The Rhetoric of Reaction in Spain: Radical Right, Gender, and Immigration

• Autores: Belén Fernández-Suárez
• Localización: Excluding Diversity Through Intersectional Borderings: Politics, Policies and Daily Lives / Laura Merla (ed. lit.), Sarah Murru (ed. lit.), Giacomo Orsini (ed. lit.), Tanja Vuckovic Juros (ed. lit.), 2024, ISBN 978-3-031-65622-4, págs. 23-41
• Idioma: inglés
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• Resumen

  • This chapter provides an analysis of VOX’s political discourse on gender equality and immigration. VOX belongs to the European radical right and is characterized by conservatism, centralist nationalism, and nativism. The literature reviewed establishes a dialogue between migration studies and gender studies concerning the rise of these traditionalist and nationalist forces in Europe. The objectives are to present VOX’s main arguments on the role of women, gender equality, and immigration in Spain and to explore the relationship between these recurring topics in their political discourse. The methodology is qualitative, grounded on document analysis of VOX materials (program, statutes, founding manifesto) and parliamentary discourses in the Congress of Deputies in the XIII and XIV Legislatures. The results indicate that arguments and proposals regarding immigration seek to strengthen border control, toughen penalties, and consider irregular migration as a crime, targeting Muslim migrants. Regarding gender issues, their nativist vision implies to preserve traditional roles, oppose feminism, and promote natalist policies reinforcing mothers’ roles in caregiving. To conclude, VOX associates Muslim immigration with a perceived thret to women’s freedom in Western countries, link it to sexual crimes against women.