As well as helping the hospitality and livestock sectors on which the local economy depends, Óscar Robles wants to improve leisure and culture for Rascafría’s ill-served young people and to reopen a social club for its older residents that has been closed since before the Covid pandemic.
“This campaign has been very honest, very on the ground and very calm,” said the 59-year-old print business owner. “We haven’t got into ideological arguments with anyone. I don’t care what colour you are; if you’re a neighbour, I’m here to help you.”
The only unmistakable evidence of his party affiliation is to be found on the double-headed placards that still loom over Rascafría’s cold, rainy streets and which show his smiling face alongside that of Rocío Monasterio, Vox’s leader in the Madrid region.
The pair, and their far-right party, have much to smile about in the wake of last month’s municipal and regional polls in Spain and in the run-up to July’s snap general election. Robles’s quiet, hyper-local campaign – in stark contrast to the vituperative and sometimes xeno-phobic electoral tone in which Vox has come to specialise – looks set to deliver the party its first mayoralty in the region.
This story is from the June 23, 2023 edition of The Guardian Weekly.
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This story is from the June 23, 2023 edition of The Guardian Weekly.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 9,000+ magazines and newspapers.
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