Vox supported the European condemnation of nazi and communist crimes in 2021; the PSOE rejected it

Perhaps some readers of Counting Stars will find it strange that I have titled an article from 2026 with an event that took place five years ago..

Spanish Parliament refuses to condemn the crimes of Nazism and Communism
Criminal movements: communism and nazism deserve the same rejection

PSOE deputy accuses Vox of being "Hitler’s political heirs"

I do this for a good reason. This Thursday, in the Madrid Assembly, PSOE deputy Daniel Rubio accused Vox of being "Hitler’s political heirs"—a lie that can be attributed to the Socialists' desperation and nervousness regarding the electoral collapse looming over them, a consequence of their disastrous governance and corruption scandals. These issues recently led to a serious railway accident in Urda that claimed 69 lives, coming just nine months after another major railway accident in Adamuz that resulted in 46 deaths.

For decades, the PSOE has been falsifying history, attempting to convince us that the Second Republic was an exemplary democracy and that the Civil War was a confrontation between democrats and anti-democrats. Equating their political rivals with Nazism is the last resort of a party devoid of moral scruples—a party that has had no qualms about including communists in the Spanish government (the only government in the European Union to feature members of a totalitarian movement responsible for the deaths of over 100 million people) and that had the indecency to strike a deal with EH Bildu, a party that has never condemned the 853 murders committed by ETA—including the killings of 22 children and infants.

In 2021, Congress voted to endorse the European condemnation of Nazi and Communist crimes

Furthermore, when it comes to Nazism, the Spanish Socialists appear to have a very poor memory. In March 2021, at the initiative of the People's Party (PP), the Congress of Deputies voted for an initiative urging the Spanish government "to endorse the European Parliament Resolution of September 19, 2019, condemning Nazi and Communist totalitarianism." That resolution was adopted on September 19, 2019, and can be read in full here. In it, the European Parliament recalled that "the Nazi and communist regimes carried out mass murders, genocide and deportations and caused a loss of life and freedom in the 20th century on a scale unseen in human history", and condemned "in the strongest terms the acts of aggression, crimes against humanity and mass human rights violations perpetrated by the Nazi, communist and other totalitarian regimes."

In case anyone missed it, you can watch the video of the debate on that initiative here. It was a scandalous episode, during which PSOE deputy Rafael Simancas cited the communist Santiago Carrillo among "freedom fighters" (he also included in that category the socialists Francisco Largo Caballero—the primary ringleader of the coup d'état of October 1934—and Indalecio Prieto, who is notorious for threatening another deputy with a handgun during a parliamentary session on July 4, 1934). Let us recall that in November 1936, Santiago Carrillo was the person primarily responsible for the Paracuellos massacre, in which 5,000 political prisoners—including 50 children—were murdered.

Vox rejected both totalitarian ideologies in that debate

On the contrary, in that debate, Vox openly condemned both totalitarian ideologies: "If there were deputies who praised Hitler or wore swastikas, we would be rightly alarmed; yet in this chamber—as we have just seen once again this afternoon—there sit many deputies who display the hammer and sickle, who unabashedly defend the crimes of communism throughout the 20th century—as Mr. Santiago has just done—and who praise the Soviet revolution, celebrating it on their social media, even though it was, in reality, a Bolshevik putsch," stated Francisco José Contreras, then a Vox deputy. He added: "Fascism and communism are first cousins. This is proven by the fact that, following the Ribbentrop-Molotov Pact between 1939 and 1941, the two systems collaborated amicably, jointly invaded Poland, and carved up Eastern Europe. That friendship was only brought to an end by Hitler’s betrayal."

The 120 PSOE deputies voted against that European condemnation

The aforementioned initiative was rejected with 184 votes against, 154 in favor, and 11 abstentions. You can view how each deputy voted here—a list that ought to make many of them feel shame, if they even knew what that was. The 120 deputies of the PSOE voted against, while the 52 deputies of Vox voted in favor of the Spanish government endorsing the European condemnation of the crimes of both Nazism and Communism.

This same PSOE now displays the staggering cynicism of accusing Vox of being the heirs to Hitler—a dictator whose crimes were condemned in that very European resolution, which the Socialists rejected in 2021 precisely because it also entailed condemning the crimes of Communism. That vote should forever stand as a mark of infamy in the history of the PSOE; though it is hardly surprising that many people no longer recall it, given the already extensive collection of infamies that the party has accumulated since its very inception.