The former CUP list leader who now embraces Vox

BarcelonaIt is often said that in politics everything has been seen: unnatural alliances, sudden changes of position or leaders who move to another party. In fact, moving from one party to another is not exceptional in Catalonia. With the 'Procés', leaders from the PSC or ICV joined ERC, representatives from Cs joined the PP with the decline of the orange party, and now Junts officials are moving to Aliança. What is not usual are the changes of allegiance between parties located at opposite ends of the ideological spectrum.

This is what has happened in Terrassa, where a former CUP list leader now embraces Vox. We are talking about Isabel Gómez, who in 2007 was the CUP candidate without obtaining a councilor's seat and now sympathizes with Santiago Abascal's party. Just last Thursday, she was alongside Vox's spokesperson in Terrassa, Alicia Tomás, at the press conference she held at the town hall to denounce an alleged aggression by a family of Moroccan origin. Before making her statement, Gómez even presented a bouquet of flowers to Tomás, who has become known for her belligerence against the Muslim community by wearing t-shirts such as "More walls and fewer Moors". Vox has boasted about her signing: "Some manage to escape your sect. And she is not the only one. In 2027 you will discover that there are more and more of them".

On her X account, which she made private just after ARA contacted her unsuccessfully, Gómez exudes republican xenophobia by republishing all sorts of publications from far-right users. This very week, she defended the violence of organized groups against Moroccans who had entered Ceuta, citing the Civil Guard's "inaction" and demanding they use force to stop "the invasion," or stressing that this wouldn't have happened in Franco's time.

Far removed are the stances she defended when she was the CUP candidate and spokesperson in the following years. "We want to be a welcoming, respectful city, and we will not tolerate fascist or racist behavior," she said in an interview with a local media outlet during the campaign. Back then, she fiercely defended the right to vote for immigrants she now wants to deport. "In the elections of May 27, many newcomers who work, who pay taxes, who are writing the history of Terrassa with their lives, will not be able to vote because of their origin, and we cannot consider ourselves a democratic city if we deny them the vote," she denounced.

But how can this 180-degree turn be explained? ARA has tried to speak with Gómez to understand how she went from the far-left to the far-right and from pro-independence to unionist, but she said she was on vacation and did not wish to respond to the request. She did, however, post a tweet this weekend revealing that the left's management of immigration was one of the triggers for an ideological shift she began in 2014. This issue, however, has not been the only one that has distanced her from progressivism.

Left-wing and anti-abortion

In a post on her Facebook account in 2013, Gómez defended that it was compatible to be left-wing and anti-abortion, she described the embryo as a "helpless life" and censored "its unpunished attack". And she criticized the hypocrisy of progressivism for yielding on principles "that seemed immutable: the protection of the weak and non-violence". "The fertilized ovum is alive, a project of being, with its own genetic code that will most likely become fully so if those of us who already have reason do not artificially cut short the process of viability," she stated in an extensive publication.

Given the stir her post caused, Gómez clarified that the text was by Miguel Delibes, from 2008, which she subscribed to "100%" and that her only contribution was the title 'Left-wing and anti-abortion? Yes, of course!'". Gómez wanted to emphasize that she published it "in a personal capacity", that it should be read "both media-wise and politically", and that as a candidate and spokesperson for the CUP, on her own behalf she never made public declarations against abortion nor did it compromise her.

In the same article, Gómez recalled that since 2010 she no longer militates in the CUP, although she closed ranks with the anti-capitalist party. "My support for this left-wing independentist candidacy is absolute," she underlined, but without changing her anti-abortion stance. "It is patriarchal and adultist violence exercised by women, it is the great failure of feminism because in the fight for the rights of those who have no rights or voice, one must take sides with the weakest, and in a pregnancy this is the fetus, not the adult," she stated.

She was thus aligning herself with the theses of Vox, which would be founded in 2013, and which has always defended the repeal or reform of legislation that allows abortion at the woman's request during the first weeks of gestation or the legal protection of life "from conception". Gómez also questions the scientific consensus on climate change, as Vox does, calling it "climate fanaticism". Following the recent fires, Gómez took advantage of the arrest of an arsonist in Igualada to ironically suggest that global warming has nothing to do with the fires.