The largest province in Spain has been the impregnable fortress of the Left for over four decades. On Sunday, its walls were breached as voters decided to stay at home rather than defend the escarpments. The Right, and now the Extreme Right, took advantage of the low turnout and are on the cusp of taking the tower and put an end to the corrupt PSOE regime. The new Spanish Left, an offshoot of Podemos, also suffered a reverse. It failed to pick up the votes of disaffected PSOE supporters.

Political parties have always been coalitions. Sometimes some of the factions break out and strike out on their own. In a sense VOX is a re-arrangement of the Right and not all that different from PP and Ciudadanos. Interchangeable politicos and seamless agendas.

A decade ago, the Spanish elite saw the dangers of allowing the Partido Popular to monopolise the traditional Right vote. Years of in-your-face corruption, feeding from the trough, amid increasing misery in an age of austerity for the majority, meant something had to give.

Cue, Ciudadanos (Citizens). Clean, young, unblemished with corruption, photogenic smiles flashing polished white teeth. A party financed by the IBEX-35 or Big Business to appeal to the younger Right wing voters. Meanwhile, the grandma-abuela in the forgotten backwaters of the Spanish hinterland could continue to go to Church and fulfil their duty in voting for PP.

So PP = Older Right wing voters . Ciudadanos = young, right wing (a sort of Emmanuel Macron vision of pretending to be modern but in reality a new neo-liberal party).

But what do we make of the New Kid on the Block, VOX, which appeared from nowhere to capture 12 seats out of 109 in the Andalucían parliament?

VOX is now the kingmaker and will probably offer support from the wings to PP and Ciudadanos. It stands for Nationalism. Catholicism. Sexism. Anti-immigration. Anti-Islam. It believes in One ‘Nation’. One Flag. One Religion.

VOX, Ciudadanos and PP all despise Catalan and Basque independence ideas. We are back to the 1930s. Once more.

For years the unreconstructed Right has been frustrated by the limitations of democracy. It was much easier in the days of Franco. Blanket bans on language and cultural differentiation. Centralisation of powers and a reverse of the autonomous structure of a weak state. Nowadays, one has to garner support to gain a mandate. Difficult even with an awfully one-sided Mainstream media (MSM).

This centre-periphery tug of war has been in play for centuries. The New Right are using the current Catalan claims to independence as an excuse for rolling back the decades of devolution of powers, slow and begrudging as they were.

The Zeitgeist is now to forcibly put everyone into one box. Sales of Spanish flags are rocketing. The lack of compassion for Catalan political prisoners is shocking. Spanish voters are walking on the other side of the road to avoid facing reality. The Left has shown its true colours in its timid approach to incremental economic change. Pablo Iglesias, the leader of Podemos, visited Oriel Junqueras, the leader of the Catalan Soft-Left ERC, almost a year late. To obtain his blessing for the marginally more progressive national budget of the PSOE minority regime. Selling on behalf of ‘La Casta’.

The radicalism is now reduced to soundbites. The eruption of the 15th of May Movement at the start of this decade is now being reduced to a damp squib as Podemos has consolidated itself as a junior partner of the neo-liberal PSOE.

The aspirations and manifesto of Podemos are admirable. If implemented, it would transform Iberia. But they have no hope of capturing power. They are in decline as disappointed citizens tire of the Marketing and lack of bite.

The real fear with the Andalucian polls is that it wasn’t only rebadged PP voters flocking to VOX. Like AfD in Germany, it probably picked up sizeable working class votes. Andalucía today. All of Spain tomorrow. Social Democracy is collapsing. PSOE with merely 85 deputies in the Cortes is in office only through a motion in Parliament, not because they won an election.

Spanish nationalism is now on the rise.

Think of the absurdity. Catalan independence was the major issue in the Andalucian election. One of the poorest provinces was debating the impudence and ‘disloyalty’ of one of the richest provinces rather than focusing on its own problems. This was after all an autonomous election, not a general election.

The die has been cast. The ‘debate’ is now to be reduced to the Unity of Spain in the face of renegade provinces. Centralisation of powers and leaving autonomy behind. Fomenting of hate against forces within the peninsula (think Basques and Catalans). Fear of Africa to the south of Andalucía.

VOX used the word Reconquista (Reconquest) in its ‘victory’ speech on Sunday. The 800 year conflict to roll back the Muslim Moors is the rallying cry of a fearful Right. Another absurdity. Imaginary enemies for an imaginary nation.

Two things to watch out for will be:

A) if the Podemos/New Left vote continues to ebb, where will it go? Will some opt for independence in Catalonia and tip the scales well over 50%?

B) will the Resurgent Right form a broad coalition to win an outright majority in General Elections (probably later in 2019)? An Alliance for One Spain against all comers.

This smells like 1933, leading to an awful regime appearing in 1934.

Things are coming to a head.