Hermann Tertsch is a Spanish journalist and politician, who has been a high-profile Vox MEP since 2019. As Vox has left the ECR group to join the newly founded Patriots for Europe, he is now in the same political family in the European Parliament as Hungarian ruling party Fidesz, serving as one of the vice-chairmen of the group. We spoke with him about the situation in Spain and the way forward for PfE.

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What is your opinion of the situation in Spain? Now Pedro Sánchez, president of the government of Spain, wants to make a law of ‘democratic regeneration’ in which a possible persecution of the dissident media can be perceived. Do you think that Von der Leyen will do something about it if it is carried out?

In any case, Von der Leyen will do nothing. Pedro Sánchez has been a protégé of Von der Leyen. For five years, she has allowed him all the misdeeds, violations of the law, unconstitutional acts; crimes that this government has committed have been covered up and ignored by the president of the European Commission.

The law itself is one more step towards the authoritarian path that this government is taking. This is a gag law; this is a law to intimidate and to have a mechanism to defend themselves, and there are already other mechanisms that do this, such as the law of historical memory, which are basically all legal instruments to persecute opinions and to persecute dissenters and the opposition.

We are facing a regime with a Chavist tinge, a regime that has nothing to do with the social democracy of 20⁠–⁠30 years ago. As Janez Janša said, social democracy has changed; he said that what we have is a radical left, because cultural Marxism has replaced what was the ‘normal’ left during the Cold War. I agree with him: that left that had assumed certain freedoms, and free trade, we no longer have it, and we have returned to ‘cannibal’ socialism in the sense that they bring repression, violence, and impose their vision by force.

They are going all out and they know that the dissident media can and do a lot of damage to the government. They are going all out because they see that if they lose power not only that, but they could lose their patrimony and even their freedom. We have to be aware that they will do anything and when I say anything, it is actually anything.

You have spoken of the lawsuit that the Popular Party has with the PSOE. We have recently learned that the PP and the PSOE had shared control of the General Council of the Judiciary (CGPJ) when the PP said that the PSOE was carrying out a coup d’état with the amnesty; what is your reaction?

It is always the same; Feijoo and his party, the PP, come out and say one thing, but then do the opposite. They call their voters to demonstrate against the coup d’état, because yes, the socialist party has staged a coup d’état in Spain, and they (PP) call their followers, innocent, naïve voters, and could say something else at this point to demonstrate against the amnesty and it turns out that then they do the opposite. They share out the judges, they share out the electoral board, they share out everything between the PP and the PSOE.

All these barbarities are being preprepared because the Popular Party has allowed it, let nobody be fooled. Sanchez is an autocrat, Sanchez is a psychopath, Sanchez is a tyrant wannabe and an absolute born abuser.

Sanchez would have had no chance to run over Spanish society as he has run over it thanks to his party, which has become an organization at the service of Sanchez; they do anything, and that is not a party. None of what Sanchez has done would have been possible without the obeisance of the Popular Party.

How do you see the situation of illegal immigration in Spain and Europe?

Illegal immigration brings with it the destruction of nations and their identity.

This illegal immigration does not come alone, it is not spontaneous, it is promoted by Agenda 2030. They want to abolish everything we have known so far about European countries, tradition, culture, identity… basically make Europe as we know it disappear, taking power for themselves, and making European parliaments merely decorative in the face of the laws imposed from Brussels.

I do not know if you have heard the statements of the footballer Toni Kross, saying that he stayed to live in Spain because he has a 5-year-old daughter and that in Germany he was afraid for his daughter, since he said that the country he left ten years ago was no longer the same. Security in Spain is still better than in Germany, but Merkel and her socialist partners have completely destroyed the country, opening the borders and unfortunately, we are doing the same, so if there is no reaction, in a few years we will be the same as Germany. That is to say, nobody will be able to go out at certain hours, in certain neighbourhoods, women will be unsafe…

As Giovanni Sartori said, there are cultures that, when their representation is between 12–⁠15 per cent, begin to occupy the public space. Just look at the streets of France on Fridays: you cannot pass, because Muslims are in the streets praying and arrogate to themselves the right to invade public space. However, there are other cultures that may be half of the population, but they do not want to impose themselves and do not want to occupy public space; but the Muslim is not one of them.

