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Culture War Roundup for the week of July 27, 2026

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has been working to naturalize millions of immigrants.

And is the average Spaniard happy about this, in your opinion?

I don't know. Do you put much weight on the feelings of Spanish voters in general? Or only when they can be leveraged towards the rhetorical interests of Israel in some way?

Not to make this sound too antagonistic, I've just been coming across these 2016-era ethnonationalist arguments in favor of Israel from unexpected directions. And I'm having a hard time reconciling just how far removed they are from what has been argued continuously by such people for over a decade. Not to say this applies to you in any direct way, just that you happen to fit a pattern in my brain at the moment, pending clarification.

For me it's either a universal principle, or at the very least a principle that applies to both Europeans and jews, or something else is going on that I want no part of until it's openly explained.

All that aside, I don't think the left wing in Europe has ever cared for populism beyond it being a vessel to take power. They use that power to oppose Israel on pretty consistent grounds to what they advocate at home. In that context I don't understand the question you are asking. I'm not too clued in on Spanish elections, but my ignorant assumption would be that they are democratic, fair and the the current government won.

Okay, well my impression is that the modal Spanish voter is not at all enthused about the prospect of naturalising millions of north African migrants. According to this report, a 2011 survey found that two-thirds of Spaniards think there are too many immigrants in the country (although this proportion had fallen to 47% by 2017). A 2017 poll found that only 20% of Spaniards think immigration has had a positive impact on the country. A poll from June of this year found that 63% of Spaniards had an unfavourable opinion of Pedro Sánchez.

My presumption would be that around half the electorate are generally in favor of the shitlib worldview, including immigration. Within that half you typically have two types. An ideologically unaware person that cries at refugee propaganda on TV, and an ideological leftist of some stripe. Spain usually has more of the latter than the average European country.

The right wing half is generally similarly split. The type that says they are opposed to immigration or whatever but can't formulate a coherent reason for why since they otherwise buy into the shitlib worldview without being aware, and the ideologically right wing type. It's rare for the latter to exceed 20% of the electorate or strike out on their own.

In a multi-party system like is common in Europe, a 37% approval rating is not that bad actually.