EU RO P E A N T R A DE U N I O N D I A LOGU E TRADE UNIONS AND RIGHT-WING POPULISM IN EUROPE Country Study Spain Holm-Detlev Köhler December 2022 THE POLITICAL PARTY SYSTEM IN SPAIN Spain’s modern democratic political and party system emerged in the late 1970s and early 1980s during the democratic transition following the death of Francisco Franco in November 1975, bringing nearly 40 years of repressive dictatorship to an end. 1 Two parallel dynamics played out during this process. On the one hand, the democratic opposition groups— the underground unions, numerous left-wing and liberal political movements, student and university groups, and regionalist movements, especially those in the Basque Country and Catalonia— gained considerable strength and organized long-term protests and mass actions demanding an immediate and democratic break from the old regime. On the other hand, a system for negotiations between reform groups within the old regime and moderate opposition groups developed, with participants seeking to instigate a peaceful and orderly transition to democracy with free parliamentary elections and a new constitution. Over the following years, the goal of making a radical, democratic break from the dictatorship gave way to the reality of a pact-based democratic transition within the monarchist framework imposed by Franco. The democratic opposition abandoned its more far-reaching aims of a republic that would prosecute the crimes committed by the Franco regime while the reformists 1 For a detailed discussion of the democratic transition and the democratization of industrial relations, see Köhler(1993). from the outgoing dictatorship submitted to democratic rules. From 1976 to 1978, the dictatorship transformed itself into a parliamentary monarchy. The first free parliamentary elections in 1977 and the new constitution in 1978 were the two most important building blocks for the construction of the new government. The transition years up until 1982 were marked by significant uncertainties and threats: An economic crisis caused record unemployment and high inflation; sev eral terrorist groups, including the Basque Euskadi ta Askatasuna (ETA; Basque Homeland and Liberty) and radical leftist groups such as Grupo de Resistencia Antifascista Primero de Octubre (GRAPO; Anti-Fascist Re sistance Group First of October) and Frente Revolucionario Antifascista Patriota (FRAP; Revolutionary An tifascist Patriotic Front), threatened security; and Francoist military groups constantly attempted coups against the fledgling democracy. The centrist govern ment of the Unión de Centro Democrático (UCD; Union of the Democratic Centre) never secured a stable par liamentary majority and finally dissolved in a govern ment crisis in 1981. On the left side of the political spectrum, the moderate social democratic Partido Socialista Obrero Español (PSOE; Spanish Socialist Workers’ Party) emerged as the clear hegemonic force over the Partido Comunista de España (PCE; Communist Party of Spain) and oth 1

COUNTRY REPORT SPAIN er regional socialist groups. The PSOE was voted into government in 1982 with an overwhelming absolute majority. On the right, the groups and parties remained unstable. After the UCD’s existential crisis and its tenure as the minority government from 1977 to 1981, the Partido Popular (PP; People’s Party) began to successfully combine right-wing and conservative forces over the course of a decade up until its defini tive founding in 1989. Throughout the 1980s, the PP developed into a political alternative to the PSOE. Other far-right groups, such as Fuerza Nueva (FN; New Force), were unable to assert themselves during this period. A separate party system emerged in Catalonia and Basque Country, with moderate conservative parties leading the way: Convergència i Unió (CiU; Catalan Convergence and Unity) and Euzko Alderdi Jeltzalea (EAJ-PNV; Partido Nacionalista Vasco; Basque Na tionalist Party), respectively. The year 2015 brought significant change to the polit ical landscape; labour relations and trade unions did not go untouched. In the parliamentary elections that year, the ruling PP party, which which by then had been marred by many corruption scandals, lost 3.5 million votes, dropping from 44.6 per cent of the vote in 2011 to 22.7 per cent. At the same time, the op position socialist party PSOE received a historic low of only 22 per cent of the vote, just half of its share of the vote seven years prior, marking the end of the two-party system that had dominated since the post-Franco democratic transition. Seemingly out of nowhere, two new parties, the left-wing protest party Podemos (We can) and the liberal-technocratic civic democra cy party Ciudadanos (Citizens), received 20.6 per cent and 13.9 per cent of the vote, respectively. The resent ment felt by broad swaths of the population toward the corrupt and incompetent political class had final ly found its way to the ballot box. New elections were called due to the absence of a majority in the government in 2016. These elections largely confirmed the new four-party constellation, and a new balance of political power was also consolidated in the states and municipalities. As a result of this shake-up, a kind of‘palace revolution’ took place within the PSOE against party leadership and the“party barons” who had controlled the apparatus for decades. Oppositionist Pedro Sánchez was elected as the new party leader in a primary election in May 2017. The state of permanent crisis surrounding the Catalan independence movement, which since 2015 has both determined and paralyzed political processes, has contributed additional uncertainties and crises to the Spanish political context. Spain now has a very heter ogenous and fragmented party system, with the distance between segments of the population and their parties growing. This has opened new doors for rightwing populism(see Appendix). TRADE UNIONS AND INDUSTRIAL RELATIONS Spanish unions have traditionally been categorized as belonging to the Latin trade union model, which differs from the Anglo-Saxon corporatist framework typically found in Central and Northern Europe by having low levels of organization, frequent mobilization and strike activity, fragmented political unions, competing levels of collective bargaining, and a high degree of state intervention in industrial relations. Similar to neighbouring countries in Southern Europe, Spanish trade unions suffered the consequences of a deep economic crisis from 2008 to 2014 and have since faced the difficult task of substantive and organizational renewal. 2 The onset of the pandemic in 2020 and the consequences of the war in Ukraine contribute additional uncertainties to the context, including an energy crisis and inflation. Two large trade union confederations, the social democratic Unión General de Trabajadores (UGT; General Union of Workers) and the post-communist Comisiones Obreras (CCOO; Workers’ Commissions), as well as some re gional unions in Galicia and the Basque Country, dominate the trade union landscape in Spain. The left-wing Catholic umbrella organization Unión Sindical Obrera (USO; Worker’s Union) continues to play a minor role in a few sectors. The post-dictatorship period was a decisive time for the emergence of modern democratic industrial relations and independent trade unions. While trade un ions had a positive reputation among the oppositional democracy movement during the beginning of the transition, they were internally fragmented and conflicted. Two cleavages mark the Spanish trade union movement of the 1970s and early 1980s; a historical boundary ran between the“historical” and the“new” labour movement, and an ideological division separated communist, socialist, social democratic-Catholic, anarchist, and nationalist organizations and groups. Institutionalised democratic industrial relations have been relatively stable since the mid-1990s, in quiet contrast to the turbulent years of the democratic tran2 For an overview of the development of trade unions in Europe since the economic and financial crisis of 2008, see Lehndorff/ Dribbusch/ Schulten(2018). 2

COUNTRY REPORT SPAIN sition and consolidation(1970s–1980s). The balance of power between unions remained largely the same, and unions are among the most recognized democratic negotiating partners. The rights to representation and participation are enshrined in the Workers’ Statute(1980) and the Law on Trade Union Freedom(1985). These two laws es tablished a bifold representation of interests consisting of trade union bodies at the company and supra-company level and works councils elected by all workforces with more than 50 employees. In contrast to the German two-part system, the works councils and trade union sections have collective bargaining and strike rights. They do not, however, have the right to participate in company personnel decisions, as is the case in Germany. Instead, they have the right to consultation. Moreover, it is mandatory to have a joint occupational safety committee in companies with 50 or more employees. The elections of employee delegates and works council members are called“union elections” in Spain and are of paramount importance; much more than just the composition of workplace representation depends on their results. The Law on Trade Union Freedom es tablishes a general“representativeness” criterion; on ly unions that surpass a threshold of vote percentage have a general right to collective bargaining, representation rights in public institutions, and access to certain government subsidies. Unions must win more than 10 per cent of the delegates in union elections na tionwide; the most representative unions at the na tional level are the UGT and CCOO. In autonomous communities, the threshold is 15 per cent. The most representative unions at the regional level are the Eusko Langileen Alkartasuna (ELA-STV; Solidaridad de Trabajadores Vascos, Basque Workers’ Solidarity) and Langile Abertzaleen Batzordeak (LAB; Patriotic Work ers’ Committees) in the Basque Country and the Confederación Intersindical Galega (CIG; Galician Unions Confederacy) in Galicia. Within each company or sec tor, trade unions and professional associations have collective bargaining rights only if they have more than 10 per cent of delegates. Among its other impacts, this provision has simplified the union landscape by side-lining the many small, local, and more radical unions that populated the landscape during the chaotic 1970s, installing a quasi-bi-syndicalist model with a few regional variations instead. Some authors characterize the Spanish union landscape as a“representative trade union”(voters trade unionism) model Table 1 Employee Representation in Spain Direct representation Union representation •  Employee delegates(10–50 employees) •  Works Council(> 50 employees)  delegates(representatives of the respective union section in companies with> 250 employees) Works Council Rights Right to information Right to consultation Additional duties •  Economic status of the company •  Employment contracts •  Sanctions for serious offences  lay-offs •  Changes in personnel organization and structure •  Company training •  Classification criteria and bonuses •  Oversight of compliance with labour law regulations •  Oversight of occupational safety and hygiene •  Cooperation on measures to increase productivity 3

COUNTRY REPORT SPAIN Table 2 Works Council Election Results in Spain Year CCOO UGT USO ELA LAB CIG Other 1978 34.45 % 21.69 % 5.56 % 0.99 %(18.9 %) – 0.55 %(22.3 %) 20.85 % 1980 30.86 % 29.27 % 8.68 % 2.44 %(25.6 %) 0.48 %(4.7 %) 1.01 %(17.4 %) 11.94 % 1982 33.40 % 36.71 % 4.64 % 3.30 %(30.2 %) 0.68 %(5.9 %) 1.17 %(18.9 %) 8.69 % 1986 34.27 % 40.19 % 3.83 % 2.92 %(34.9 %) 1.06 %(10.7 %) 1.34 %(21.2 %) 9.95 % 1990 37.60 % 43.10 % 3.00 % 3.2 %(37.8 %) 1.27 %(13.1 %) 1.5 %(23.4 %) 9.70 % 1995 37.74 % 35.51 % 3.56 % 2.97 %(39.7 %) 1.22 %(15.4 %) 1.91 %(26 %) 17.09 % 1999 37.63 % 37.17 % 3.49 % 3.06 %(40.5 %) 1.33 %(15.2 %) 1.62 %(26.2 %) 15.62 % 2003 38.74 % 36.80 % 3.11 % 3.24 %(41 %) 1.37 %(15.2 %) 1.62 %(26.2 %) 15.12 % 2007 39.09 % 37.15 % 2.95 % 3.13 %(40.2 %) 1.39 %(16 %) 1.82 %(28.6 %) 14.45 % 2011 38.38 % 36.33 % 3.43 % 3.03 %(39.8 %) 1.9 %(17..2 %) 1.63 %(26.4 %) 15.77 % 2015 36.17 % 33.30 % 3.89 % 2.58 %(40.6 %) 1.24 %(18.9 %) n.a.(27.6 %) 22.25 % 2019 35.07 % 32.07 % 4.01 % 3.01 %(41.0 %) 1.06 %(19.1 %) 1.07 %(28.8 %) 23.71 % Source: CCOO internal data. Note: The figures in the parentheses refer to the share of delegates received by the regional unions in their respective autonomous communities(ELA-STV and LAB in Basque Country, CIG in Galicia). The“other” category typically includes the corporatist federations of civil servants, teachers, nurses, and public transportation workers, as well as two“yellow” business-led federations in the retail sector. as opposed to a“members trade union” model due to the significance of works council elections in Spain and the relatively low level of organisation. 3 The results of trade union elections are the best reflection of the balance of power among trade unions. Social upheaval as a result of the unjust distribution of the costs of the 2008–2013 economic crisis accompanied the dramatic economic decline in Spain. Social inequality and poverty rose sharply due to mass unemployment and neoliberal austerity policies. Many 3 See Lucio(1992) and Valverde(1991), p. 25. households were living on minimal poverty assistance after unemployment benefits ran out; moreover, many were unable to pay their mortgage and thus at risk of eviction. The economic recovery that has taken place since 2014, marked by falling levels of unemployment, has done little to alleviate these problems. In a study published in February 2019, the EU Commission explicitly pointed to Spain’s urgent problem of poverty and inequality, despite five years of eco nomic growth, citing the prevalence of precarious employment as a major cause. The 2020 COVID-19 crisis had disparate impacts on social groups, further increasing inequality despite the cushioning effect of public support programs. 4

