The Mexican president, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, congratulated Spain on Monday for “not falling into the right-wing trap” in Sunday’s elections, when the Popular Party (PP) and Vox did not reach an absolute majority to form a joint government.
“I was very pleased with what happened yesterday in Spain, I congratulate the Spanish people because they did not fall into the trap of the right, of conservatism. I was very pleased because it was thought that the right was going to devastate and that did not happen, fortunately, I am happy,” the president declared at his daily press conference.
The Mexican ruler considered that the Spaniards “demonstrated again now, yesterday, that they have a libertarian soul and that they do not want authoritarianism, much less the fascism that was suffered during the dictatorship of (Francisco) Franco, but Franco died and Francoism continued.”
The conservative PP won the general elections in Spain by winning 136 seatsalthough without a sufficient majority to govern, located in the 176 deputies.
In second place was the Spanish Socialist Workers’ Party (PSOE), of the current Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez, who obtained 122; followed by the far-right formation Vox, 33, and the left-wing coalition Sumar, 31, results with which the left sees it possible to govern.
“As for Spain, I cannot speak to Pedro Sánchez, President of the Spanish Government, because according to the results there is a procedure (to wait for)”, López Obrador commented in this regard.
The Mexican president has had friction with Vox for his vision of the Spanish conquest and for the visit to Mexico of the party’s leader, Santiago Abascal, in September 2021, when he met with legislators from the right-wing National Action Party (PAN), the main opponent of López Obrador.
But the president now added that “all the right is extreme”, also referring to the PP.
“The important thing is that they did not advance and that is very good for Spain. because the conservative model is very inhuman, very individualistic, it is turning our backs on the pain of humanity, that is conservatism, that is the right in the world, that is why I am happy”, he remarked.
The Mexican ruler, who maintains that there has been a pause in relations with Spain since February 2022, also questioned the Spanish media and pollsters for, according to him, predicting a victory for the PP and Vox bloc.
“There was a lot of right-wing propaganda, as well as here, and a lot of media management, a lot of control of the manipulation media, not of information, because this is a worldwide phenomenon and (there were) pollsters, in effect, that completely failed,” he concluded.