Introduction & Updates in National Landscape

The motion of censure presented by Vox against Pedro Sánchez took place at the beginning of March. The initiative was proposed as a candidate for president of the Government of Ramón Tamames, a historical politician of the Communist Party, and has been rejected with the only votes in favor of the deputies of Vox and a former deputy of Ciudadanos. The motion has failed with 201 votes against and 53 in favor. https://www.publico.es/politica/congreso-tumba-mocion-censura-tamames-unico-apoyo-vox-abstencion-pp.html
But the motion has also given the starting point for the electoral campaign for the municipal elections in May and the regional elections, which will also be held on the 28th of that month in Aragón, Asturias, the Canary Islands, Cantabria, Castilla-La Mancha, the Valencian Community, Extremadura, Illes Balears, La Rioja, Madrid, Murcia, Navarra, and in the Autonomous Cities of Ceuta and Melilla. Vox has held rallies in Cantabria, where it presents a former PP candidate, and in Valladolid, among other cities, and has announced as one of its main promises to eliminate the Ministry of Equality. https://twitter.com/voxes/status/1641694738251149316 https://twitter.com/SantiABASCAL/status/1639388621257023489 https://twitter.com/vox_es/status/1636772063192006674
Other smaller far-right parties, such as National Democracy, have announced that they will not run in the elections, giving their militants a free hand to vote for whoever they decide but mentioning Vox. http://democracianacional.org/dn/dn-ante-las-proximas-elecciones-del-28-de-mayo/
The Vox Solidaridad union has strengthened at the union level, ranking second with the most delegates, only behind UGT. https://twitter.com/vox_es/status/1641333066697265153 https://www.vozpopuli.com/espana/sindicato-vox-ccoo-delegados-elecciones.html
At the legislative level, the extreme right has had one of lime and one of sand this month. While the Constitutional Court has admitted to processing the appeal presented by Vox against the reform of the Penal Code that eliminated the crime of sedition, for which the people considered to be organizers of the 2017 Catalan Referendum were convicted, the Falange has been fined again in within the framework of the Law of Democratic Memory, this time for an act in Valladolid in which its militants sang the Face to the Sun, the anthem of the Spanish Falange of the Jons. https://www.europapress.es/nacional/noticia-constitucional-admite-tramite-recurso-vox-contra-derogacion-sedicion-reforma-malversacion-20230307153306.html https://twitter.com/fedelasjons/status/1633132382009032708/photo/1

Transnational Activities & Group Interactions

Internationally, Vox continues to expand its influence throughout Latin America, this time with the Madrid Lima Forum, organized by the affiliated organizations Disenso. The meeting, described by former Peruvian President Pedro Castillo on social networks as “the master plan to support the Boluarte Dictatorship,” was attended by Rocío Monasterio (Vox), various politicians from the Fujimori and Bolsonaro governments in Brazil. , Ernesto Araújo, former Minister of Foreign Affairs of Brazil, among others. https://twitter.com/Foro_MAD/status/1637787212405174274
In the European Union, the Solidarity union has played the leading role, which on March 30, traveled to the European Parliament to present a manifesto against migration, “climate fanaticism,” among other issues, and which has so far counted 108,000 signatures. https://twitter.com/solidaridad_esp/status/1641721256171929604

Introduction & Updates in National Landscape

The agenda of the Spanish far-right is once again led by Vox, this time for proposing a motion of no confidence against President Pedro Sánchez proposing Ramón Tamames as an alternative president. Tamames is a well-known politician who, in his youth, participated in the movement against the Franco dictatorship and went to jail for it. Later, he represented the Communist Party after Franco’s death. The election of Tamames, who is currently 89 years old, by the president of Vox, Santiago Abascal, has drawn attention due to his age and for having been a political figure, the opposite of what the far-right party defends. https://twitter.com/Santi_ABASCAL/status/1623266618435375104 After conversations between the leader of Vox and Tamames for a good part of the month, on February 27, Vox presented its motion of no confidence in Congress, for which there is still no date for a vote.
Other far-right parties, such as Falange de las Jons, have described the initiative in a derogatory manner as “the latest occurrence of Vox.” https://twitter.com/NorbertoPico/status/1621229381589893123
The month has also been marked by the first pre-election events, specifically with a large Vox event in Murcia that, according to them, brought together 15,000 people in the city’s bullring on February 12 and another in Zaragoza on 24 of the same month in which the party returned to influence its program of thematic referendums. https://twitter.com/voxes/status/1624322581258985475 https://twitter.com/SantiABASCAL/status/1625552545631375377 It has been the starting signal for the electoral campaign, which brings together acts for the municipal elections of all of Spain and the autonomous ones of twelve of the 17 autonomous communities, in addition to the two autonomous cities —Ceuta and Melilla—.