COUNTRY REPORT SPAIN Table 3 Structural Data on the Spanish Labour Market(in per cent) 1990 1992 1996 2000 2002 2007 2009 2011 2013 2015 2017 2019 2021 Unemployment rate 16.3 18.4 22.2 14.2 13 8.6 18.3 21.6 27.2 20.9 16.5 14.2 13.4 Proportion of long-term unemployed 51.4 46.6 54.6 44.6 37.7 22.6 34.5 50 56.3 48.7 42.8 44.3 49.0 Unemployment rate – women 24.2 25.5 29.6 20.5 16.4 11 18.4 23.3 27.6 22.5 18.4 16.0 15.2 Unemployment rate – youth 33 35.7 42 28.1 22.3 18.1 39.6 46.4 57.2 46.2 37.5 32.2 38.3 Unemployment rate – Spaniards n.a. n.a. n.a. n.a. n.a. 7.9 16.8 20.6 25.1 19.9 15.6 13.2 12.2 Unemployment rate – foreigners n.a. n.a. n.a. n.a. n.a. 12.3 29.7 34.8 39.2 28.3 23.6 20.1 20.9 Proportion of temporary employment 30.3 33.5 33.8 32.9 31.6 30.9 25.4 25 22.1 25.7 26.7 26.3 25.4 Proportion of part-time employment 4.6 5.9 7.4 7.5 8 11.6 13.3 13.8 16 15.7 14.6 14.6 n.a. Labour force participation rate n.a. n.a. n.a. 52.5 54.9 59.4 59.9 60.2 59.8 59.4 58.6 58.6 58.6 Labour force participation rate – women n.a. n.a. n.a. 42.8 43.2 49.9 52.1 53.4 53.9 53.7 53.3 53.3 53.8 Source: Spanish Federal Statistics Office(INE), various Labour Force surveys. Public discontent with the incompetence and the gov ernment’s socially imbalanced crisis management, accompanied by a wave of corruption scandals across all levels of politics, has led to a growing distance between the population and the political class and has inspired new civil protest movements. According to all public opinion surveys, Spain’s political class is the most discredited social group, and political and administrative corruption is now the country’s most pressing problem, accompanied by unemployment and, since 2020, the COVID-19 crisis. Spain and Italy have long been considered the most corrupt of the big EU countries. The increased heterogeneity of political and social protest in new spheres and media spaces poses new challenges to democratic actors and institutions as well as trade unions. THE LATE RISE OF RIGHT-WING ­POPULISM Until recently, Spain appeared to be an exception in the European context; no right-wing populist party or movement was able to form successfully(González Enriquez 2017; Zanotti et al. 2021; Castillo Martín 2019). In the late 1970s, attempts by supporters of Franco and the Falange to form political parties, the most prominent of which is Fuerza Nueva , ended in failure, culminating in a botched military coup attempt in 1981. Right-wing populist discourse, including xenophobia, anti-immigration sentiments, au thoritarian central state ideology(above all directed at regionalist efforts at autonomy), and social con servatism related to sex, family values, feminism, and abortion, for example, have all made inroads into the Spanish political sphere since the turn of the century. However, this discourse did not mutate into a political project; no right-wing populist party had been able to establish itself and gain parliamentary representation at either the regional or central state level until 2018. In December 2018, VOX( vox , Latin for“voice”) won over 10 per cent of the vote in regional elections in Andalusia, a traditional stronghold of the PSOE, which had been discredited by numerous corruption scandals. In the following years, VOX gained seats in several regional and national parliaments and established a clear public presence. With this, Spain lost its unique standing as a refuge from radical right-wing populism. In juxtaposition to the decline of Ciudadanos and Podemos during the crisis, VOX has since es 5

COUNTRY REPORT SPAIN tablished itself as the third-strongest political force in Spain. In April 2022, VOX made history by participat ing in a coalition government with PP in the Castile and León region for the first time. Two previous developments enabled the rise of Spanish right-wing populism in the 2020s. First, rightwing populist movements became permanently established in neighbouring European countries; in particular, France’s Le Pen exerted a great deal of in fluence on the Spanish right-wing radicals. Second, Spain experienced a wide-reaching political and so cial crisis in the aftermath of the economic and finan cial crisis of 2008–2013. During this time, the two-party system eroded and opened the field to di verse anti-system movements, eventually leading to and including a right-wing populist project. The numerous corruption scandals, growing cleavage between population groups and the political and economic elite, the declining ideological persuasiveness of the social democratic, liberal, and conservative parties, and the negative social impacts of incompetent austerity policies in the face of far-reaching economic crisis combined forces to prepare fertile ground for right-wing populism. In a European comparison, Spain appears to be the country in which trust in democratic institutions has suffered the greatest loss. Simultaneously, the gap between traditional political elites and the populace appears to have grown the widest since the 2008 crisis(Sanz de Miguel et al. 2019: 30). The conflict over Catalonia, with its strong independence movement, including open institutional provocations against the Spanish state such as illegal referendums and open noncompliance with constitutional procedures and rules have provided additional fuel. The anti-welfare, neoliberal austerity policies and the associated social repercussions provoked strong protest movements against the established parties as well as trade unions, which were also plunged into a legitimacy crisis by numerous corruption scandals. For months in 2011, youthful members of the anti-austerity Indignados Movement (also known as Movimiento 15-M ) occupied central squares across Spain. This was a decisive trigger for the formation of new anti-establishment groups and new critiques of the corrupt political class and the associated state institutions. First to emerge was the left-wing protest party Podemos (We Can), which challenged traditional parties with a new discourse opposing the encrusted and corrupt political regime in 2014 and quickly grew to the country’s third-strongest political force. In the liberal-technocratic milieu, the new Ciudadanos party was founded, growing promptly into a strong alternative to the discredited conservative ruling PP party. By the 2016 elections, only 51 per cent of votes went to the two majority parties, PSOE and PP. Politics’ tradition al“left-right” discourse was met with a“people against corrupt elites in politics and business” discourse in which both new protest movements and, increasingly, right-wing populist currents were able to establish themselves as fixtures in the political envi ronment. This development was further bolstered by another crisis, one rather specific to Spain. The Catalan