With Hungary’s Viktor Orbán gone, Spain’s nationalist Vox party is set to play an increasingly central role as a bridge linking Europe’s far right to political allies worldwide — from South America to MAGA in Washington. Unlike Orbán’s Fidesz or Marine Le Pen’s National Rally in France, which have spent decades shaping national and European politics, Vox is a relative newcomer, having only entered Spain’s parliament in 2019. But it is a force on the march.
Pollsters expect Vox to double its parliamentary representation in Spain’s upcoming Nov. 29 election, potentially making it an indispensable partner in a coalition government led by conservative People’s Party chief Alberto Núñez Feijóo. If the polls hold true, Vox would then arrive in government with an outsized global influence relative to its domestic footprint — all thanks to an international network it has quietly cultivated over the past few years. Through its Madrid-based Disenso Foundation, the party has established ties with Latin American leaders such as Argentina’s Javier Milei and Chile’s José Antonio Kast, while forging relationships with influential figures in the MAGA movement in Washington.
Though distinct, the movements are bound by a common rejection of the political establishment. This is a movement,” Jorge Martín Frías, a Vox member of the European Parliament and director of the Disenso Foundation, told POLITICO in Madrid. Vox’s allies, the lawmaker said, “face the same obstacles, the same labels, the same desire to annihilate them … And that’s how a sense of brotherhood develops.” That same spirit of cooperation has helped Vox establish itself as a trusted partner to Europe’s right.
Its leader, Santiago Abascal, now heads Patriots.eu, the pan-European political group that brings together Fidesz and the National Rally, as well as other far-right parties like Italy’s Lega, Belgium’s Vlaams Belang and Portugal’s Chega. Frank Furedi, president of the Brussels-based Freedom & Sovereignty Initiative Europe, a conservative think tank formed by the core team behind MCC Brussels, said Vox had “been remarkably effective in carving out a niche for themselves as a movement that’s open to other political forces.” Guillermo Fernández Vázquez, a political scientist at Madrid’s Carlos III University, said Vox’s strategy had allowed it to amass international influence well beyond what its electoral strength would suggest. The “continent of hope,” Martín Frías says, is “already ahead of Europe, including in economic terms,” pointing to Milei’s chainsaw approach to deregulation in Argentina and Kast’s efforts to attract foreign investment in Chile through tax incentives and regulatory changes.
Right-wing leaders on the continent “are showing that it is possible to challenge the politics of resignation that have prevailed here — the status quo of the People’s Party and the Socialists,” he added. Through the Disenso Foundation, created in 2020, the party has built an institutional network of conferences, political contacts and training programs. One of its main initiatives, Foro Madrid, brings together right-wing parties, politicians and organizations from across Latin America.
Vox has funneled millions of euros into Disenso over the last six years, giving it substantial resources to nurture its relationships across the pond. According to political scientist Fernández Vázquez, Vox identified and reached out to figures like Milei and Kast when their respective movements were still relatively small. Those early contacts have since developed into relationships with leaders who now hold power or occupy prominent positions in their countries.
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