Carlos Flores, who led the party’s list for the Parliament of the Valencian Community, was sentenced for gender violence in 2002.

Although many VOX members, including Marta Fernandez, don’t believe in gender violence, Flores was convicted for this offence as he ‘insulted, coerced and harassed’ his ex-wife, a staggering 21 times a court heard.

The 59-year-old was handed a prison sentence and given a threeyear restraining order against the

According to the court sentence, he once told her ‘I will be screwing you all your life until you die and I am done with you.’

Flores - who is also coincidentally a former member of pro-Franco party Fuerza Nueva - was forced to step down from the PP-VOX coalition for the Valencian Parliament because of his conviction…

However, it has not stopped leader Abascal placing him as number one in the list for the Valencian Community in the general election. Be careful what box you tick, fine people of Valencia!

THE Conservative opposition Partido Popular (PP) will create a National Water Authority to deal with Spain’s water supply issues for farmers and other sectors should it win the July 23 general election.

The proposal would provide ‘governance, investment, and management’ solutions to water problems right across Spain as the country grapples with the worst drought in decades.

A potential PP government would want a uniform approach to water policy and to do away with local governments coming up with ad hoc initiatives.

Its manifesto also talks about ‘the use of technologies to optimise resources’.

Despite opposition from some environmentalists, the party feels that defending farming and irrigation is a potential vote winner ahead of the snap

Climate goals

THE Spanish government has pledged to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 32% of its levels in 1990, after receiving a backlash against the previous target of 23%.

The decision came after pressure from Greenpeace España, which has brought two lawsuits against Madrid demanding a 55% reduction of emissions.

They accused the government of failing to create a national climate strategy for the end of 2030 required by EU law.

The Spanish government countered they are not bound by law to meet a specific reduction percentage and the Ukraine invasion has led to a step back in climate change efforts.

By Alex Trelinski

election.

The PP, led by Alberto Nuñez Feijoo, wants the ‘participation and collaboration’ of the regional governments along with a ‘scientific and social consensus’ to set up the new national body.

It also aims to make the maintenance of irrigation for agriculture compatible with natural areas like the Doñana Natural Park, and those badly affected by farming overexploitation such as the Mar

The

Menor lagoon.

The commitment to irrigated crops is clear with the PP electoral programme: “We will promote a modern and sustainable irrigation, efficient in the use of water and energy, which generates an agriculture of greater added value and capacity to generate employment.”

It also mentions collaboration with the 17 regions and municipalities for a ‘more efficient’ use of water and fertilisers in irrigation and to modernise supply channels to cut water losses in distribution chan-