The Role of Emotions in the Resurgence of the Extreme Right in Spain: The Case of VOX in Andalusia

This paper analyses emotional, political and sociological determinants of voting to VOX, a new extreme right party in the Andalusian regional election. Our works considers the main types of variables, which from different approaches, have been used to explain electoral behavior, specially the role of emotions in the post big recession context. Similarly, we analyze the incidence of the main issues that feed the resurgence of the extreme right in Spain, such as immigration, the role of women and, mainly, the territorial problem with Catalonia. In order to work with the set of factors that explain the vote to VOX we have worked with structural equation models (SEM) creating an overall model that explains the interrelation of contextual, sociological and political factors. Finally, in contrast to most previous works on Spanish electoral behavior, our analysis shows the fundamental role of emotions in all the components of the vote to VOX.