Spain's Morant likens PP and Vox to Hitler, PP demands her resignation

The comparison

On 23 July 2026, the Valencian regional parliament approved budgets that included a clause on "national priority". Shortly after, Diana Morant, Spain's Minister of Science, Innovation and Universities and leader of the PSPV, said the PP's drift toward the far right was following a path "very similar to that of Adolf Hitler". She described the PP and Vox as "criminal governments like Hitler's". Morant is positioning herself as a candidate for the presidency of the Valencian Community, where PP and Vox govern in coalition.

PP demands resignation

The PP's secretary general, Miguel Tellado, immediately demanded Morant's resignation, saying such comparisons disqualified her from the Council of Ministers.

You cannot go through life making that kind of comparison.

PP spokesperson Ester Muñoz had already warned on Tuesday that equating political opponents with the Nazi regime was a way of dehumanizing the adversary.

Morant clarifies

On 24 July, speaking from Alicante, Morant said she had not directly compared PP leader Alberto Núñez Feijóo to Hitler. She explained she was drawing a parallel to highlight that "Nazi governments also began with racist and xenophobic policies" of the kind she believes PP and Vox are now applying in the Valencian Community.

I was not comparing Feijóo to Hitler. I wanted to draw a parallel to point out that Nazi governments started with racist and xenophobic policies, just as PP and Vox are doing in the Valencian Community.

PP's further response

Later on 24 July, after the weekly meeting of the PP's steering committee, vice-secretary Alma Ezcurra dismissed the clarification. At the party's Madrid headquarters, she suggested Morant had invoked Hitler because she "probably does not know any other historical figures". Ezcurra said the minister's statements still equated the governments that Feijóo leads with the Nazi regime.

I think the minister referred to Hitler because she probably does not know any other historical figures to refer to.

Ezcurra called for an end to "guerracivilismo" and grandiloquent language, urging a return to sanity in Spanish institutions. She said such declarations were a way of dehumanizing the political adversary.

Broader reaction

The controversy drew sharp media commentary. La Razón described Morant as a minister "with little science and less sense", a product of what it called the "sanchismo" meritocracy. ABC columnist Carlos Herrera called the comparison a "savage and frivolous historical" act, speculating that Morant was seeking notoriety. Only communist deputy Enrique de Santiago publicly supported her remarks, according to La Razón. The Valencian budget's "national priority" clause remains a point of tension between the central government and the regional coalition.