Spanish groups unite with far-right to thwart key EU policies

4 months ago

A swag of European-far right parties are attempting to bring down key EU progressive policy platforms, such as the Green Deal. The grassroot groups and glossy parties are attempting to use the fury of farmers to win at the ballot box, but who will reign supreme?

Transcript

00:00 The European far right in Valencia is aiming to win over the farming industry's support

00:09 in the upcoming June elections.

00:12 A new Spanish grassroots platform called 6F joins a dozen other European agricultural

00:18 associations calling for an end to the Green Deal, protection of the European internal

00:24 market and slashing free trade agreements with third countries.

00:35 Although 6F is an independent movement, some of its organisers are figures close to the

00:41 far right.

00:42 However, the new pan-European agricultural platform will not ask for votes for a specific

00:48 party.

00:49 "What we have done is we made enormous posters and banners and we put the logos of the parties

00:55 who did very bad things for farms and for our Dutch citizens and we put a red cross

01:00 in it and people understood."

01:03 New candidates will fight the hard right party Vox for the rural vote, with the main agricultural

01:09 platforms not directly contesting the elections.

01:12 "Maybe they have learned from the yellow vests movement in France, which in 2019 presented

01:19 two candidates for the European elections and did not achieve enough to get representation."

01:25 The SOS rural platform, which encompasses more than 500 organisations from the primary

01:32 sector, has chosen to try to influence political parties to include their demands in their

01:38 electoral programs.

01:40 "From our point of view, we believe that with one, two or three deputies, the capacity

01:47 of influence is quite limited.

01:49 We need to influence the big political groups in Europe, call it the popular group or the

01:54 socialist group, to try to change the policies in Europe."

01:58 Despite its similarities with Vox, SOS Rural seems to have distanced itself from the more

02:04 conservative ideas of the Spanish far right party.

02:07 However, EU agricultural policy protests benefit Vox, according to analysis.

02:13 So who will conquer the 700,000 Spanish farmers?

02:18 Their vote will be decisive in the upcoming European elections.

02:22 [SWOOSH]

Spanish groups unite with far-right to thwart key EU policies

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