inde pendence movement, which is represented by the Esquerra Republicana de Catalunya (ERC; Republican Left of Catalonia) and Junts per Catalunya (JuntsxCat; Together for Catalonia) parties, has evolved from a party with a moderate regionalist stance in 2015 to a radical independence stance achieving some electoral success. These two parties captured about half the votes and seats in regional elections and are now blocking political processes across Spain, opening the way to a centralized Spanish nationalism in response. The new right-wing populism has since benefitted from the polarization between supporters of Spanish unity and anti-Spain separatists, while this same context has posed a serious problem to the traditional parties. The socialist PSOE, for instance, struggles to maintain a coherent and inclusive position. VOX calls for, among other things, an end to Spain’s system of autonomous communities and extensive regional self-government in favour of a unified central state. From 2013 onward, discontent with the PP’s all-­toomoderate stance on party leadership and government spread throughout the ultraconservative circles of the PP electorate. This converged with the strengthening populist anti-system, anti-elite, and, above all, anti-­ regional autonomy discourse. These disaffected circles of(former) PP voters gave rise to the right-wing populist VOX party in 2013. While voter support was initially weak, by 2019, VOX gained seats in some par liaments. The VOX party platform, in this context, is a specific mixture of well-established elements of the radical right, such as an opposition to immigration, elites, feminism, and sexual liberation, and support for tradi tional Catholic family values and strong Spanish nationalism. In addition, VOX combines neoliberal ele ments(tax cuts, reduction of the state budget, privati zations, and subsidy cuts) with social chauvinist ele ments(social benefits for citizens only and family and employment support for young Spaniards) in a less than coherent manner(Sanz de Miguel et al. 2019). Tacked on is an anti-liberal Francoist nostalgia for opposition to the so-called“social-communist Popular Front and its alliance with terrorists and separatists.” 6

COUNTRY REPORT SPAIN The current left-wing coalition government led by PSOE and Podemos was described by VOX party leader Santiago Abascal as the worst government in the last 80 years; a range of time that includes 40 years of Fran co’s dictatorship. The most distinctive element of the VOX platform is not its right-wing populist anti-immi gration or anti-liberal content but its vision of Spanish territorial unity with a strong authoritarian, centralist police state in direct opposition to the Catalan independence movement. Court cases brought against Catalonian politicians following the independence referendum in 2017 fed the VOX public discourse ma chine, which criticized the PSOE and PP for being too lax. This moment, symbolized by the regional elec tions in Andalusia in 2018, traditionally a stronghold of the socialists, is when the walls against right-wing extremist groups fell and VOX became socially accept able in growing sections of the population. Initially, VOX discourse was characterized by a con sistent liberal-conservative ideology, seeking to be an authentic realization of the PP programme and lacking some of the typical right-wing populist features such as anti-immigration sentiments and anti-Europeanism. Only after defeats in the polls and the departure of some of the more moderate founding members did VOX align itself with the emerging right-wing populists on the international stage, such as Trump, Le Pen, and other figures in European right-wing populism, and shift its focus to issues such as immigration control, the fight against Islam ic fundamentalism, and EU-scepticism. VOX increas ingly transformed itself – both in content and style – into a classic right-wing populist party in the European context with impassioned appeals to patriotic identities. Compared to other European countries that have cordoned off right-wing populists, the boundaries between VOX and PP are fluid; in several cities and re gions, VOX and PP cooperate in the government. Some PP politicians even pursue a very right-wing populist discourse, such as the president of the Madrid autonomous government, Isabel Díaz Ayuso. Whenever VOX is involved in governments, even just as part of the conservative minority government, the party uses its position to launch an attack on feminists, trade unions, and immigrants. In practice, this has looked like cutting subsidies to women’s organiTable 4 Evolution of VOX Date 17.12.2013 25.5.2014 20.12.2015 26.6.2016 6.10.2018 2.12.2018 16.1.2019 28.4.2019 26.7.2019 14.8.2019 10.11.2019 19.4.2022 19.6.2022 Event Official founding of the party. VOX receives 1.6 % of the vote in the European Parliament elections. VOX receives 0.23 % of the vote in the Spanish Parliament elections. VOX receives 0.2 % of the vote in the Spanish Parliament elections. Over 9,000 people attend a VOX rally at Madrid’s Vistalegre Stadium; the rally focuses on Spanish unity and the rejection of the regional autonomy model, immigration, and feminism. VOX receives 10.96 % of the vote in Andalusian regional elections. VOX supports the right-wing coalition government between PP and Ciudadanos in Andalusia. VOX receives 10.26 % of the vote in Andalusian regional elections. VOX supports the right-wing coalition government between PP and Ciudadanos in Andalusia in Murcia. VOX supports the right-wing coalition government between PP and Ciudadanos in Andalusia in Madrid. VOX receives 15.09 % of the vote in the new European Parliament elections. VOX participates in a coalition government with PP for the first time in Castile and León. VOX receives 13.45 % of the vote in Andalusia, establishing itself as the third largest parliamentary force after PP (43.04 %, absolute majority in parliament) and PSOE(24.2 %, historical low). However, VOX fell short of its stated goal of participating in government due to PP’s majority. 7

