After the unexpected surge that Spain's far-right party Vox had on last Sunday's elections, the hand of the mythical Steve Bannon, one of the architects of Donald Trump's triumph in the 2016 election, was apparent.

Bannon has approached leaders like Salvini in Italy, Le Pen in France, and Boris Johnson in the United Kingdom to push an agenda in opposition to the European Union and what he calls the interests of Angela Merkel and Emmanuel Macron.

Just last March, Bannon gave an interview to Spanish newspaper El País where he talked about his vision of the European nationalist movement. At that time, the co-founder of Breitbart identified Italian Matteo Salvini and Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán as "the two most important politicians in Europe" and the "ideological leaders" of the European national-populist movement.

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It is striking that in the interview dated eight months ago, Trump's former strategist suggests that, for the November elections, Vox could "reach 15% and that would generate a shock wave in Europe. A party that came out of nowhere!".

On Sunday, Vox ended election day with a historic 15.1% of the vote.

The reason why so many think of Bannon is plain to see: Vox's campaign is very similar to what Bannon did for Trump in 2016: Managing social media through fake accounts and spreading fake news to exploit the fear vote. The same strategy that was seen in the U.S. presidential election and, earlier, in the Brexit campaign in the United Kingdom.

"Maldito bulo", a Spanish verification site, posted 64 fake news about the November 10 elections. Most fake news items warn of alleged electoral fraud strategies committed by the government of Pedro Sánchez, members of the PSOE, Ciudadanos, and Podemos.

Vox's spot "Make Spain Great Again".

One of several messages spread via WhatsApp, for example, warns that the PP launched a texting campaign funded by tycoon George Soros. "Such felony is interference in Spanish domestic politics. It is necessary to rise against that interference and defend the independence, dignity, and freedom of all Spaniards in the face of such aggression."

Curiously enough, the message makes an invitation at the end: "For all this, for Spain to continue owning its destiny I ask you to vote for VOX".

Another image warns that Sanchez had appointed, by decree, all of the members of the electoral board. "From Chavismo to Sanchismo through Soros". As it were in the conspiracy theories of the American extreme right, George Soros is the most common villain, and Sanchez a mere puppet of the globalists.

The party led by Santiago Abascal won 53 seats in the Congress of Deputies, more than double of what they had, and thus becomes the third political force in Spain. During his conversation with El País, journalist Daniel Verdú tells Bannon that Vox is not a well-organized party, "Vox is not the League".

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"Like M5S," replies Bannon. "What I like about them is that they are citizen politicians, like Vox. I don't agree with Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, but today she's the number one rockstar in American politics. Now she's as strong as Nancy Pelosi, but just one year ago she was a waitress working the night shift. Today she sits at the same table as Trump and Pelosi. And we're talking about the most powerful nation in the world. So all bets are off and with Vox the same can happen. Modern politics mixed with social media and a suitable message can provide that. "

In 2018, Bannon met with Rafael Bardají, a man close to former President José María Aznar and who, in that administration, served as a liaison with the government of George W. Bush. Bardají has been identified as a high-level Vox political operator. Bardají would also be close with former Trump national security adviser, John Bolton, with whom he'd have collaborated when he was appointed ambassador to the UN under Bush; and with Jared Kushner, Trump's son-in-law and his closest adviser.

In an interview with El Periódico, Bardají described the speech strategy inspired by Donald Trump, which Vox adopted.

Karl Rove told me that in Europe we got it wrong, that we understand politics as a theater. What they did, and which Trump has taken to the extreme, is to take issues that are like poles, like magnets, issues that could mobilize groups of different voters

"Karl Rove told me that in Europe we got it wrong, that we understand politics as a theater. What they did, and which Trump has taken to the extreme, is to take issues that are like poles, like magnets, issues that could mobilize groups of different voters".

In the Trump campaign, these issues would be Latin American immigration, the border wall, the right to bear arms, the so-called "gender" agenda, among others.

"Then they arrange them and tie them with each other. That's a bit of what we've done in Vox: using topics as the defense of hunting, bullfights, Holy Week, security forces as magnets. New technologies and social media allow you to connect, unite those people mobilized by either one of those issues."

During his conversation with El País, Bannon emphasized that he does not run a consultancy firm and that he limits himself to strengthening the populist message of the politicians that he finds appealing.

However, the stories of Cambridge Analytica, co-founded by Bannon and the billionaire Mercer family, should not be forgotten. Cambridge Analytica pushed thousands of fake news, especially on Facebook, throughout numerous electoral processes around the world.

In Spain, the strategy to boost the nationalist vote was the same as in the US: feed the anti-immigration sentiment. One of the most emblematic fake news of the Spanish electoral process was the rape of a Catalonian girl in the city of Manresa at the hands of six teenagers of purported African origin.

As "Maldito bulo" reported, the defendants in this case were three Spanish citizens, three Cubans, and an Argentine. All of age.

At the time, Vox used this crime to accuse progressive parties of hypocrisy. The argument was, that when the case known as "la manada" (a gang rape committed by young white Spaniards) happened in 2016, feminists and members of political movements such as Podemos demanded exemplary convictions for the young men accused of rape. And now they refused to demand greater restrictions against migrants of African origin.

At that time, the only Catalonian congressman of Vox, Ignacio Garriga, even protested outside the court where the defendants were being prosecuted, demanding they be charged for rape and not just sexual assault.

Abascal released several messages fueling the anti-immigrant rage. In one he accused two "menas", acronym for unaccompanied foreign minors, of raping a woman. "In 3 months they will be on the streets again". He also said that 69% of the groups of rapists were foreigners, a number not based on any official data.

It is impossible not to connect the dots between Trump and Abascal once they are heard talking. That afternoon in June 2015 when Trump came down the golden escalators of Trump Tower and announced his candidacy marked what would become the immigration debate over the next four years.

"They are bringing drugs. They are bringing crime. They are rapists," said the president that day about Mexican immigrants.

Once in power Trump kept true to his word. First, he withdrew protections for DACA recipients. Later on, he arrested thousands of migrant children, separated them from their families and companions and put them in detention centers under inhuman conditions.

Abascal has already said that he intends to expel unaccompanied migrant children, although he clarified that his crusade is not against legal immigration, just as Trump has done repeatedly. Recently, he pointed this out in the popular TV Show El Hormiguero: "What we have to do is deport foreign children, and speak to their countries of origin, for them to be expelled."