Prime Minister Sánchez calls on voters in the Madrid elections to stop the far-right party Vox on 4 May. According to Sánchez, the party is a serious threat to Spanish democracy and society.
The Spanish Prime Minister warned Vox will end all rights and freedoms that Spain acquired in the past 40 years. Sánchez accompanied his PSOE colleague and presidential candidate Ángel Gabilondo for the upcoming Madrid region elections. He did this together with Minister Fernando Grande-Marlaska of the Interior, who received a death threat last week.
A step too far
The minister was not the only one who received these death threats. Guardia Civil director María Gámez and presidential candidate Pablo Iglesias for Unidas Podemos also received bullet letters. When Vox described these threats as fabrications during an election debate last Friday, the party went a step too far, according to Sánchez.
According to the far-right party, Grande-Marlaska, Gámez and Iglesias staged these threats to put Vox in a bad light. After this accusation, first Iglesias and later also Gabilondo and Más Madrid leader Mónica García left the debate. Together they decided not to enter into a debate with Vox again until election day on Tuesday 4 May.
“Until now, we have tolerated all the screams, insults, hatred and lies of the far right, even their threats. We have been tolerant for so long that it has almost become self-evident. We have come to regard the far right as normal, and that is painful. What we have achieved in 40 years of democracy, Vox calls a progressive dictatorship. They disqualify women who stand up for their rights, call them “feminazis,” and members of the LGTBI community are “sick” in the eyes of Vox,” said the Spanish prime minister.
Freedom of speech has limits
Sánchez also noted that freedom of speech has its limits. As far as Sánchez is concerned, that line is crossed when there is hate speech and human dignity is violated. So now the Prime Minister is making an urgent appeal to end Vox together and to stop tolerating the abnormal as something normal, not only in Madrid but all over Spain. The Prime Minister also called on the PP and Ciudadanos to distance themselves from Vox and join the condemnation of the death threats made against public persons.
Gabilondo calls for hate to be silenced
According to PSOE presidential candidate Gabilondo, next May 4th, either democracy or hatred will win. Like the Prime Minister, he also calls on all democracy advocates to go for the former and fight for the preservation of human values. “With nine days to go, we have enough time to dignify the hatred. Each individual vote counts for that, ”said Gabilondo.