COUNTRY REPORT SPAIN zations or converting them into aid for programmes focused on families, pregnant women, or low-income women; domestic applicants getting priority over im migrant applicants for all social benefits; total cancel lation of aid for collective bargaining and social dialogue; cessation of training and education pro grammes for foreign workers; and, the repeal of meas ures for occupational safety and hygiene. Moreover, “Institutes for Democratic Memory” were renamed “Institutes for Reconciliation” in an attempt to prevent crimes from the Franco dictatorship from being addressed. VOX also denies climate change and any need for an energy transition, as well as violence against women as a problem. In sum, VOX and its affiliated groups can be defined as a right-wing populist party and movement, even if its longevity and social anchoring are yet to be determined. Beyond the classic far-right characteristics such as ultra-nationalism, authoritarianism, anti-communism, anti-liberalism, sociocultural traditionalism, and xenophobia, VOX also dabbles in clear elements of right-wing populist discourse: the con struction of a mythical‘pure’ people who are victims of a corrupt and anti-patriotic elite; the need for au thoritarian leadership in the face of the fragmentation of social unity by pluralist-progressive democratic groups and ideologies; the propagation of simple solutions in response to complex social problems; and the construction of a visible enemy. In the Spanish context, these are the regional independence move ments, feminism and gender ideology, and all leftwing political groups, with the trade unions at the centre. RIGHT-WING POPULISM AND TRADE UNIONS “CCOO and UGT are enemies of Spain, and we will not stop until they are in prison,” proclaimed VOX Gener al Secretary Santiago Abascal at a rally in Madrid in March 2022. For a long time, the danger of the rising right-wing populist movement was not noticeable within Spanish trade unions, as it had little resonance among employees or impact on the workplace. Right-wing populist discourse primarily occurs in online social networks and media and tends to mobilize socially isolated people and young people threatened by precarity and social marginalization. With the recent entry of the VOX party into governments and institutions, this danger has been taken more seriously; VOX explicitly aims to aggressively target unions, social policy, women’s rights, and immigrant rights, thereby directly threatening long-established social and worker’s rights in Spain.“Trade Unions against Right-wing Populism” is gradually making it onto the agenda of official trade union action programmes. The rise of right-wing populism in Spain has also coincided with the COVID-19 pandemic, which demanded enormous effort from the unions. “We are having a hard time communicating just how much work we do and getting people to understand what it’s all about. During the Corona crisis, we had to constantly negotiate safety protocols, short-term work regulations to safeguard employment, and collective agreements on working from home, all of which required us to do a lot of extra work, and we did that for all workers, not just our members.” Excerpt from interviews with union representatives Spanish trade union members credit the following factors as contributing to the rise of right-wing populism in recent years: • In Spain, VOX emerged from the conservative PP’s internal crisis. Disaffected radical right-wing groups split off from the party and, in some cases, skilfully seized on the social climate of discontent, insecurity, and rejection of the traditional political and economic elites. • VOX has been able to exploit the Catalonian inde pendence movement quite well; this movement has led to a strengthening of centralist nationalist discourse and brought an authoritarian solution to centre stage. Spain’s unity and discussions of nationhood have taken on a new, stronger meaning. Progressive left-wing forces, in contrast, have been unsuccessful at promoting the more complex im age of a pluralistic, cosmopolitan Spain with a social balance. • The anti-welfare austerity policies implemented in the wake of the 2008 economic crisis strained the social climate, increased social inequality, and created many vulnerable population groups threatened by social decline. This has provided VOX with fertile ground for its demagoguery. • In many ways, right-wing populism is a reaction to two trends in Spanish society. First, feminism and gender equality have grown strongly in recent years, leading to a conservative backlash from some segments of the population. Second, rightwing populism has focused on the global elite and the business world in the form of an anti-global and nationalist discourse. 8

COUNTRY REPORT SPAIN • The increase in right-wing populism around the world also fans the flames of Spanish right-wing populism. France and Italy, both of which have strong right-wing populist movements, are seen in Spain as culturally close examples. • The social media-dominated communication sphere is often used by right-wing populists as a stage for its cheap demagoguery, in which reality and rationality are displaced by fake news. • Other themes, including xenophobia and Fran coist nostalgia, are present, albeit on the margins and in more isolated instances. These themes appear not to have the same central importance as they do in right-wing populist movements in other countries. The most important strategy against right-wing populist influences is the defence of democratic institutions such as autonomous collective bargaining, social dialogue, and systems for worker’s rights, wherefrom targeted appeals can be made to employers and conservative political parties to form a broad democratic front against the danger from the right. The CCOO and UGT work closely on these issues, especially because rightwing populism is not on the works council election campaign agenda. Concrete initiatives, such as education programmes and international cooperation, remain within the jurisdiction of individual trade union confederations. However, political strategies related to the public, governments, political institutions, and the European trade union confederations are coordinated and carried out jointly. Moreover, worker representatives emphasize the struggle to counter right-wing populists’ simplistic demagoguery in the public discourse. Here, too, are alliances with all democratic institutions and movements central. Trade unionists emphasize two specific problems in this field of action. On the one hand, trade unions and progressive political forces strive to convince using rational and coherent lines of argument, while right-wing populists do not care if they are promoting completely contradictory positions and discourses. On the other hand, national symbols such as flags, colours, anthems, etc. are implicitly as sociated with right-wing conservative positions, while left-wing political positions always have an anti-­patriotic flair. In the summer of 2022, CCOO launched the International Trade Union Initiative“How can trade unions confront fascism and right-wing extremism?”, with the first seminar held on July 20, 2022. The seminar was attended by representatives from the TUC( Trade Union Congress , UK), the CTA-T( Central de Trabajadores y Trabajadoras de la Argentina , Argentina), the CUT( Central Única dos Trabalhadores , Brazil), the CUT ( Central Unitaria de Trabajadores , Chile), the CGIL ( Confederazione Generale Italiana del Lavoro , Italy), and Steven Forti, a fascism expert from the University of Barcelona 4 . This first seminar was the starting point for the Red Internacional de Estudios Sindicales (REDES network; International Network of Trade Union Stud ies), which aims to use international cooperation on concrete strategies