The right plays with fire by feeding the electoral fraud theory

BarcelonaQuestioning electoral results is a strategy employed by the global far-right, which Vox has now imported to Spain, but that does not make it any less dangerous. Not long ago, Donald Trump still had not accepted his 2020 electoral defeat to Joe Biden, even though there is no evidence to suggest he won those elections. Now, Santiago Abascal, and to a lesser extent also the PP with Isabel Díaz Ayuso, are stirring up the specter of electoral fraud and accusing Pedro Sánchez of preparing a fix for the upcoming general elections.

At other times, the far-right focused on Indra, the publicly funded company involved in vote counting, and the current president of Extremadura, María Guardiola, made a terrible fool of herself when, in the midst of a campaign, she linked a robbery at a post office to an attempt to alter the electoral result. In the end, it was proven that common thieves had mistakenly taken sacks of votes, and those affected were able to vote again.

Now Vox is focusing on the so-called "grandchildren law", which allows grandchildren of Spaniards exiled after the Civil War to claim nationality, and also on the regularization of immigrants. According to Vox, the grandchildren of exiles are necessarily left-wing voters, especially in countries like Cuba. But the reality is that the vote from abroad is always very small and has little electoral impact (except in places like Galicia, where it usually benefits the PP). And regarding the regularization of immigrants, it is a direct falsehood, as the only thing being processed are work permits, not nationalities.

The fact is that these discourses are playing with fire. Not only because democracy itself is being questioned, but also because the groundwork is being laid for a social explosion if the results desired by the PP and Vox do not occur in the next elections. Because, of course, what would happen if Pedro Sánchez were to regain the current parliamentary majority? Would the PP and Vox accept the results, or would they do as Donald Trump did and call to occupy Congress? And what consequences would that have on the streets? Who would be responsible if there were serious episodes of political violence like in the United States?

The PP should immediately put an end to all these insinuations and forcefully discredit Vox's discourse, because if they don't, they will be jointly responsible for whatever may happen. The question is: how far are these two parties willing to go to dislodge Sánchez from La Moncloa? To "put the State's stability at risk", as Luis María Ansón confessed was done in the 90s to end felipismo?

If Spanish democracy has had a strong point since the recovery of freedoms, it has been the electoral system, with enough guarantees to carry out a quick and universally accepted count. To question this is equivalent to opening the gates of hell and entering a new stage of general distrust in the system. Precisely the ideal scenario for the authoritarian exits that characters like Trump and his henchmen dream of.