It's 8.30 p.m. on Monday July 17 in a park just outside the beautiful medieval town of Toledo, an hour from Madrid, and despite the suffocating 40 degree heat, around 1,500 people have gathered at a VOX rally.

It's only five days until the general election and the mood is like the beginning of a fiesta.

When VOX leader Santiago Abascal steps out of the big green bus bearing his effigy, he is immediately swarmed by media and adoring fans chanting "Presidente, Presidente."

It's a hero's welcome as he drives the scrum towards the stage, the back-slapping and selfies continuing all the way to the podium.

Spanish flags fly high and many are dressed in Spain's red and yellow.

It's been a remarkable rise for VOX. Seven years ago the party didn't have a single seat in congress. Now they're the third largest political force in the country.

The first VOX speaker draws a huge roar as he opens with the words "On Sunday we end Pedro Sanchez and Sanchismo."

It's a common election theme on the right, focusing on 'ending Sanchismo' and capitalizing on the current PM's recent unpopularity, rather than their own issues and policies.

There's an expectant energy in Toledo after VOX and the center-right Popular Party's (PP) strong showing in the regional and municipal elections.

In fact, it was such a terrible result for Sanchez, his socialist party, and their junior coalition partners Podemos that he immediately called a snap election.

VOX has already reached agreements with the PP to govern in the Valencia and Castile and Leon regions, with many other cities like Seville, Zaragoza, and Valladolid also voting in PP-VOX majorities – Toledo, too.

Spain's political pendulum has unquestionably swung right and Sanchez and his coalition partner Yolanda Díaz and Sumar need little short of a miracle this Sunday.

When Santiago Abascal takes the stage in Toledo the crowd is ready, and roars on his rhetoric.

'What does Brussels know of farmers' problems?’

Abascal's speech will sound familiar to anyone who's heard the rhetoric of Giorgia Meloni in Italy, Marine Le Pen in France, Mateusz Morawiecki in Poland or Viktor Orbán in Hungary. 

There are echoes of Donald Trump and Boris Johnson throughout too as he talks about "traditional values," protecting children from "leftist" education on LGBT and trans issues, or lambasting "Brussels bureaucrats" and "uncontrolled immigration," while putting Spain first.

"Sanchez is a traitor, forming pacts with enemies of our country – coup leaders, terrorists, and murderers of our compatriots for the last four decades," says Abascal, referring to legislation that the PSOE got through parliament with the help of pacts with Basque party Bildu (ETA terrorists according to Abascal), and Esquerra Republicana (Catalan separatists, says the VOX leader).

"He opened the door and allowed the communists into our government," Abascal continues, referring to the PSOE's coalition partner Podemos and Pablo Iglesias, who have now largely been subsumed by 'Sumar' and leader Yolanda Díaz.

Abascal's speech comes with a particularly Spanish salsa as he defends bullfighting, Spaniards' rights to work the land and fish the seas, and to use Spain's natural resources like coal, gas and oil regardless of the environmental consequences.

Brussels and science-bashing are prominent too as he asks what scientists in their universities or politicians in the EU parliament could possibly know about farmers' issues around Toledo.

It all might sound a little familiar to watchers of the Brexit campaign, or rising far-right parties around Europe.

'VOX defends the values I care about'

Speaking to VOX supporters at the rally, CGTN asks what attracts people to the party.

Ubaldo Valentin is a local business owner. He says: "We identify with him (Abascal), because he says the things we are all thinking. The things we say between friends, in bars, at work, they reflect what we all say when we speak our minds. VOX tells it how it is."

Valentin continues: "For them values and traditions are important, our way of living here, the love for your country for the people, family and for a better future."

Paz is a mother and grandmother and she echoes what Ubaldo says, also pointing to abortion and the rights of the unborn child as important to her.

"I used to vote PP," continues Paz, "but they betrayed me."

When CGTN asks what she wants to see VOX change she doesn't hesitate. "I want them to change a lot of things, this new abortion law that was imposed on us, right now it's way too easy to abort and the unborn have no rights at all," she booms. 

Stopping the 'lobbies' and their privileges is also important to her. But not everyone is on board with VOX. An Ipsos poll showed that over 60 percent of Spaniards are worried about Vox getting into power.

CGTN also spoke to the ruling PSOE party, which says that VOX in power would be disastrous for the country.

"The party doesn't believe in climate change," says Hana Jalloul, the socialist PSOE party's Secretary for International Policy and Development.

"They don't believe in gender violence, she continues, they strongly oppose migration policies and immigration itself. 

"They are very aggressive and threaten the peace and consensus in our country. 

"God knows what is going to happen, if these people get into government and (create) tension with Catalonia and other regions."

First since Franco?

Sunday sees Spain head to the ballot box where the future of the country and Pedro Sanchez will be decided. 

According to the polls and recent regional/municipal election results, VOX will likely help the PP form a coalition government as a junior partner.

It would be the first time a far right party has been in power since General Francisco Franco in the 1970's.

As the rally wraps up in Toledo, Abascal shouts "¡Viva España!" and the crowd reflexively responds "¡Viva!"

The Manolo Escobar anthem Y Viva España blares out as Abascal waves goodbye through the sunroof of a waiting car in Toledo, inching his way through the cheering throng of supporters and selfie-hunters towards power in Spain.

Subscribe to Storyboard: A weekly newsletter bringing you the best of CGTN every Friday