to counter right-wing extremist movements. Joint educational programmes for work ers and trade union representatives are planned as the next step. In September 2020, VOX founded Solidaridad , a trade union project reminiscent of the Polish Solidarność , as a self-described patriotic social project to protect Spanish workers from corrupt classist unions and illegal immigration. So far, its workplace presence has been very small and localized to a few centres in Madrid and Zaragoza; its membership numbers are also low. UGT and CCOO trade union representatives make clear that Solidaridad does not discuss working conditions, collective bargaining policies, and so on, instead only it abstractly propagates the primacy of Spanish workers over immigrants and, above all, vilifies the established“mafia” trade unions as corrupt, ideological, sold-out, and anti-patriotic. Its secretary general, Rodrigo Alonso, a member of the Andalusian PP, has been involved in several corruption scandals while being a member of parliament. Given how challenging it is to gain a foothold in workplaces and businesses, many expect VOX to abandon its own union project in favour of infiltrating estab lished corporatist federations beyond the left-wing “class trade unions”, such as the civil servants’ union CSIF, the federations of police and security forces, or some‘yellow’ company unions. VOX has, to date, vot ed against every labour or social policy initiative put forward by the government or social partners; for ex ample, the party has voted against short-term work regulations during the COVID-19 crisis, the minimum wage agreement, the regulation of delivery riders (Ley Rider) , remote work regulations, and the framework agreement on pension reform. The Castile and León region warrants special consider ation insofar as it is the only of the 17 federal states in which VOX has been directly involved in government. 4 See Comisiones Obreras Castilla y León(2022). 9

COUNTRY REPORT SPAIN VOX has been a coalition partner of the PP since April 2022. While the region has traditionally been governed by the conservative PP, social dialogue between the government, trade unions, and employers is well established – strongly anchored in the political culture and enshrined in the regional constitution. Even the International Labour Organization(ILO) has repeated ly praised the region as an example of social collabora tion and participatory democracy. 5 In 2022, there were no fewer than 18 Social Dialogue Agreements on social and labour policy fields of action in place. VOX launched a direct attack on the Social Dialogue Agreements and its actors immediately after taking office; its Minister of Industry, Trade, and Employ ment summarily suspended nine of the existing agreements. Meanwhile, each of the 20 million Euro grants planned to be given to agreement stakeholders were cut in half. This galvanized the unions as well as the employers, who demanded compliance with the already-signed agreements. According to the Confederación Española de Organizaciones Empresariales (CEOE, Spanish Confederation of Business Organizations), these uncertainties and social con flicts jeopardize potential investments in the region ( Diario de Castilla y León 2022). The local and regional employment and training programmes that the social partners had negotiated, and for which the federal government had allocated 70 million euros, are simply not being implemented. In addition to the attack on social dialogue, VOX has launched a number of other initiatives, such as converting the“Law for a Historical Memory” into a“Law for Reconciliation Between the Two Spains” or replacing the“Law Against Violence Against Women” with a“Law on Domestic Violence”. The regional holiday Villalar , which is enshrined in the constitution, was replaced by the Day of the Holy Apostle Santiago. This can be understood as yet another component in the ideological culture war against all democratic symbols of regional autonomy in promotion of a unified, conservative, and Catholic Spain. Moreover, under the label of national energy sovereignty, VOX has de manded the reopening of nuclear and coal power plants. In all of its official documents, VOX has sys tematically denied climate change, violence against women, LGBTQI+ rights, and crimes committed un der the Franco dictatorship. The situation in Castile and León is currently unclear, and the future remains undetermined; most PP min 5 Servicio de información sobre discapacidad(2018); UGT Castilla y León(2022). isters officially defend the Social Dialogue Agree ments while simultaneously allowing VOX ministers to attack its social partners freely. CCOO and UGT complain of a deep loss of confidence and have an nounced a mobilization campaign for the fall of 2022, in which they want to involve the European Parlia ment, the Committee of the Regions(CoR), and the International Labour Organization(ILO) in Geneva. The aim is to strengthen the Social Dialogue agenda at the local level, where VOX is not yet represented. Meanwhile, unions are investigating potential legal action for noncompliance in the bi- and tri-lateral agreements. The regional employers’ association has pledged its full support for this effort. It is rather exceptional that the Spanish employers’ association is taking such a direct political position, as they are typically strict about being apolitical. We sit down with every government, negotiate with every labour minister regardless of party affiliation or ideology. Our organization encompasses all political beliefs; we have no political orientation – not like the so-called class unions that represent certain political ideologies. Excerpt from interviews with CEOE representatives In this respect, the clear commitment to social dialogue as a fundamental principle of industrial relations and the region’s social constitution outweighs the employers’ association’s typical stance. Representatives from business organizations also admit a certain closeness to the neoliberal economic positions espoused by the right-wing populists(free market, minimization of the state, subsidy cuts, and so on) but also point to their contradictory and populist nature given their simultaneous calls for a strong, interventionist, and authoritarian state and the discourse against the ‘globalist’ and economic elites and big banks. In summary, trade union strategies to counter the rise of right-wing populism focus on four main areas of action. First, they explicitly integrate the topic in to union education programmes for members and delegates. Relatedly, the second strategy is to encourage people to respond to right-wing populist positions expressed in the workplace or among em ployees directly and openly with clear argumentation. Third, work is being done to promote public discourse that strengthens democratic, pluralistic, and tolerant positions that define diversity and differ ence an enrichment rather than a threat. The final strategy is to emphasise the importance of European and international cooperation against right-wing populist tendencies. 10