In conclusion, when we open the borders and bring incompatible cultures, they bring with them the desire to impose their laws and their way of thinking. The battle against illegal immigration is a battle against an invasion and it is a battle for the defence of our values, of our Western civilization, which is incompatible with the Muslim culture.

Why did Vox leave the ECR and joined the new Patriots for Europe group?

Because everything is in motion. Actually, everything is in motion in Europe, everything has been set in motion, it has been seen with the votes, that in the European elections there is a will of a turn to conservatism, a conservative turn that is being ignored in an obscene way by the Popular Party and Madame Von der Leyen, that the first thing they have done has been a pact with the losers, that is, with Renew and the socialists, the two groups that have lost the most votes and deputies in the European elections. They have rushed with this pact to continue with the same policies and to protect the interests of the elites.

This new coalition wants to ignore what has been decided by free and sovereign nations that have grown tired of the policies imposed by Brussels. The interests of the voters are being systematically trampled on in a scandalous way, as for example in the Spanish countryside or the continuous privileges given to Morocco over Spanish farmers and winners.

The pact between the Socialists and the Popular Party has existed for years to carry out their social engineering with their policies and they have made this pact of the losers so as not to lose what they have been doing for decades. But theirs is a false majority, since with the votes

we have seen that European citizens want real change.

We have to respond to that, and we are going to respond with forcefulness. And then this process of national revolt that is taking place throughout Europe, which is going to be seen in Austria in the next elections, and which is seen in every election that takes place in all countries, it is going to bring about a change. We want a frontal clash with the policies of Von der Leyen and that is why we are in the group of Patriots for Europe, because we are with parties that want a frontal clash with the destructive and suicidal policy of the European Commission. However, there are parties that consider, because of their own circumstances, that they cannot go for a frontal clash.

Despite Vox’s departure from the ECR, is there still a cordial relationship with Fratelli d’Italia?

It is not that we think differently than Fratelli, as Abascal has already said; our sister party and ally in Italy is still Fratelli. It is not the Lega, although it is in our group and Fratelli is not in our group.

We continue to have a firm link of Vox with Fratelli, of Abascal with Meloni, that has always been clear at all times and will continue to be so. Meloni has always been informed at all times, but Meloni’s circumstances are different from ours. Meloni is a prime minister, and she is in a government, which has its circumstances and we respect that, as it is totally legitimate.

We hope that throughout this legislature the conservative political parties can unite in a single group, to actually go for this absolute change that all conservatives in Europe are looking for.

A return to common sense, a return to truth and to defend the real interests of the free European nations,

and not the interests of the dark ones, of the powerful.

You, as announced this week, will hold one of the vice-presidencies of the new Orbán-led group, Patriots for Europe. What can we expect from this group and what does it bring to the table?

I hope, as vice-president, to receive in this legislature, as soon as possible, parties that are today in the European Popular Party and that are going to be very dissatisfied to see that in their countries they are punished for being in an alliance with the socialists, destroying the nations and acting against their interests. That is why I believe that the Popular Party will have casualties and they will come to our group.

I am also confident that we will end up united with Law and Justice (PiS), our Polish brothers, with Fratelli d’Italia, with the Sweden Democrats and with so many other conservative parties with whom we have friendships. The only thing is that they are democrats, defenders of the West, defenders of the defence of the West, defenders of Israel and that they are firm in defending the values of the West, that is to say, the Judeo–⁠Christian values. In short, they want a Europe of sovereign nations, they do not want an Islamic invasion, and they do not encourage it.