P. Castillo Ortiz – The political approach to constitutionalism of the Spanish radical right party Vox

Abstract

From 2018, the radical right party Vox is part of the political landscape in Spain. The purpose of this article is to scrutinize and assess Vox’ political approach to constitutionalism. To do so, the article analyses Vox’ electoral manifesto and some of the main speeches of the party’s leaders, in order to address three main topics. First, the article will explain how key themes of liberal constitutionalism feature in the narrative of the party. Second, the article analyses if Vox’ policy proposals can be described as illiberal. Third, the article doctrinally assesses to what extent such proposals are compatible with the Spanish Constitution. Based on these analyses the article contributes to literature on radical right parties and on illiberalism, describing the main traits of Vox’ current political approach to constitutionalism. It is argued that these traits can be summarized in three main features: partisan use of constitutional rhetoric, constitutional double-standards combined with selective constitutionalism, and unconstitutionality of core policy proposals.