Who is behind the end of Spanish exclusivity? Analysis of the profile of the electorate of the “Vox” party

2 677 173 people voted for the “Vox” party in the April 2019 general election. Just seven months later, in November, that number increased to 3 640 063 votes, making “Vox” the third largest party in Spain in terms of both seats in the lower house of parliament (52 out of 350) and total votes (15.21%). “Vox” is a young Spanish right-wing party that was destined to remain small and insignificant, but ended up becoming one of the most influential actors in the country’s political space. Where other radical and far-right parties have failed, “Vox” has succeeded, and the party can now boast that it has put an end to Spain’s once exclusive status of a country free of right-wing politicians. The purpose of this article is to determine the electorate of this party, the success of which has become a real shock in the political arena of Spain. The author makes an analysis of socio-demographic profile of the “Vox” electorate. It is considered how class, education, age, gender and ideological views are associated with the support of “Vox.” “Vox” supporters differ significantly from supporters of both traditional and new Spanish parties. According to the analysis, “Vox” supporters are predominantly young males. The party has the smallest proportion of voters with higher education. “Vox” electorate is largely concentrated around those who strongly identify with Spain and the idea of “Hispanidad” and, above all, those who consider the country “under attack” from internal separatist forces (in Catalonia and the Basque country) and external cosmopolitanism, mainly in the form of immigration.

1. Kozhanovsky, A.N. “The phenomenon of the VOX party in the context of national and cultural development of Spain.” Cuadernos Iberoamericanos 4 (2019): 43-48. https://doi.org/10.46272/2409-3416-2019-4-43-48. [In Russian]

2. Yakovlev, P.P., Kurakina-Damir A.A., eds. Spain in a new national and international reality. Moscow: ILA RAS, 2020. [In Russian]

3. Tereshchuk, A.A. “Language ideology of Spanish political party “Vox”.” Vestnik Udmurtskogo universiteta 5 (2020): 828-836. https://doi.org/10.35634/2412-9534-2020-30-5-828-836. [In Russian]

4. Khenkin, S.M. “Podemos phenomenon.” Cuadernos Iberoamericanos 1 (2016): 15-20. https://doi.org/10.46272/2409-3416-2016-1-15-20. [In Russian]

5. Yakovlev, P.P. “Ispaniya: novye vybory vmesto novogo pravitel’stva” [Spain: new elections instead of a new government]. Perspectives and prospects. E-journal 6, no. 2 (2016): 117-131. https://doi.org/10.32726/2411-3417-2018-2-33-48. [In Russian]

6. Akkerman, Tjitske. “Gender and the radical right in Western Europe: A comparative analysis of policy agendas.” Patterns of Prejudice 49, no. 1-2 (2015): 37–60. https://doi.org/10.1080/0031322X.2015.1023655.

7. Betz, Hans-Georg. Radical right-wing populism in Westerm Europe. London: Palgrave Macmillan, 1994. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-23547-6.

8. Campbell, Rosie, and Silvia Erzeel. “Exploring gender differences in support for rightist parties: The role of party and gender ideology.” Politics and Gender 14 (2018): 80-105. http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/S1743923X17000599.

9. Cavaille, Charlotte, and John Marshall. “Education and anti-immigration attitudes: evidence from compulsory schooling reforms across Western Europe.” American Political Science Review 113, no. 1 (2019): 254–263. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0003055418000588.

10. Dalton, Russell, and Martin Wattenberg. Parties without partisans: political change in advanced industrial democracies. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2002. https://doi.org/10.1093/0199253099.001.0001.

11. De Vries, Catherine, and Sara Hobolt. Political entrepreneurs: The rise of challenger parties in Europe. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2020. http://dx.doi.org/10.2307/j.ctvt9k3d3.

12. Dotti Sani, Giulia, and Mario Quaranta. “Let them be, not adopt: general attitudes towards gays and lesbians and specific attitudes towards adoption by same-sex couples in 22 European Countries.” Social Indicators Research 150 (2020): 351–373. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11205-020-02291-1.

