Spaniards vote conservative in regional elections

MARY REICHARD, HOST: It’s Tuesday, the 20th of June, 2023. You’re listening to WORLD Radio and we’re so glad to have you along today! Good morning, I’m Mary Reichard.

NICK EICHER, HOST: And I’m Nick Eicher.

First up on The World and Everything in It: conservative backlash on the world stage.

Since April, companies pushing LGBT advertising and products have seen a backlash from customers who don’t want to go along. Anheuser-Busch InBev, Target, and Kohl’s have seen their market capitalization drop by a collective $30-billion-dollars.

REICHARD: Well, something similar is happening in Europe where voters once willing to support socially progressive leaders now are not. One of those countries is Spain. In May, Spanish voters handed defeat to the ruling Socialist Workers party in regional elections.

EICHER: They did. But for decades, Spain embraced socialist policies and voted for socialist leaders, and they’ve done so ever since the death of authoritarian Francisco Franco in 1977. But with recent forays into gender ideology, that socialist support is starting to erode.

Here now is WORLD reporter Jenny Lind Schmitt from the Global Desk.

PEDRO SANCHEZ: [Speaking Spanish]

JENNY LIND SCHMITT, REPORTER: That’s Spanish President Pedro Sanchez the day after his Socialist Workers Party took a huge beating in regional elections. He says that even though they were local elections, the message voters sent went further. Given the results, he wanted to, ‘submit his mandate to the will of the people.’ Then he called for early–or “snap”-- elections in only six weeks. He’s hoping he can mobilize the left and consolidate his power before his popularity erodes any further.

The election results have sent shockwaves through Spain. Conservatives won control of 7 of the 12 regional governments that were in sway. And cities like Madrid and Valencia that have been socialist strongholds voted for conservatives.

ALBERTO NUNEZ FEIJOO: [Thanking crowd]

The head of the opposition and likely next president is Alberto Nunez Feijoo. His Pardido Popular party won 31 percent of the vote, over 28 won by the Socialist Workers. To build a coalition, Feijoo’s center-right party would need to work with the far-right Vox party. Critics once dismissed Vox as on the fringe, but it has mainstreamed itself and has been gaining ground.

On the other side, Sanchez’s far-left coalition partner, the Podemos party, got a disappointing 3 percent of the vote. During Sanchez’s government, much of the social agenda was driven by ministers from the Podemos party. And reaction to those policies just may be what got voters to vote conservative.

FORSTER: But what we see is there is a reaction to the sense that there have been ideologies and radical progressive trends that have been imposed from the authorities.

Jo-el Forster is director of Evangelical Focus, a European Christian news organization based in Valencia, Spain. He says across Spain, national and local governments have been pushing radical progressive ideologies around gender and LGBT issues. They’re popular in universities but not in the interest of most people on the streets.

FORSTER: And suddenly all these ideas have been people feel they have been really pushed in a way that was too much and that has led to people being concerned in especially in what has to do with sex education in schools, primary schools. And it has to do with a transgender law that was passed in December 2022, which is very much one of the most progressive laws of that kind in Europe.

The transgender law came into effect in March. It allows persons to legally change their gender on their national ID card, without any medical diagnosis or taking hormones. The Trans lobby in Spain helped write the text of the new law, and without much room for debate, the government pushed it quickly through parliament. Forster says the law is nearly identical to the Scottish Trans Law that was approved just one day later.

FORSTER: The difference is that in Scotland, the law has been stopped by the prime minister, whereas in Spain it it is already working in place and people can go and register themselves as as being a member of the opposite sex and then getting all their rights that this implies.

Forster says as average Spaniards have become aware of what’s happening, the backlash is much stronger than those in power would have expected. That follows a trend across the continent of recent electoral gains by parties on the political right in Germany, France, Sweden, and Finland.

FORSTER: So I think there is a trend in Europe of reaction against certain very ideological progressive and campaigns I would say, that have been promoted from the government, from power, from the authorities. And people are seeing things that do not make sense to them. Even people who would describe themselves as left wing leaning.

FEIJOO: [On TV news show talking in Spanish]

In a television interview week before last conservative leader Feijoo said that if he wins in July, he’ll repeal the Trans Law. He said that currently "It's easier to change your gender than to get a driver’s license.”

For evangelicals in Spain, there’s been a shift to the right as well. To understand that, you need to understand Spain’s history.

AUDIO: [Franco speech]

After the Civil War in the 30s, Spain was ruled by fascist dictator Francisco Franco until 1977. Franco supported–and was strongly supported by–the Spanish Roman Catholic Church, to the point of severely repressing faith minorities. That included Protestants and evangelical Christians. The government closed churches and put pastors in jail.

After Franco’s death, there was a big shift to the left. Evangelicals supported the Socialist governments which brought increased freedoms for worship along with democratic voting, and increased rights and education for women. But in recent decades, Spain’s efforts to prove itself as modern have stretched too far.

FORSTER: And what we see now is a shift again, back to conservative values in Spain. That does not mean a shift back to Roman Catholicism and surely not a return to the Christian faith.

Forster says Spanish evangelicals have been outspoken about how the Trans Law and other progressive policies harm women and children. They’re encouraged that others are now also speaking out and finding ways to work together for change.

Spaniards will discover how much change they want when they go to the polls on July 23rd.

Reporting for WORLD, I’m Jenny Lind Schmitt.

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