Its interpretation is therefore much more complex–and, at the same time, less unique in a comparative perspective–than it might seem. Our analysis shows that other common explanations of the Western European Radical Right (authoritarianism, the rejection of immigration and the reaction against cultural liberalism) are also an essential part of VOX’s electoral success since its onset. This led to the idea that the Catalan conflict was almost the only relevant explanatory factor for its rise. However, its questionnaires lack important variables that would allow testing some of the alternative explanations for VOX’s electoral support. Many empirical analyses on VOX’s electoral surge are based on survey data from “Centro de Investigaciones Sociológicas” (CIS), which is the main source of information on voting behaviour in Spain. Our argument focuses on the fact that this explanation is incomplete. Even the book of Rama et al –the most comprehensive account of VOX to date–continue to attribute VOX’s electoral emergence mainly to the Catalan conflict. According to this, VOX’s electoral surge was in its beginnings mainly the product of a reaction of Spanish nationalism towards the independence threat that emerged in Catalonia. However, in the Spanish case, most of the existing literature on VOX seems to point towards a considerable singularity. Much of the international analysis of the radical right emphasises a broad range of explanations, including the “losers of globalisation” and economic insecurity thesis, grievances and negative feelings towards immigration or the rejection of cultural change. ![]() Today, although this singularity has disappeared and VOX has established itself with a strong parliamentary presence at all territorial levels, certain exceptionalism appears to remain when we try to understand and place this party and its electorate in comparative perspective. Until 2018, Spain was one of the few countries in the European context in which there was no relevant political party on the radical right.
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