Extract from article published by The Pink Times on 22/06/2023 – accessible here.
In a recent local election victory, the far-right Vox party has come to power in Naquera, an eastern Spanish town with a population of 6,000 residents. As a result, the town’s newly elected mayor, Ivan Exposito, formed an alliance with the mainstream conservative People’s Party (PP) to secure the position. However, this coalition has now caused a stir as the mayor’s pact with Vox includes a controversial ban on displaying the rainbow-colored flag that represents the LGBT community on public buildings.
The agreement between Vox and the PP was published on Vox’s local Facebook page, outlining a series of policies to be implemented during their four-year term. The fifteenth point of the pact explicitly states the ban on the LGBT flag’s presence in public spaces. Alongside this prohibition, the agreement also highlights promises to reduce taxes, streamline bureaucracy, withhold funds from separatist or pro-Catalan organizations, and rename campaigns against gender-based violence as “campaigns against all violence.”
This move reflects a larger trend in Spain, as the country prepares for a snap general election on July 23. The agreement between the PP and Vox in Naquera, as well as similar alliances in various other towns across the nation, underscores the mainstream PP’s rightward shift on contentious “culture war” issues, including LGBT rights, feminism, migration, and regionalism.