The threat of the far-right in Europe is overstated – and it’s counter-productive to keep claiming it

Despite the scare-mongering, the results in Spain’s election shows the country is far from embarking on a new flirtation with fascism, writes Mary Dejevsky. We need to be more discriminating about when to cry ‘wolf’

The Spanish election merely reinforced the left-right stalemate that had persuaded the prime minister to call a vote in the first place (Copyright 2023 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.)

When the first results of Spain’s “snap” general election came through last weekend, the response, at least in much non-Spanish commentary, seemed to be less relief than disappointment. What had been widely billed as a chance for the country’s far-right to win their first share of power since the Franco dictatorship – shock, horror, will those Continentals never learn - turned out rather to have produced more of the same old.

With all the results in, it was clear that Spain was very far from embarking on a new flirtation with fascism. The centre-left had performed better than expected, while the far-right Vox party had not only failed to make any breakthrough, but lost more than a third of the 52 seats it had held. The election merely reinforced the left-right stalemate that had persuaded the prime minister to call a vote in the first place, with Catalan and Basque independence parties holding the balance of power.

The upshot is that Spaniards may be heading back to the polls before long. Vox – and, not for the first time in recent European elections, the opinion pollsters – emerged the chief losers.