The pepper harvesting process ended a few days ago. And also the subsequent smoking process, which produces in the lands of Cáceres near the Gredos mountain range the paprika with the designation of origin Vera, known as the “red gold” of Extremadura. On a farm, after crossing the Titar River, foreman Felipe Gonzalez, 61, speeds up work in the drying room on Thursday. “Don’t touch it, it stings a lot,” warns the man between the bags ready to be shipped. He is a man of five feet sixty, with skin and hands tanned by work in the fields and immense verbosity. González knows by heart all the charters of La Moncloa, Spain’s “enemies”, that former Socialist Minister José Luis Ábalos retains his seat after being temporarily imprisoned, that the Prime Minister’s wife is indicted, and that Pedro Sánchez has just met with the Prime Minister of Morocco, Aziz Akhannouch, in Madrid.
“Peter Pedro Sanchez is unable to confront him, and the illegal immigrants will keep coming. “We cannot continue to keep Africa united,” says the farmer, who confirms that he voted in the past for the Socialist Workers Party, Felipe Gonzalez, and then for José Luis Rodriguez Zapatero. But he already expects that in the next regional elections in Extremadura, on December 21, he will choose Vox. He adds: “He is the only person who wants to do something for Spain.”
Gonzalez usually reads and watches the news in a booth on the farm where he works. One of its key employees is Memo Kodori, a 46-year-old father of three, who arrived in 2002 from Morocco. “If I don’t work, I don’t eat, and I don’t have help,” he first observed next to the tractor. The land is located a few kilometers from Talayuela (Cáceres), and has a population of 7,300, according to the National Institute of Statistics (INE) and 9,200 according to city council figures, where both live. The municipality of Talayuela is the nerve center of tobacco production in Spain, and other crops such as pepper and berries are also grown on its lands. “There is no shortage of money or work here,” agree businessmen from the area. Talayuela is also a city in Extremadura with the highest percentage of immigrant population: 24.4% – according to council data – compared to 4.1% according to regional data. The population share of other neighboring cities, such as Toril, also exceeds 20%. Some figures relate to specific production sectors, especially agriculture.
Most of the registrants of foreign origin are Maghreb citizens and began settling in Talayuela in the early 1990s, mainly because the Spaniards were not willing to work in the fields for the salary paid. Tobacco plantations and other plantations were created thanks to favorable climatic conditions, as it is one of the rainiest areas in Spain. Today, half of Talayuela’s shops and bars are run by migrants, and agricultural activity continues. It is common on its streets to see a woman wearing or without the hijab. A mosque has been built and many of them have become grandparents and their grandchildren go to school in one of the smallest towns in Extremadura. Some of them are already 18 years old. They will be able to vote for the first time on December 21.
Gonzalez frequents the Mirasierra bar, next to the city’s gas station, a few meters from Hispanidad Avenue, which is lined with Spanish flags. The PP-Vox coalition governs the city council after ousting the PSOE in local elections on 28 May 2023. On 28 March, regional elections were also held: Santiago Abascal’s party received 12.26% of the vote in Talayuela while the average in the Extremaduran Assembly was 8.12%. These polls made Maria Guardiola a very popular president after a government agreement with Fox. Talayuela had already placed herself among those with the highest percentage of far-right votes in the entire country years earlier, in the November 2019 general election.
But testimonies from those consulted predict the matter will go further in two weeks, when the CIS in Extremadura expects Guardiola to win in Extremadura, despite not having an outright majority. So I’ll need ultras again. The question is how strong Vox is after months of rising polls. The electoral progress promoted by the President of Extremadura will be precisely the first test of the conflict between the PP and Vox, after the Popularists have tried to snatch the flags of the Ultras they have seized, such as the fight against immigration or the agricultural demand against the 2030 Agenda, as well as the gradual hardening of the tone to attract anti-Sanchista votes.
