Spain's Far Right: Falange Seeks to Replace Vox

Spain's Far Right: Falange Seeks to Replace Vox

A tweet by the Falange Española de las JONS (Spanish Phalanx of Traditionalist Youth and Nationalist Workers' Party) stating "We never left. That is why we are back" has peine the question of whether the party founded by José Antonio Primo de Rivera can capitalize on the disillusionment of a segment of the young right-wing electorate. The resulting conversation is not about nostalgia: it concerns electoral arithmetic, social media, and a supposed vacuum that Vox would have left by shifting toward more economically liberal positions.

Falange's Historical Votes and Potential Support

The historical data is stubborn. In the February 1936 elections, the Falange could only run in some constituencies and gathered just over 40,000 votes in total. This is a constant that has repeated since then, even during its founder's lifetime. Any expectation of growth clashes with this burden.

Some argue that current voting intention might be much higher than a year ago, but it remains insignificant in parliamentary terms. According to this analysis, the bottleneck is not the message, but communication: an intellectually complex discourse and a structure that does not exploit social media. The circulating proposal is clear: campaigns on TikTok and Instagram, simple messages, youth recruitment. With that strategy, it is speculated that Falange could reach between 8 and 10 seats in the next elections. It is a hypothesis, not a forecast.

Right-Wing Fragmentation: PP, Vox, Alvise, and Falange

The map has broken. The PP concentrates the vote of comfortable retirees and middle-aged professionals. Vox gathers the youngest voters and the working class identifying with the right, plus freelancers and the middle class crushed by taxes. Alvise aggregates those disillusioned with political parties. And Falange aspires to occupy a space that, according to this diagnosis, Vox would have abandoned by assuming a liberal drift.

That space would be that of a social and nationalist right, with frontal criticism of NATO and the EU, economic protectionism, and distrust towards the liberal status quo. A Spanish-style Peronism, in the words of those who propose it. The problem, adds the same voice, is not ideological but human: there is a lack of cadres, too many armchair critics, and the discourse remains stuck on "Arriba España" (Up Spain) and "Viva Franco".

Current Falange Problem: Nostalgia and Mothballs

Internal criticism is fierce. It is said that José Antonio's Falange was "archeofuturist," while the current one smells of mothballs and outdated conservatism. It is acknowledged that the founder had a State plan in mind and that his intellectual level has never received due recognition, but it is emphasized that the current party resembles what he wrote like an egg resembles a chestnut.

The repeated conclusion is that a new José Antonio is needed, someone who reformulates the message for current times. Without that leadership, the party will remain a museum artifact. The phrase attributed to the founder, "being broken is the noblest destiny of urns," is cited to remember that power is not conquered by putting papers into urns.

Vox as Social Engineering and Right-Wing Disillusionment

Part of the analysis holds that Vox was designed to channel those who did not initially accept social engineering, with the goal of implanting it gradually: welcome to migrants, only legal immigration, destruction of autonomies to concentrate power in Madrid. It is a conspiratorial thesis, without proof, but it explains the mood of those who defend it.

The result is an electorate left without options. "I only have Vox or not voting," summarizes one position. Another directly dismisses the "blue PSOE." And a third states that Falange was born dead in 1934 and finished off in 1937, having never held real power, while Vox has had more political representation than it in all its history.

---

The paradox is that the party presenting itself as "back" has less structure, fewer votes, and fewer cadres than the party it aspires to replace. With those materials, the basket does not hold. But the conversation continues, and that alone is a datum.