13. Kunst, Sander, Theresa Kuhn, and Herman van de Werfhorst. “Does education decrease Euroscepticism? A regression discontinuity design using compulsory schooling reforms in four European countries.” European Union Politics 21, no. 1 (2020): 24–42. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/1465116519877972.

14. Lefkofridi, Zoe, Wagner Markus, and Johanna E. Willmann. “Left-authoritarians and policy representation in Western Europe: electoral choice across ideological dimensions.” West European Politics 37, no. 1 (2014): 65–90. https://doi.org/10.1080/01402382.2013.818354.

15. Medrano, Juan Díez. Framing Europe: Attitudes to European Integration in Germany, Spain, and the United Kingdom. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2003.

16. Mudde, Cas. The far right today. Cambridge: Polity Press, 2019.

17. Oesch, Daniel. “The changing shape of class voting.” European Societies 10, no. 3 (2008): 329–355. https://doi.org/10.1080/14616690701846946.

18. Orriols, Lluis, and Guillermo Cordero. “The breakdown of the Spanish two-party system: the upsurge of Podemos and Ciudadanos in the 2015 general election.” South European Society and Politics 21, no. 4 (2016): 469–492. https://doi.org/10.1080/13608746.2016.1198454.

19. Pitt, Alexander et al. “Inequality and poverty across generations in the European Union.” Staff Discussion Notes 18, no. 1 (2018). http://dx.doi.org/10.5089/9781484338445.006.

20. Polk, Jonathan et al. “Explaining the salience of anti-elitism and reducing political corruption for political parties in Europe with the 2014 Chapel Hill Expert Survey Data.” Research & Politics 4, no. 1 (2017): 1–9. https://doi.org/10.1177/2053168016686915.

21. Rama, José, Lisa Zanotti, Stuart J. Turnbull-Dugarte, and Andrés Santana. VOX: The rise of the Spanish populist radical right. London: Routledge, 2021. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003049227.

22. Rooduijn, Matthijs. “What unites the voter bases of populist parties? Comparing the electorates of 15 populist parties.” European Political Science Review 10, no. 3 (2018): 351–368. https://doi.org/10.1017/S1755773917000145.

23. Sampietro, Agnese, and Sebastián Sánchez-Castillo. “Building a political image on Instagram: A study of the personal profile of Santiago Abascal (Vox) in 2018.” Communication and Society 33, no. 1 (2020): 169–184. http://dx.doi.org/10.15581/003.33.1.169-184.

24. Spierings, Niels, and Andrej Zaslove. “Gender, populist attitudes, and voting: explaining the gender gap in voting for populist radical right and populist radical left parties.” West European Politics 40, no. 4 (2017): 821–847. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/01402382.2017.1287448.

25. Spierings, Niels, Andrej Zaslove, Liza Mügge, and Sara L. de Lange. “Gender and populist radical-right politics: An introduction.” Patterns of Prejudice 49, no. 1-2 (2015): 3–15. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/0031322X.2015.1023642.

26. Stockemer, Daniel, Tobias Lentz, and Danielle Mayer. “Individual predictors of the radical right-wing vote in Europe: A meta-analysis of articles in peer-reviewed journals (1995–2016).” Government and Opposition 53, no. 3 (2018): 569–593. http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/gov.2018.2.

27. Stubager, Rune. “The changing basis of party competition: education, authoritarian–libertarian values and voting.” Government and Opposition 48, no. 3 (2013): 372–397. http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/gov.2013.13.

28. Turnbull-Dugarte, Stuart J. “Explaining the end of Spanish exceptionalism and electoral support for Vox.” Research & Politics 6, no. 2 (2019): 1–8. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/2053168019851680.

29. Turnbull-Dugarte, Stuart J., Jose Rama, and Andrés Santana. “The Baskerville’s dog suddenly started barking: voting for VOX in the 2019 Spanish general elections.” Political Research Exchange 2, no. 1 (2020). http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/2474736X.2020.1781543.