The end of the ‘Iberian exception’: religion and the new Spanish far right in the European Parliament

Abstract

ABSTRACT This contribution analyses the role of religion in the attitudes, beliefs, and discourses of Spanish members of the European Parliament (MEPs). The aim is to show how MEPs relate to religion in their activity, against the background of the transformations experienced by the Spanish political party system in the last decade. One of the most important changes has been the emergence of Vox, a far-right political group, in 2018. The contribution discusses the main results of the Religion in the European Parliament and in European multilevel governance II (RelEP2) survey for the Spanish case and, together with other qualitative data, analyses how religion is an issue on the political agenda of Spanish MEPs, focusing on Vox and how other parties have reacted to the emergence of the far right. The contribution identifies two fields in which religion is mobilised as a symbolic resource for political activity: a) identity politics and EU external action, and b) morality policies and issues related to gender.