Former US President Donald Trump endorsed Spain’s far-right on Sunday in a video shown at a rally in Madrid that also included messages from Europe’s leading populist right-wing figures, including Italy’s Giorgia Meloni and Mr. Hungarian Viktor Orban.
In a short recording, made while on a plane, Trump thanked Spain’s far-right Vox party and its leader Santiago Abascal for what he called the “great job” they do.
“We have to make sure that we protect our borders and do a lot of very good conservative things,” he said. “Spain is a great country and we want it to continue being a great country. So congratulations to Vox for so many great messages that they send to the people of Spain and to the people of the world”.
Vox’s program includes zero tolerance for Catalan separatism, contempt for gender equality, diatribes against unauthorized immigration from Africa, embracing medieval Spain’s Reconquest of Islam and General Francisco Franco’s dictatorship.
Abascal returned the praise when he took the stage after receiving more messages from European and South American far-right politicians and a speech in person by Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki.
“My thanks to President Donald Trump, a visionary in the fight for sovereign nations, a visionary in the fight for secure borders, who has had to suffer the attacks of the establishment most powerful in the world and the biggest media attack any leader has had to face in recent memory,” Abascal told the crowd.
Despite its rise, the Abascal-led party failed to live up to the expectations it set for itself in this year’s regional elections and had suffered its first serious episode of infighting among its leaders.
Vox now has next year’s regional and municipal elections in its sights as it struggles to outmaneuver Spain’s traditional conservatives.
The annual rally came just weeks after Abascal and the rest of Europe’s far right celebrated the victory of Meloni’s neo-fascist Brothers of Italy party.
