Spain shows that some voters still want centrism

People do notPP always think through the metaphors they use. Though the phrase “meteoric rise” is common, meteors are better known for falling. Prices are said to “spike” even when their rise is not accompanied by a descent. And when people talk about “waves” sweeping Europe, they often forget a crucial feature: waves break. That seems to have been what happened to the wave of nationalist populism that failed to sweep into Spain in the general election on July 23rd.The election was expected to hand power to a coalition of the centre-right People’s Party () and, for the first time in Spain’s modern democratic history, the hard right, in the shape of a ten-year-old party called Vox. Nationalist-populist parties already run Hungary, Poland and Italy; others share power in Sweden and Finland. Getting into government in Spain would have confirmed that Europe’s populist swell was rising. Right-wingers from across the continent did their best to stir the waters. At Vox’s final campaign rally at the Plaza de Colón in Madrid (a favourite spot for nationalists, featuring the biggest national flag in Spain), Poland’s Mateusz Morawiecki, Hungary’s Viktor Orban and Italy’s Giorgia Meloni appeared in videos cheering the party on.