On May 28, 36,585,840 people were called to the polls in municipal and regional elections, of which a fraction of the 414,581 were citizens of other EU countries and states that have agreements with Spain to allow them to vote, according to data from the National Institute of Statistics (INE).

Citizens of Bolivia, Cape Verde, Chile, Colombia, South Korea, Ecuador, Iceland, Norway, New Zealand, Paraguay, Peru, United Kingdom, Trinidad and Tobago who have requested to participate in the election they can do it in the municipality, the only ones allowed to vote. EU citizens who have applied can also do so.

However, the number of registered voters in these countries is significantly lower than the population figures published by INE. This is mainly due to the fact that in order to vote it is not enough to be a resident in Spain, but you also have to go through the bureaucratic process to request one. In the case of Europeans, they can do so until January 30th. Therefore, in order to vote, it is not enough just to have power, but also to have the desire and the time and information to process it.

However, the story doesn’t end there. The voices of migrants in Spain came fully into the campaign when the Popular Party marched with an evangelical pastor, Yadira Yáñez. Representatives of this branch of Christianity, which is widespread in several Latin American countries, are interpreted as a maneuver to win over the votes of Latinos. The pre-campaign chapter that popular people tried to limit to the maximum because of the radicalism and bad image that nuns gave Alberto Núñez Feijóo’s party.

But why the dispute over the Latin American vote now if even countries like Venezuela don’t have agreements on being able to vote in elections? The answer will go beyond the legal residents mentioned above, but also nationalized residents. Those who, after years of exile or relocation, managed to obtain citizenship, which enabled them to participate in all elections held.

And, between 2010 and 2021 alone, 43,130 Cubans and 40,681 Venezuelans have been nationalized in Spain, in addition to 32,264 people in Brazil, a country where evangelism has a strong influence. Among them there are 116,075 residents, according to data from the Ministry of Social Affairs. The trauma left in the first two countries by the leftist regimes that ruled them have turned their citizens into fishing grounds where the right tries to catch fish at all costs.

It is not in vain that the president of the Community of Madrid, Isabel Díaz Ayuso, when she is not talking about ETA to make her own party uncomfortable, points to Venezuela or Nicaragua, countries where totalitarianism has been founded for many years, as the ideal model of a PSOE coalition government and United We Can. Something that, to a certain extent, plays on the “borders of the absurd”, as its opponents have repeatedly pointed out.

“Clown Politics”

Despite the fact that this opposing position to the left is what defines Xavier Larrañaga Ojer (Caracas, 30 years), a Spanish-Venezuelan who has been in Madrid for five and a half years, believes that “politics in Spain is a bit of a clown”: ” They always fight each other instead of making formal proposals, throwing nonsense at each other.”

Larrañaga always voted for the right and made it clear that the City Council and the Assembly would vote for the Popular Party’s candidate. “I come from Venezuela, where politics is complete bullshit, and I can’t vote left.”

However, he has fled from radicalism, as he considers that the proposals of far-right parties such as Vox are “square” and he does not like them when they are “against immigrants or the LGTBI collective”. However, he also does not believe that a regime like Venezuela can be established in Spain due to the “framework” of guarantees provided by the European Union, although he admits that he does not want to get “wet” in this matter either. .

Rosmary Rodrigues watched HuffPost from Ourense, where she lives with her husband. He is not a citizen of Spain but he does speak Portuguese, which he inherited from his parents, so he can only vote in municipal elections.

But this year he won’t because the electoral process has moved him to A Coruña, where he voted in 2019: “I did it for Alianza dos Veciños, but now if I could I would vote for PP.” He is united with Larrañaga by the leftist’s experience in Venezuela, and argues that the simple fact of voting for the left “terrified” him.

In contrast, José Ángel, who fled Venezuela, defines himself as center-right and lives in the Community of Madrid, although he remains “open-minded”. Whenever he can, he chooses Ciudadanos, until 2021 when he sides with Ayuso. Now, even though he thought he would most likely vote for her again, he had his doubts. “PSOE doesn’t scare me at all, I’m open to ideas, to read the program and see what comes up,” he said.

His case is special, because there is a “very strong influence” in the house. His wife is from Podemos, who he describes as “extreme left”: “We talk and argue a lot, I try to keep an open mind and listen a bit to what everyone is saying.” In fact, when asked if there are any steps from the left that she thinks are right, she responds that they are increases in the minimum wage or progress in the field of feminism, “although it has gotten out of hand” due to the effect of the ‘law only yes is yes’.

Rare birds: Republican and socialist Venezuela

Are all Venezuelans, a priori, right-wingers? Knowing the data would require extensive surveys, but what is certain is that at least one is not. His name is José Ignacio Rojas Portas, he lives in a town in the Community of Madrid and considers himself “republican and socialist”, like most of his relatives and close friends.

But how come? Perhaps the big difference that sets Rojas apart from the other compatriots who have participated in this report is that he did not come to live in Venezuela during the Chavismo years. He moved to Spain in 1997, when Chavez was just starting to run for president.

“Not living the Chavez experience, I don’t have any outright hatred of the ideology itself. So of course, here I consider myself to be on the left, even a socialist, yes,” Rojas said. His Spanish nationality and leftism are, in fact, linked by a thread of history, for his grandparents were exiled Spanish republicans in the South American country.

Whenever he can, he has chosen, on most occasions for PSOE, although in 2021 he chose Más Madrid. This 28M he will repeat for Mónica García’s party to the Assembly, but in his city he will choose the PSOE candidacy “because here I prefer the candidate over the initials,” he concluded.

He considers the president of Madrid and the PP “a burden on health, in our city without doctors, they mess up the emergency…”, he gave an example while explaining Ayuso’s argument for including ETA and Bildu as “populists”. for elections where, he believed, it was irrelevant.

“The left dominates and now the extreme right is on the rise”

América and colleagues arrived in Spain to fulfill a plan they had been planning for 14 years in their native Mexico, from the city of Mérida, in the State of Yucatán. Although both applied for citizenship after the first years of residence, only he could vote in subsequent elections.

He lives in Seville and can only vote in municipal elections. “I see there is a very tense atmosphere. Previously, the left dominated and now the ultra-right is gaining a lot of strength, not only in Spain, but also in other European countries like Italy,” he told HuffPost in a telephone conversation.

He favored the power of the centre-left, and confirmed that he might vote for the socialist candidate for mayor of the Andalusian capital, Antonio Muñoz. “I prefer it because I don’t like left-wingers and conservatism”, a position he says he shares with his partner.

The process that Venezuelans are experiencing in their country is exactly the opposite of that experienced in Mexico. “The Left won in 2018 after 100 years of rule from other parties,” América recounted. Both he and his partner are linked to the presidential campaign of the current Aztec nation, Andrés Manuel López Obrador: “There were things about him that I didn’t like, but my attachments were more through leftist parties.”