Spanish extreme right-wing party Vox has presented itself in Barcelona with the intention of campaigning in the municipal elections of 2019 and competing with Ciudadanos for the unionist vote. With shouts of "Put Puigdemont in prison", "Long live the Civil Guard" and "Spain, united, will never be defeated", about 1,500 people attended the conference "The Spain that has to come", held on Sunday in the Hotel Barceló Sants. According to the organizers, it was the biggest event they had ever held.
The Vox party leaders asserted that in Catalonia people have gone "from the thief Pujol to the coup-plotter Puigdemont" and that Catalan schools "inject" children with "the virus of nationalism".
Party president Santiago Abascal said that his party is a victim of a campaign attempting to label them as "fascists, xenophobes and male chauvinists". Abascal called for a united Spain that would give up "the state of autonomous regions"; aware that "this is very difficult", he suggested that it was necessary for "essential competences" to be restored. "We haven't come here to ask for people's pardon, we've come to ask for explanations from those that led Spain to ruin".
Entrada del presidente @vox_es a #Barcelona VOX se estrena a Cataluña #LaEspañaporvenir pic.twitter.com/4yduXiS9sY
— Las Voces del Pueblo (@lasvocesdelpue) 3 de juny de 2018
Translation: Entry of the Vox party president in Barcelona. VOX launches in Catalonia. - The Voices of the People
The secretary general of Vox, Javier Ortega, went through all the private legal accusations that the party has presented against the leaders of the Catalan independence process and highlighted the “courage” and “firmness” of the actions of the late Spanish State Prosecutor, José Manuel Maza, whose signature is on the complaints for rebellion and sedition against Carles Puigdemont, and also praised Supreme Court judge Pablo Llarena, who is conducting the cases against the political prisoners and exiled ministers. He said that these two did not give in to “pressure” from anybody, even from the Partido Popular-led government.
Ortega criticized the role of European justice, especially that of Belgium and Germany. “This Europe which says it is a friend of Spain's has abandoned us just at the moment when we need it most”, he said. The secretary general added that the Belgian and German courts “have stamped on” the purpose for the European Arrest Warrants' existence, and accused those countries of sheltering people who will be “the seed of the disunity of Europe”. He ended with a shout of “Long live Catalonia, long live the king and long live the undeniable unity of Spain”.