Transnational Activities & Group Interactions

In February, Hitler fan Simon Lindberg, Swedish far-right leader of the Nordic Resistance Movement, visited Spain to participate in a semi-clandestine event organized by Devenir Europeo with the motto “Blood Day”, according to the newspaper Público. https://www.publico.es/politica/principales-dirigentes-neonazis-europa-encabezara-acto-semiclandestino-madrid.html Lindberg is ranked as one of the 20 most dangerous extremists in the world, according to the Counter Extremism Project, which notes that “his speeches are regularly viewed by thousands of people who then perpetrate violent actions against the Muslim and Jewish community.”
For their part, members of La Falange have traveled to Bulgaria to participate in a tribute to Hristo Lukov, an extreme right-wing Bulgarian soldier who died in February 1943 in an action attributed to Violera Yakoba, a Jewish partisan who was later tortured to death. https://twitter.com/lafalange/status/1629772391323693058
Outside the European borders, Vox has been very active as well. The MEP from the far-right party Hermann Tertsch and the Vox candidate for the government of Madrid, Rocío Monasterio, have come to Miami to be named ambassadors of the Cuban Exile in an act held at the House of the Cuban Diaspora in the US city. https://twitter.com/VOXEuropa/status/1628862287057457153 The event was attended by representatives of Fundación Disenso and Foro Madrid, organizations born under the protection of Vox to organize the international extreme right. https://twitter.com/Foro_MAD/status/1628875384937672705
This month Foro Madrid has focused on Peru with a letter addressed to the president of the Organization of American States in which they accuse Bolivia, Chile, Argentina, Colombia, and other countries of political interference in the government of Dina Boluarte for affirming that the elected president of Bolivia, Pedro Castillo, was the victim of a coup. 118 parliamentarians from 14 countries have signed the letter. https://twitter.com/Foro_MAD/status/1626193389245931523

