MADRID – Just over a month after tens of thousands of migrants poured into a small southern Spanish enclave, the country is turning against its leftist government and liberal migration policies.
For the first time, more than half of Spaniards have said they support the conservatives or far right, according to a poll published on Monday soon after the victory of the far right in state elections in eastern Germany.
The poll is only the latest sign of growing fractures in Spain and elsewhere across Europe as it struggles to deal with rising numbers of migrants.
The conservative opposition People’s Party and the hard-right Vox recorded a combined total of 50.2 per cent, according to a poll conducted by 40dB for El Pais newspaper.
Spain’s Socialist Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez warned that the result in Saxony-Anhalt in Germany was a “warning that the extremist threat, largely thanks to the surrender of the traditional right, is gaining ground in Europe and in the world”, at a socialist meeting in Madrid on Monday. He faces general election next year.