At the Mirasierra bar, the entire cocktail is shaken by González and the rest of the customers. Mostly men of all ages who on Thursday afternoon watched the cup match between Extremadura and Sevilla hours before the start of the Extremaduran season. Among the criticisms of migrants for “living on aid” – without providing specific data – are those who also make sexist comments about women. “All of Talayuela will vote for Fox. We have the most lying person in the world as president!” One of the elders suddenly shouted. Jonathan Garcia, a 39-year-old forestry worker, adds: “PP is grey. Maybe Abakal will come out and fool us all, but we have to take risks for change.” “Immigrants come and get more aid than those coming from here,” says Rocio Cano, 18, who is pregnant and unemployed and opposes abortion.
No one at the bar knew the name of Fox Extremaduran candidate Oscar Fernandez. Vox has proposed a campaign so patriotic that posters have been bearing the face of Abascal since Friday, who has been making steady advances to Extremadura for several days now. Much more than Figo and Sanchez. He appeared unexpectedly at the Mirasierra bar in Talayuela on November 21, where several neighbors and several young people in their 20s – including girls – had come to take a photo with the extremist leader. “There was not a single person from Extremadura who insulted me in the street. In Talayuela, four Moroccans beat me,” Abascal said on Wednesday at a rally in Badajoz about an incident outside a Mirasierra bar.
Despite some specific complaints, the majority of those consulted in Talayuela deny having security problems or coexisting with people of foreign origin in their city. Although they immediately accuse migrants of robberies and attacks in cities like Barcelona or Madrid. Gonzalez thinks the same way. The owner of the peppers who also grow them: Felipe Bravo, 68 years old. “This is an atypical city,” says Bravo. “There are no problems here, as there are in other places. This is not Torre Pacheco.” The council, despite being made up of the Vox party, provides public facilities for Islamic celebrations, unlike what happened in Djamila. It also offers Spanish language courses and advice on bureaucratic procedures. Many of the circulars hanging from the city hall are written in Arabic. Bravo adds: “There are no problems, but the migrants do not mix. They go their own way.”
Both assessments occur frequently in Talayuela. In the Jardín bar, run by an immigrant, almost all the customers are of foreign origin, unlike Mirasierra. But circumstances change as new generations interact with each other. Such as the case of Ayman Bouamish, a 24-year-old electrician, who does not differentiate between some friends and others. Another issue they reiterate in Talayuela is praise for those who came to their town years ago to “work” “legally.” But at the same time, he attacked the “illegal immigrants” who now only come for “help.” “It’s sad, but it’s not the state’s fault,” says Mohamed Rahmani, 22, who arrived in Spain six months ago and owns the Jardin bar with his family. “What Vox wants is to expel those who don’t have papers.”
Other neighbors accuse the migrants who have now arrived of being “needy”, wandering the streets and “dealing drugs”. It is a phrase repeated privately by even second- and third-generation immigrants, who attack new immigrants over alleged problems of insecurity. Others disagree. “In a group of 20 people, if one of them is bad, we are all bad. These are not immigrants, but people,” explains one boy whose parents arrived from Morocco, who points to social networks as guilty of “amplifying” hate messages. And that he would vote for the Popular Party because Guardiola “did not have enough time to advance Extremadura.”
Businessman Bravo exploits the peppers that Gonzalez grows with twenty other workers and also manages the large Talayuela golf course, where the Gredos Mountains can be seen, among the pine forests of Tietar. Bravo complains about Brussels’ new restrictions on pepper smoking. He will also vote for the People’s Party in the Extremadura elections for the “useful vote”, but Vox’s music appeals to him greatly, especially on immigration.
Another city employer debates PP and Vox ahead of 21-D. At night, most of the men seen walking along the road connecting Bar Jardín and Mirasierra are of North African origin. “But this is because of their habits, being on the street a lot,” explains the woman who hesitates between popularity and very independent, who does not want to give her name and gets information through networks and the only “reliable channel”, Antena 3. She believes that we must fight sexual violence. “We are already tired of so much corruption. Begonia without a profession gives a professorship and my daughter has a degree and a master’s degree, is unemployed, and without the possibility of emancipation,” the woman criticizes. His daughter wanted to take a photo of Abascal at the Mirasierra bar during her visit two weeks ago. In the building, Farmer Gonzalez finished the work Brandy 103 With a coke before going home. “Let’s see if there’s any luck,” he says of the victory for Fox Gonzalez, nicknamed “The Beret” after his time with the Green Berets.