The causes of the curious harmony of media related to PP and PSOE with their attacks on Vox

@ElentirENG ES 10·06·2023 · 17:05 0

This week, a series of media related to the Popular Party and the PSOE have unleashed a shameless smear campaign against Vox.

Vox, 'Ivan the Terrible' and Francisco Marhuenda: the inconsistencies of a fictional novel
Vox and the curious things that some media are trying to sneak in as 'information'

These campaigns are not new, but what is new is observing the special interest that these media have shown in attacking Vox at a time when Spain is experiencing a serious political crisis due to the intention of Pedro's government. Sánchez to grant an unconstitutional amnesty to his separatist partners, to obtain their support for his re-election. We are also talking about ridiculous and even false news that these media highlight in an exaggerated way and which contrasts with the very little attention they usually dedicate to the party led by Santiago Abascal.

A fake news story launched by El País and copied by media related to the PP

This noon, Vox has responded and flatly denied the fake news published today by El País, a socialist newspaper related to the PSOE. A fake news that has been repeated by Libertad Digital, Abc and The Reason (similar to the PP) and La Sexta and Eldiario.es (media related to the PSOE). At the time of writing these lines, more than an hour having passed since the denial published by Vox, none of these media outlets have yet rectified or apologized for publishing that false news.

The World makes a fool of itself by trying to divide Vox over a dinner

To this spectacle of media manipulation we must add a ridiculous news item published by El Mundo (related to the PP), trying to link Iván Espinosa de los Monteros with supposed critics of Vox in a blatant attempt to sow division in the party. Espinosa himself and Vox's corporate Twitter account have joked about this news.

The political causes of this shameless smear campaign against Vox

This harmony of the media related to the PP and the PSOE is not new with regard to their attacks on Vox. It is not the first time it has happened, but the truth is that every time they do it with less dissimulation and with more evident intentionality. In any case, what these attacks indicate is something very positive for Spain, because they are an indication that new elections are coming and, therefore, that Sánchez could fail in his new attempt to demolish the rule of law in Spain. But, beyond that, what encourages media outlets that are supposedly antagonistic to exhibit this curious tone against Vox?

The causes are not difficult to point out. Beyond the economic ones (the dependence of each of these media on public aid), the PP and the PSOE -and their related media, as mere repeaters of slogans- have a obvious political interest in Vox disappearing:

• The PP believes that if Vox ceased to exist, the voters of this party would vote en masse for the PP, something very debatable, since Vox voters have already had the opportunity to vote for the PP and they did not. have made. In fact, many of those voters are deeply disappointed by the PP.
• At the same time, the PSOE knows that Vox mobilizes a part of the electorate that the PP is incapable of mobilizing. If they manage to make Vox cease to exist or lose strength, those voters would largely go to vote in white or abstention, and not the PP. This would prevent a PP-Vox post-electoral pact from having enough seats to oust Sánchez from the government.

The results of the last elections indicate that it is most likely that the wishes of the PSOE and not those of the PP will be fulfilled. Without Vox, many voters who are fed up with the PP will stay at home and Sánchez would continue governing. Thus, this strategy of discrediting Vox would favor the left. On the contrary, what the PP and its related media are doing is a new favor to the PSOE and its partners, exhibiting the same political myopia as in the July 23 election campaign.

The ideological causes of these media attacks against Vox

Beyond political causes, there are also ideological causes. Vox is the only party that insists on fighting the battle of ideas against the left, while the PP continues to choose to limit itself to being an alternative to the left in terms of management, but without discussing its ideological dogmas and even assuming them to a large extent, as it has done with abortion, gender ideology, immigration or environmental catastrophism. Ideologically, the PP is much closer to the PSOE than to Vox. The PP is already, de facto, a social democratic party.

For the PP and the PSOE, Vox's refusal to close certain ideological debates is a real nuisance. On the one hand, Vox's speech forces the PP to mark distances with its conservative voters, by having to speak out in harmony with the left on those issues in which it has submitted to progressive dogmas. This reduces the PP's possibilities of growing on the right and prevents it from being successful with its usual ambiguity, which allowed it to appeal to the vote of fear on the left with some success before Vox appeared.

As for the left, the PSOE and its communist partners accept the discrepancy very poorly, as they are accustomed to a PP that bows its head as soon as the political or media left identifies it as "fascist" for the mere fact of questioning progressive dogmas. The left has been imposing its ideas for many years without bothering to offer arguments, and Vox exposes this argumentative void, demonstrating that leftist theses are neither better nor correct. In ideological terms, Vox is a great nuisance for the left because it does something that the PP has given up doing: to challenge the current socialist ideological hegemony in Spanish society.

The adverse effects of these attacks for certain media related to the PP

This is what explains that characters like Losantos, Ferreras, Escolar and Marhuenda are obsessed with attacking Vox, and that at this point it is increasingly difficult to distinguish what differentiates the media related to the PP from the media related to the PSOE. However, the hardest part corresponds to the media related to the PP, which risk losing a part of their audience with their constant attacks on Vox. Just look at Similarweb data which indicates that in the last month Libertad Digital has lost 1.2 million readers and ABC 4.7 million, while El Debate - a conservative outlet that treats Vox more kindly - has gained 2.6 million readers.