In the lead-up to Sunday’s election in Spain, Italy’s prime minister, Giorgia Meloni, delivered a buoyant video message to supporters of the radical right Vox party. “The hour of the patriots has arrived,” said Ms Meloni, ahead of a poll expected to deliver more evidence that authoritarian, xenophobic nationalism was becoming normalised in Europe’s politics.
It didn’t happen. Instead, after a high turnout in searing summer heat, Vox lost 19 seats, as its share of the vote fell compared with its breakthrough election in 2019. The conservative People’s party (PP), led by Alberto Núñez Feijóo, won the most seats but failed to come close to winning a majority. The consequent parliamentary arithmetic means that a role for Vox as junior coalition partner, in an administration led by the PP, is a non-starter. The prospect of a radical right presence in national government, for the first time since the return of democracy to Spain in 1975, has thus receded.
