Far right harvests votes as climate rules roil rural Spain

STANDING by a barn brimming with hundreds of bleating sheep, Jesus del Socorro Cuevas leads the far right’s charge against “dictatorial” EU environmental regulation in his corner of rural Spain.

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“The enlightened gentlemen of Europe are always coming up with new things,” thundered Socorro Cuevas, 63, a longtime farmer who is the far-right Vox party’s agriculture councillor in the central municipality of Socuellamos.

“A farmer cannot dedicate himself to agriculture,” he said as tractors rumbled past and dogs snoozed on the ground at a party supporter’s farm.

“You have to tell them what you do every day, what you prune, if you collect the vine shoots, if you plough, if you fertilise... freedom no longer exists.”

The third-largest party in Spain's hung parliament, Vox has made the battle against “climate fanaticism” a rallying cry in a bid to harvest rural votes from mainstream parties.

Its climate-sceptic campaigning mirrors that of like-minded formations across Europe as the issue of climate change splits along right-left lines.

Spain sweltered through its hottest summer on record this year, an example of the extreme weather that scientists say human-driven climate change is exacerbating.