COUNTRY REPORT SPAIN CONCLUSIONS The rise of a right-wing populist movement and political party in Spain since 2018 caught many of Spain’s social actors and unions unprepared and coincided with the decline of the other populist parties, which led to the dissolution of the previously established two-party system with Podemos on the left juxtaposed with the liberal-technocratic party Ciudadanos . Many hoped that right-wing populism would fall as sharply as it rose in the face of a resurgence of the traditional conservative right-wing party PP. The trade union perspective on this, how ever, is mixed insofar as it would correspond with a decline of the current left-wing coalition between PSOE and UP. In many respects, the current leftwing government has made positive headway in tackling the crisis, including the implementation of short-term work regulations, the establishment of a guaranteed minimum income, the strengthening of civil liberties and gender equality, labour market reforms to safeguard employment and reduce precarious employment, and an urgently needed pension reform, for example. In this respect, the governing coalition has clearly distinguished itself from the PP, whose crisis response from 2011 to 2018 was disastrous. The fact that the electorate is opting for a failed conservative alternative in the face of these recent policies is cause for great concern and foreshadows difficulties for progressive, pro-union pol icies in the future. The VOX party, which began entering parliaments and institutions in 2018, can be clearly characterized as a right-wing populist party insofar as it combines strong nationalism, a“people against the elites” discourse, and authoritarian centralism(Ha likiopoulou/Vlandas 2022). While VOX avoids di rect fascist or Falangist symbols and accepts formal democratic rules, democratic values are clearly subordinate to nationalist and authoritarian goals within their framework. It aims to abolish the Spanish system of autonomous communities and calls for direct and, if necessary, military intervention by the central state against regional independence movements. The right-wing populist offensive is concentrated primarily on the symbolic-cultural level, with a strong emphasis on nationalist and Catholic symbols and traditionalist family values. Defending Spain’s multicultural, modern, and cosmopolitan reality against this attack will be diffi cult so long as the crisis in Catalonia and the corruption scandals continue to shape Spain’s political landscape, and democratic diversity is perceived by many as a weakness. At present, it is still unclear whether right-wing pop ulism is a permanent phenomenon or a temporary manifestation arising in the broader context of a po litical party system crisis. The rise of right-wing populism in Spain is evidently less the result of social and economic conditions(such as unemployment, social inequality, or mass immigration) than a product of subjective perceptions, such as the perceived distance between people and democratic institutions and elites. The fact is, however, that the entire institutional framework has become unstable; voter behaviour is subject to strong fluctuations, and unions, like the political left as a whole, are negatively impacted by a legitimacy crisis. If populist discourses against the welfare state and pluralistic democratic governance models continue to advance and permeate sectors of the workforce, the risk of post-democratic authoritarian capitalism will grow. The challenge, then, extends far beyond the fight against right-wing populism and is to regain lost trust in democratic and social progress with trade unions as central social actors among large swaths of the population. 11

COUNTRY REPORT SPAIN APPENDIX SELECT ELECTION RESULTS IN SPAIN (2015–2022) The following section documents some of the election results from recent years, which illustrate not only the sudden rise of the right-wing populist VOX party but also the dramatic fragmentation of the party landscape since 2015 when the two new parties Podemos and the liberal-technocratic party Ciudadanos shook up the outdated two-party system comprised of the populist Partido Popular (PP) and the Partido Socialista Obrero (PSOE) which had been discredited by corruption scandals. On the national level, something of a renaissance of the two-party system with PSOE and PP, with VOX playing the role of a third new force, can be observed. Ciudadanos is now in a complete existential crisis, and Podemos is also dealing with many internal problems and divisions. In sum, the regional heterogeneity of the Spanish political system has increased enormously. The Basque Country and Catalonia have traditionally had their own systems dominated by regional nationalist parties; now, a fragmented party structure without a clear majority has become established in other regions as well. The left-wing protest party Podemos has never man aged to build a unified party structure and com petes in various regions through independent groups(Catalonia: Catalunya en Comú ; Valencia: Podem Comunitat Valenciana ; Basque Country: Elkarrekin Podemos ). In other regions, Podemos competes against other alternative left-wing groups(Madrid: Mas Madrid ; Galicia: En Marea ; Andalusia: Adelante Andalucía ). In the near future, whether or not the very popular Second Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Labour and Social Economy Yolanda Díaz Pérez’s initiative to unite the various groups on the left of the PSOE under the“Sumar” banner as a new political project succeeds will be decisive. Yolanda Díaz comes from the Galician Communist Party and has always maintained her independence, even within Podemos . Spanish and European Elections: The percentage points group under“Other” are primarily regional parties in Catalonia, Basque Country, and Galicia. Catalonia and Basque Country: Centralist Spanish parties such as PP and VOX have only very small shares in these two regions, which have very strong independence movements. In Catalonia, the independence parties Esquerra Republicana de Catalunya (ERC), Junts per Catalunya (JuntsxCat), and Candidatura d’Unitat Popular (CUP) together account for about half Election Results by Party(in per cent) PSOE PP VOX UP EH Cs MM Other ERC JuntsxCat CUP ECP PNV AA Bildu Spain 2019 28.3 21 15.2 13 6.9 2.3 11.4 Spain 2016 22.6 33 0.2 21.1 13 10.1 Spain 2015 22 28.7 0.2 20.6 13.9 28.5 Madrid 2021 16.8 44.7 9.1 7.2 3.6 17 1.6 Madrid 2019 27.3 22.2 8.9 5.6 19.5 14.7 1.8 Andalusia 2022 24.2 43.04 13.45 7.7 3.3 4.6 Castile and León 30 31.4 17.6 5.1 4.5 11.4 2022 Andalusia 2018 28 20.7 11 16.2 18.3 5.8 Andalusia 2015 35.3 26.8 0.45 14.8 9.3 13.3 Catalonia 2021 23 3.8 7.7 5.6 4.5 21.3 20 6.7 6.9 Basque Country 13.65 6.8 2 8 2.6 2020 39.1 27.9 Europe 2019 32.8 20.1 6.2 10 12.2 18.7 Legend: PSOE: Partido Socialista Obrero Español; PP: Partido Popular; VOX: Vox; UP: Unidas Podemos; Cs: Ciudadanos; MM: Mas Madrid; ERC: Esquerra Republicana de Catalunya; JuntsxCat: Junts per Catalunya; CUP: Candidatura d’Unitat Popular; ECP: En Comú Podem; PNV: Partido Nacionalista Vasco; EH Bildu: Euskal Herria Bildu; AA: Adelante Andalucía. 12

