Spain far-right Vox party gains foothold in Andalusia election, by the BBC.

A far-right party has won seats in a Spanish regional election for the first time in decades. The Vox party took 12 parliamentary seats in Andalusia on Sunday, beating expectations that it would win five. …

Its breakthrough is the latest in a nationalist surge that has swept across Europe. …

The Socialist Party has ruled Andalusia for 36 years. …

In some respects Vox resembles other parties on Europe’s far-right. Its success has been at least partly due to its call for tougher immigration controls. That strategy has worked particularly well in Andalusia, the region that has received the vast majority of the nearly 53,000 migrants who have crossed the Mediterranean to Spain so far this year. …

Vox has been derided as far-right and populist, anti-immigrant and anti-Islam but its leader Santiago Abascal believes its recent surge of support is because it is “in step with what millions of Spaniards think”.

Its leaders reject the far-right label, insisting it is a party of “extreme necessity” rather than extremism.

Philip:

Anybody that does not believe that transgender and immigrant rights are the pressing issues of our time are obviously right wing bigoted, racists and are almost certainly white nationalists who hangs around with Nazis.

And they should be punched in the head by civilised liberals.

hat-tip Philip Barton