When Ivan Espinosa de los Monteros abandonment Voicetook with him more than just an illustrious name: with him disappeared the only voice that defended, with a certain coherence, economic liberalism within the party. His departure paved the way for … an interventionist drift that is no longer hidden. Carlos Hernández Quero, a new rising figure, represents this shift with particular clarity.
Quero proposes restricting the purchase of housing by non-resident foreigners and establishing heavier taxation for them than for nationals. He also defended the relaunch of sheltered housing, but only for Spaniards. At first glance, this is a speech aimed at protecting the national middle class. In reality, it embodies a form of nativist protectionism that contradicts the fundamental principles of a free and open economy that has distributed so much prosperity.
These ideas may sound popular to desperate ears, but they will harm millions of Spaniards who own land and who could see the value of their assets become Russian roulette if demand is restricted. Even the possibility of making them profitable through rental would be conditioned by a regulatory environment where the hostility of the extreme right would match that which Sanchism has already managed to capture in current laws. It is worth remembering this in a country where housing constitutes the main family savings and the financial support of several generations.
We are faced with a reissue of economic nationalism: strong state, property subordinated to collective interest, distrust of the investor and nostalgia for the traditional order. Vox is not less proposing a State, but another State, very similar to the one that Sánchez is forging: a State that interferes in markets to preserve a walled-off idea of community. His promises of tax cuts are not liberal either, but rather an expression of anti-politics. It is not a question of reducing taxes to increase individual freedom, but of punishing the state allegedly captured by “caste” or “globalists”. Criticism of spending does not come from a rationalizing desire, but from a punitive and symbolic desire.
This message, however, appeals to a middle class sandwiched between government budgetary pressure and the unstoppable erosion of wage income. Vox was able to capitalize on this unease with an emotional speech, while the PP remains anchored in technocracy and calculation. If you don’t respond quickly with strong language, you will lose a voter who still yearns to keep what’s theirs, but no longer expects anyone to guarantee it.
Vox does not want to liberate the citizen, but rather replace the adversary in the management of power. It does not aim for a society of responsible individuals, but rather a closed and hierarchical community. The result is not freedom, but dirigisme with a patriotic accent. Neither liberal nor social: simply illiberal. jmuller@abc.es
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