Vox emulates the 15-M assemblies to win votes from the PSC: "Set a candle"

TarragonaWithout a jacket or tie, with his shirt sleeves rolled up and summer shoes, Ignacio Garriga stands before about forty neighbors in a small square dominated by a basketball hoop. The secretary general of Vox is talking with some Tarragona residents, even encouraging them to rebel to maintain the "tranquility of the neighborhood": "Set a candle," he says. It's not an exceptional day, just another day of a well-thought-out strategy with a staging calculated to the millimeter: since the beginning of the legislature, this is the sixteenth time the far-right party has given a talk resembling a neighborhood meeting. A style that emulates the spirit of the 15-M movement, or at least that's what some party leaders say, in an attempt to reach out to the people.

It's part of the plan Neighborhood by neighborhood, which above all aims to make a dent in the PSC electorate, the party's main objective, according to sources consulted. And it comes after doing the same in socialist strongholds such as Viladecans, Cornellà, Santa Coloma de Gramanet, Mataró, and Lleida, as well as in pro-independence areas such as Salt. Right-wing and seated people, local officials and activists, but also sympathetic residents and others who call themselves "apolitical" but are "angry." This Thursday afternoon –in the midst of the political storm over the Cerdán case– the meeting The event organized by Vox was in Monnars, a town affiliated with Tarragona, in the eastern part of the city, the most affluent. Terraced houses or houses with patios and a thorny issue: a future shelter in the area built by the Generalitat (Catalan government) that they fear will fill up with unaccompanied foreign minors at any moment. A preventive unrest among the neighbors due to possible "lesses," as they say.

These types of events address a variety of issues, with security and immigration as key points, but social issues such as housing and aid with "national" preference—not income-based as they are now—are currently a "priority banner" for the party, according to sources within the party. The shelter has focused the clamor on minors and the alleged insecurity, but there have been spontaneous Vox meetings on the street where The xenophobic cry "I'll kick out the Moors" was heard among the attendees. In Tarragona, the call – sent to mailboxes and via social media – has brought together a handful of residents, several of whom are Catalan speakers, in a higher proportion than usual at Vox rallies.

voting for the PSOE." He chatters in his language with a neighbor next door, but switches to Spanish when he addresses Garriga to order a cider so the City Council will listen to them. Marc Guasch, leader of the Levante Albergue No Platform, intervenes in Catalan to express his indignation at the shelter, which he believes will become a "center for menes." Created in 2022 and with a group of 150 residents, it is "apolitical," and that they support Vox, but would do so with others.

Harangues

A woman laments the "lack of neighborhood mobilization" and another says that "we're just a handful." "Until something happens," says Garriga. "Do what the neighbor said, start a fuss, get moving," adds the Vox leader. At the meeting, in addition to local officials, are the constituency's deputies Sergio Macián and Javier Ramírez, who promise to launch parliamentary initiatives against the project. Ramírez also advocates creating a "scandal" in the municipal plenary session and "spoiling it."

Guasch regrets that work on the shelter has begun and explains that the current mayor, Rubén Viñuales (PSC), and the previous one, Pau Ricomà (ERC), verbally promised that foreign minors would not be accommodated there, but not with a written commitment. His fear is the decree on youth facilities that allows for the change of use to accommodate vulnerable groups—a decree that is distributed in print. They also play an audio of Viñuales against the shelter before the elections, and Guasch maintains that "a In Levante, there was an "electoral swing" in favor of the PSC because of a "lie." "No, don't worry, two or three will come. But two or three came to Dosrius who assaulted old women every day and caused disturbances," says Vox Secretary General Ignacio Garriga to the neighbors.

Tere and Tomás also reject immigration. "Now." With a son with difficulties, they want to maintain their assets and security, they suffered a robbery and lament the social assistance system. "I'm not against the Moors [sic], but they should adapt and work," they say, criminalizing this group for their origins.

PSC votes?

When Vox landed in the Parliament in 2021, according to the seed CEO barometer, 33% of their votes came from Ciutadans and 37.5% from the PP, compared to the 2017 elections, while only 4.2% came from the PSC. The 2024 elections, according to a ecological inference model published by the ARA, scraped together 4,200 votes from Cs, 85,000 from abstention, and no significant votes from the PSC. However, political scientist Toni Rodon, consulted by this newspaper, provides a nuance: although "there is no academic study" that supports the transfer of votes from the Socialists to Vox, he calls for taking into account the Cs factor. He maintains that "some people went to Cs first and then to Vox after coming from the PSC," and that this "is not fully detected" in the data because there was a prior shift.