COUNTRY REPORT SPAIN of all votes, demonstrating the deep divisions that have characterized Catalonian society and politics for many years. In Basque Country, the rather conservative Euzko Alderdi Jeltzalea (EAJ-PNV; Partido Nacion alista Vasco; Basque Nationalist Party) and the more radical left-wing nationalist EH Bildu hold a clear majority over Spanish-wide political parties. Andalusia: Spain’s largest and most populous state, traditionally a socialist stronghold, was governed by PSOE until 2018. Here, the turnaround and the ad vances of the right-wing populist VOX into the politi cal landscape are the most apparent. In the elections on June 19, 2022, PSOE found itself in a deep crisis, while the PP found itself in an absolute majority. VOX was able to establish itself as the third political force. However, VOX was unable to achieve its stated goal of participating in government, as the PP has its first ab solute majority. Ciudadanos , in contrast, disappeared from Parliament and Podemos split into two groups: Por Andalucía , which is linked to the federal party, and Adelante Andalucía , a radical splinter group critical of capitalism. Castile and León: This state in central Spain is, thus far, the only state in which VOX has been directly in volved in a coalition government with the conservative PP. In addition to the rise of VOX to its status as the third strongest party, the election results show the appearance of new local and regional splinter parties, including Unión del Pueblo Leonés (UPL; Unity of the People of the Province of León) and Soria ¡Ya! (SY; Soria Now!), which now have parliamentary rep resentation, as well as the decline of Podemos and Ciudadanos . 13

COUNTRY REPORT SPAIN REFERENCES Castillo Martín, Carlos(2019): Extrema derecha y populismo de derechas en España. ¿El fin de la excepción es pañola? , Trabajo fin de Grado, Facultad de Ciencias Humanas y Sociales, Universidad Pontificia Comillas. Climent Sanjuan, Víctor / Montaner Goetzenberger, Mirian(2022): Los partidos populistas de extrema derecha en España: Un análisis sociológico comparado, in: Izquierdas , 49, junio 2020: 910–931. Comisiones Obreras Castilla y León(2022): La Nueva Extrema Derecha. Principal Amenaza de las Democracias , con Steven Forti, https://www.youtube.com/watch?­ v=KHGRd-cnpBk. González Enríquez, Carmen(2017): La excepción española: el fracaso de los grupos de derecha populista pese al paro, la desigualdad y la inmigración , Documento de trabajo 7/2017–8/6/2017, Madrid; Real Instituto Elcano. Halikiopoulou, Daphne / Vlandas, Tim(2022): Understanding right-wing populism and what to do about it , Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung. Köhler, Holm-Detlev(1993): Spaniens Gewerkschaftsbewegung. Demokratischer Übergang – Regionalismus – Ökonomische Modernisierung , Westfälisches Dampfboot, Münster.(Span. Version: El movimiento sindical en España. Transición democrática – modernización econó mica – regionalismo, Ed. Fundamentos, Madrid 1995). Köhler, Holm-Detlev(2021): Gewerkschaften in Spanien. Strukturelle Bedingungen und aktuelle Herausforderungen . Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung, Madrid 2021. Lehndorff, Steffen/ Dribbusch, Heiner/ Schulten, Thorsten(Eds.)(2018): Rough waters. European trade unions in a time of crises , ETUI, Brussels. Lucio, Miguel Martínez(1992):“Spain: Constructing institutions and actors in a context of change”, in: An thony Ferner/ Richard Hyman(Eds.): Industrial Relations in the new Europe . Oxford, Cambridge MA, pp. 482–523. Proaño, Christian / Peña, Juan Carlos / Saalfeld, Thomas(2022): Inequality, Macroeconomic Perfor mance and Political Polarization: A Panel Analysis of 20 Advanced Democracies, in: Review of Social Economy , March 2022, DOI: 10.1080/00346764.2022.2047768 Rama, José / Olivas, José Javier(2021): ¿ Aprovechándose del miedo? El populismo de la derecha y la crisis de la Covid-19 en Europa , Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung, Madrid. Sanz de Miguel, Pablo, in cooperation with Julia Frías, Maria Caprile, Carsten Jørgensen, Szilvia Borbély, Katalin Bácsi, and Karsten Kruger(2019): Trade Union Strategies in the EU to address trade union members’ and workers’ growing propensity to vote for right wing populists and nationalists , The European Economic and Social Committee, Brüssel. Servicio de información sobre discapacidad(2018): La OIT valora el model del dialogo social de CyL como ejemplo de concertación para consensuar en socie dades modernas. Servicios Sociales de Castilla y Leon, Juna de Castilla y Leon. November 29, 2018. https://sidinico.usal.es/noticias/la-oit-valora-el-modelo-deldialogo-social-de-cyl-como-ejemplo-de-concertacion-para-consensuar-en-sociedades-modernas-2/ UGT Castilla y León(2022): El dialogo social de Castil la y León en la OIT. UGT Castilla y León . https://ugtcyl. es/web/el-dialogo-social-de-castilla-y-leon-en-la-oit Valverde, Antonio Martín(1991): E uropean Employment and Industrial Relations Glossary : Spain, Europe an Foundation for the Improvement of Living and Working Conditions. Zanotti, Lisa, Santana, Andrés, Rama, José and Turnbill-Dugarte, Stuart J.(2021): VOX: la emergen cia de la derecha radical populista y el fin del excep cionalismo español, in: The Conversation , July 8, 2021, https://theconversation.com/vox-la-emergencia-dela-derecha-radical-populista-y-el-fin-del-excepcio nalismo-espanol-164129. 14

COUNTRY REPORT SPAIN ABOUT THE AUTOR Dr. Holm-Detlev Köhler is a Professor of Sociology at the University of Oviedo(Spain) and part of the PROMEBI research group dedicated to promoting em ployment and welfare in Europe. From 2019 to 2022, he coordinated the European research project“Social Dialogue in the Transforming Economy(SODITREC)”. His main research interests include comparative in dustrial relations, management and innovation in transnational corporations, and local and regional development.( http://www.unioviedo.es/holmkoehler/) IMPRINT Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung e. V. Godesberger Allee 149 53175 Bonn| Germany Email: info@fes.de Issuing department: International Cooperation| Global and European Policy Responsible for content and editing: Dr Marc Meinardus| European Trade Union and Social Policy marc.meinardus@fes.de Design/Typesetting: pertext, Berlin| www.pertext.de The views expressed in this publication are not necessarily those of the Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung(FES). Commercial use of media published by the FES is not permitted without the written consent of the FES. Publications by the FES may not be used for electioneering purposes. © 2022 15