Vox revives the "hometown first" slogan of the Platform for Catalonia

BarcelonaTwenty-three years ago, Josep Anglada founded the xenophobic far-right party Plataforma per Catalunya (PxC). This party, dissolved in 2019, popularized a simple slogan that Anglada built from Vic, where he currently operates. He returns to the council with a new party, Som Identitaris"Hometown first." This slogan, imported from other European xenophobic movements, made its fortune primarily in municipal politics and narrowly missed out on entering Catalan politics in 2010 when it failed to gain representation in the Parliament by just a few thousand votes. However, this year it has been resurrected in the Principality, with a perfectly thought-out revival by Vox, according to ARA.

In recent weeks, especially since September, the far-right pro-Spanish party has revived the slogan, promoted by Vox's spokesperson in the Parliament, Joan Garriga. September 9th marks the start of X, which has continued in the Parliament with the presentation of proposals and has already been expressed in campaigns on social media, and will continue. For now, they've already followed in the footsteps of Joan Garriga from Vox Girona, led by MP Alberto Tarradas, but also by the party's secretary general, Ignacio Garriga.

Concise, without referring exactly to who it addressed as people "from home"—with a vague national framework—the PxC slogan allowed for the far-right's anti-immigration discourse, with a strong Islamophobic component. Anglada, although he came from the Francoist Fuerza Nueva party, achieved a core of Catalanist voters, whom he combined with those who supported Espanyol, although the emergence of the Proceso and internal problems were the death knell for his party. In fact, Joan Garriga was a member of PxC before joining Vox. "It's a slogan that works, that is perfectly understandable," maintain Vox sources consulted by this newspaper, who recall that it was once successful and that what went well must be "valued." The slogan suggests that "those from here should come first, over those from outside," according to Vox; that is, according to their narrative, "Catalans, Spaniards" come first, ahead of foreigners. In social assistance and everywhere else. Also in public services when certain healthcare benefits are questioned.

Vox uses it bilingually in some cases: "Ours first, first those at home." And in others, like Ignacio Garriga, he has used it in Spanish: "First those at home"This step taken by the party allows it to connect with the roots of a significant portion of Vox's membership, who come from PxC, such as Joan Garriga himself; MP Mònica Lora; Jordi de la Fuente, a councilor from Adriano and a provincial deputy from Barcelona and leader of the Vox Solidaridad union; and numerous councilors such as Sergi Fabri from Salta and Ignasi Mulleras from Rosinco, among many others. Anglada, in turn, continues to use this slogan as the basis of its political proposal in Vic.

Competition with Aliança Catalana

Furthermore, they are using a slogan in Catalan that they hope will serve them in their strategy to broaden their base in Girona, Lleida, Terres de l'Ebre, and Central Catalonia, challenging the far-right pro-independence party, the Catalan Alliance, for anti-immigration voters in the post-processing period. All of this is happening in a context in which Vox is promoting the use of Catalan in its public interventions in the chamber and in social media content—subtitled in Spanish—especially by Alberto Tarradas, as well as fellow MP Júlia Calvet, Mònica Lora, and Joan Garriga himself, who also regularly uses Catalan in press conferences. Numerous municipal and political initiatives in Catalonia are now also being defended in Catalan on social media and in plenary sessions. This is because there is a hidden competition between the far-right pro-independence movement of Silvia Orriols and the pro-Spanish movement of Ignacio Garriga.

According to data from the latest CEO, 5% of Vox voters would now opt for Alianza, which, beyond attracting pro-independence voters, is also attracting voters who favor the unity of Spain as a result of its immigration rhetoric.

Public expressions

"The use of the slogan will increase." Sources within Vox consulted expressed this forcefulness, following the strategy outlined by Garriga. For now, the parliamentary spokesperson has used it to criticize a campaign in favor of Open Arms by the Bonpreu supermarket, to attack "insecurity" and what they consider an "advance of Islamism" in the country, to warn that "identity" and "values" are at stake, in addition to presenting the proposed resolutions to Parliament.

Furthermore, Vox Girona has already used him on several occasions to attack a pro-Palestinian initiative.

And it is the same case of Ignacio Garriga, who pronounces the slogan out loud in conversation with an elderly woman in Barcelona, ​​​​mixed with Islamophobia.