Spain's PP tops a curious ranking of 'woke' parties

PP, Vox, Podemos, PSOE: the unlikely 'proge' ranking that puts the PP first

Which Spanish party is the most 'proge'? According to a peculiar score circulating on social media, the answer is not what you would expect. On a scale that measures everything from support for 'proge' laws to distrust of anti-proge countries, the Partido Popular (Spain's main conservative party) scores 345 points, ahead of Vox (340), Podemos (335), with the PSOE closing the list on 320. The criteria include four categories: support for proge laws (copyright, discrimination laws), backing for the 'proge country' and its companies, immigration policies, and opposition to anti-proge countries.

The ranking contradicts the usual narrative that portrays the left as the standard-bearer of proge. The PP topping the list and Vox finishing ahead of Podemos have sparked angry reactions. Some argue the scoring system is flawed, and that giving Vox high marks for 'support for the proge country' or 'distrust of anti-proge countries' is a deliberate distortion. Their argument: Abascal's party can hardly be considered proge when its discourse clashes head-on with the core of that ideology.

The specific scores reveal nuances: on 'support for immigration laws', Podemos scores 95, while the PP gets 85 and Vox 75. On 'support for proge companies' it is Vox who scores 100, compared with Podemos's 70. In any case, the result is that all four major parties exceed 200 points and are, by this metric, 'proge'. The paradox only highlights how elastic the concept is and how hard it is to label parties competing on the same playing field.

Ironies of the moment: the PP being the most proge and the PSOE the least is not what one would expect from the culture war. But perhaps, as critics argue, the problem is not the parties but the very definition of 'proge', so malleable that it ends up serving everything and nothing.