From the Financial Times
22 March 2026
The populist, anti-immigration party is surging in the polls thanks to the support of young Spanish men, Vox leaders have found that old-school conservative preoccupations such as bullfighting have lost much of their importance.
Instead, Vox has learnt to exploit men’s deep-seated economic and social grievances, which have become the defining feature of a new strain of Spanish populism.
Young women still lean to the left, but there has been a striking shift among males: they identify as being more rightwing than any other cohort of young men in the past 40 years.
Many see themselves as victims of Socialist Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez and his policies on the
economy and immigration.
While Sánchez celebrates Spain growing faster than any other major advanced economy in the past
two years, young men complain that their personal hopes have been frustrated. Stoking their
discontent are a band of populist rap artists and far-right podcasters and influencers.
Domingo and his two drinking buddies have resentments aplenty: the soaring cost of housing;
illegal immigration that they blame for rising crime; degraded public services; “feminist” laws that
they say put women’s rights above men’s; and corruption, including allegations against Sánchez’s
wife and two former right-hand men in his Socialist party PSOE (who all deny wrongdoing).
Rubén Díez, a sociology professor at the Complutense university in Madrid, said: “There is a sense
of malaise that is not only economic. It’s also emotional. That pushes people towards more radical
views. They think that institutions and democracy are not working for them.”
Social media has also hosted bouts of nostalgia for the dictator Francisco Franco, although the
sentiment is purely vicarious for those born long after he died 50 years ago. Memes suggest the
economy was stronger and the streets were safer under the autocrat — doubtful assertions that also
ignored his trampling of political freedoms and human rights
However, the popularity of Franco memes reflects something deeper, said Paco Camas, head of
public opinion in Spain for polling firm Ipsos. “Surveys show a rise in the number of young people
who believe that an authoritarian system can sometimes be better than a democratic one.”
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