Jason MoorePalma14/12/2018 18:35
TW

A former Spanish army general will be standing for the far-right Vox party in the local elections next May in Palma. General Fulgencio Coll was in charge of Spanish troops in Iraq during the second Gulf War and has also held senior positions within NATO. "The extremists are not in Vox, they are in those who support terrorists and separatists and those who support a neo-communist government which has failed so miserably in Venezuela," he said during his presentation yesterday.

For Vox, having a former Spanish general standing for them as a candidate is quite a coup, especially as Coll was born in Palma and his grandfather was mayor of the city. Vox broke into the Spanish political arena in the Andalusian elections earlier this month winning twelve seats in the regional parliament. Their far- right policies and hardline rhetoric on Catalonia and Gibraltar have won them some support but it is unclear what impact they will have across the country in the local elections next May. "We are the ones who will bring about change, progress and the reconquest," Francisco Serrano, Vox’s candidate in Andalusia, told a loud crowd gathered in Seville, many of whom waved Spanish flags and chanted "España! España!."

Spanish politics is split at the moment thanks to the advance of smaller parties both on the right and left. So far Vox has only marginal support but if its support continues to grow it will soon have the alarm bells ringing in political circles.