A Nation-State for the “True” Europe. Vox’s Speech on the European Union (2013-2019)

Abstract

A Nation-State for the “True” Europe. Vox’s Speech on the European Union (2013-2019)

The irruption of Vox on the Spanish political map is one of its most significant novelties, altering the political space of the right, which has been stable since the Transition. Its growth has been related to the rise of populism, which in this paper is understood as a discourse, following Patrick Charaudeau’s scheme. Vox’s discourse presents elements of particular interest in relation to Europe and its institutions and is configured through three phases. In the first (2013-2014) the party is nationalist and centralist but also pro-European. The second phase is characterised by the leadership of Santiago Abascal, who gives Vox a Eurosceptic twist. In the third phase (2018-2019), the party grows significantly at the national level and participates in the “European battle’”of the Eurosceptic forces in 2019, with a programme in which the nation-states are postulated as the axis of a “true Europe”. In this phase, Abascal’s leadership was further consolidated, also through the massive use of social networks. Shortly afterwards, the very serious crisis derived from the Covid19 pandemic broke out, which Vox faced from an initially very favourable position.

Received: 22-04-2021

Admitted: 29-05-2021