Outrage in Spain after leader of far-right party talks about hanging Pedro Sanchez

By Alyssa McMurtry

OVIEDO, Spain (AA) - Politicians in Spain expressed their outrage on Monday after the leader of the far-right Vox party talked about hanging the country’s prime minister.

“There will come a time when the people will want to hang him (Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez) by his feet,” Vox leader Santiago Abascal said in an interview with the Argentine newspaper Clarin.

Speaking at his book launch, Sanchez said the words were "extraordinarily important," and said the far-right "tries to monopolize everything with hate."

In an interview with Onda Cero, Deputy Prime Minister Nadia Calvino blamed the mainstream conservative party, the Popular Party, for fueling these kinds of “hateful attitudes.”

Meanwhile, Foreign Minister Jose Manuel Albares posted on X that it was “hate speech that incites violence” and called on the Popular Party to break its pacts with Vox in the dozens of cities and regions where they are governing together in a coalition.

While Popular Party leader Alberto Nunez Feijoo condemned the words of Abascal, he said: “We have nothing to do with these types of statements” and said they do “not deserve a lot of consideration.”

In the same interview with broadcaster Telecinco, Feijoo also slammed the left-wing Spanish government for trying to “play the victim card” and polarize Spain.

Prior to the government’s reelection in November, both Vox and the Popular Party fueled massive protests against the government and its pact to offer Catalan separatists amnesty in exchange for their needed political support.

Vox called for “permanent mobilization” and supported nightly protests outside the Socialist Party headquarters, many of which descended into riots and clashes with police.

“I have moral limits. I have principles… but Sanchez has none. He can step all over the laws, do whatever he wants, and put national unity at risk,” Abascal told Clarin in the interview.

Abascal, who had just met with Israeli ministers last week, received a special invitation to celebrate the recent election of the radical Argentine leader Javier Milei.

“I think the way that Javier Milei fought culturally and politically against the left was very important because, for a long time, the left has been dictating morality in politics; who was legitimate and who wasn’t,” added Absacal, who said Milei's victory will help the right-wing movement around the world.

During his trip to Buenos Aires, Abascal also met with Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban.