The Popular Party has been out of power since the 2018 ouster of Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy. In the meantime, Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez, a socialist, has charged ahead with a minority government of left-leaning parties, a coalition that survived the pandemic and has proved more durable than many predicted.
The Popular Party has spent much of the past few years defending itself against a raft of corruption cases, which have engulfed a former treasurer and past prime ministers. But perhaps the party’s biggest challenge has come from the extreme right in the form of an upstart nationalist party called Vox.
Founded in 2013 by a politician who broke with the Popular Party, Vox has leaned deep into Spain’s nationalist taboos and at times has defended Franco. Its anti-immigrant stances, considered racist by critics, drew praise from figures like Stephen K. Bannon, Donald Trump’s former adviser, who advised Vox as well.
The party’s growth — it’s now the third-largest in the national Parliament — has some veteran politicians concerned that conservatives are increasingly tempted to follow Vox further to the right.
On Sunday, the Popular Party president, Pablo Casado, laid out the group’s platform in a fiery speech from the floor of a bullfighting ring. He surprised some analysts with a hardened tone against immigration, abortion and a separatist movement in the Catalonia region.