Introduction & Updates in National Landscape

Feminist issues have starred in the agenda of the Spanish extreme right in January. In the first place, as a result of a modification in the medical protocol for abortions in Castilla y León, the only autonomous community in which the extreme right-wing Vox party is part of the government, together with the Popular Party.
On January 12, the vice president of the community, Juan García Gallardo, from Vox, announced a change in the protocol by which doctors would be obliged to offer women who want an abortion to listen to the heartbeat of the fetus, taking Hungary as an example. . The announcement was criticized even by the president of the community, who the following week rejected what Gallardo had said, stating that it would be the women who came to have an abortion who could request to hear the heartbeat of the fetus or the doctors offer it to them. The change in the protocol was responded to by the central government with threats to go to court if anti-abortion measures were applied in the community.
The Castilla y León announcement was accompanied by a campaign by all the far-right groups asking, “why are you so scared that mothers have the chance to hear their child’s heartbeat?” https://twitter.com/NorbertoPico/status/1613899819478650883 https://twitter.com/fedelasjons/status/1614896927103143937 https://twitter.com/juanggallardo/status/1614957051616141312 https://twitter.com/desdelamoncloa/status/1614693637446680580/photo/1 https://twitter.com/voxes/status/1613874879744593920
The other big issue related to feminism was the Law on sexual freedom, known as ‘only yes is yes’, which, among other changes in terms of sexual crimes, merges the crimes of sexual abuse and assault, putting the lack of consent, and not if there was physical aggression, as a key for the act to be criminal. Another of the changes was to modify the minimum and maximum sentences, a change that in many courts caused sentences already issued in previous years to be changed, now applying the minimum sentence. During the last months and especially in January, as a result of several releases of sexual offenders, the law only if it is yes has been a workhorse of the extreme right against the government of PSOE and Unidas Podemos, especially since the government left the Ministry of Equality, directed by Irene Montero, spouse of Pablo Iglesias, who is the black beast of the Spanish extreme right, making Montero the target of serious insults within Congress by Vox deputies. https://twitter.com/Santi_ABASCAL/status/1615279898784071681 https://twitter.com/fedelasjons/status/1617781220406079490
At the legislative level, the Democratic Memory Law, called by the extreme right as the “new Gag Law,” also continues to provoke reactions from the extreme right. In January, Vox registered an appeal against the law in the Constitutional Court. https://twitter.com/vox_es/status/1613519030484090880
Also in January, the effects of the law began to be felt with the announcement by the Government of the opening of a disciplinary file against La Falange and Falange Española de las JONS for the march held on November 12 in homage to Francisco Franco and Rivera’s cousin. https://www.elsaltodiario.com/ley-memoria-historica/abren-expediente-sancionador-falange-espanola-actos-del-20n
The month has continued with several important appointments for the extreme right. One of them was the demonstration on January 11 called by farmers from Almería, Alicante, and Murcia in Madrid for the limitation of the transfer of water from the Tagus to the Segura river. The distribution of water among the Spanish communities has always been an issue used by the Popular Party and the extreme right to win votes. The leader of Vox, Santiago Abascal, also continues to carry out a political campaign on this issue. https://twitter.com/Santi_ABASCAL/status/1613224311845699584
The other big event was a demonstration held on January 21 against the Government of Pedro Sánchez, called by a hundred groups of the extreme right under the slogan ‘For Spain, democracy and the Constitution.’ The demonstration, which was attended by several tens of thousands of people, was also attended by politicians from Vox, Ciudadanos, and Partido Popular. https://twitter.com/vox_es/status/1616767236508880898 https://elpais.com/espana/2023-01-21/decenas-de-miles-de-personas-se-menifiestan-en-madrid-contra-el-gobierno-de-sanchez.html
The war in Ukraine has been another of the main issues for which the extreme right has criticized the government, especially with the new arms shipment made in January. https://twitter.com/NorbertoPico/status/1617795113702551553 https://twitter.com/fedelasjons/status/1618510412345114625 https://twitter.com/fedelasjons/status/1618944232026411009
The attack on two churches in Algeciras, investigated as an alleged jihadist attack, has also been used by the extreme right to demand, once again, xenophobic policies. https://twitter.com/fedelasjons/status/1619961817698304007 https://twitter.com/EspacioArdemans/status/1619977562419232768 https://twitter.com/lafalange/status/1619001034097201154 https://twitter.com/lafalange/status/1618543600224317441
Within the far-right parties, the two main milestones have been the announcement by the Falange that they will stand in the municipal elections of Seville, and that of Vox that appoints, once again, Rocio Monasterio as a Vox candidate for the regional elections of the Community of Madrid. https://twitter.com/lafalange/status/1619788580532125696 https://twitter.com/vox_es/status/1615622890925293568
But if the name of Rocío Monasterio and her spouse, Iván Espinosa de los Monteros, has given rise to talk this month, it has been as a result of a dispute within the extreme right following an interview conducted by the extreme right-wing journalist Federico Jiménez Losantos in EsRadio to Monasterio. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dky8K8Ql6OQ&abchannel=esRadio The interview, in which the interviewers laughed at Monasterio for his defense of the anti-abortion measure announced in Castilla y León, was followed by Espinosa de los Monteros with messages on social networks in which he accused the Losantos chain of making a campaign against Vox. https://twitter.com/ivanedlm/status/1615683647574515713 And that in turn was followed by a video issued by Losantos criticizing and revealing the participation of the Vox couple in the Mexican sect El Yunque. https://www.elconfidencial.com/comunicacion/2023-01-25/losantos-vox-pp-guerra-mediatica3563157/
 

Transnational Activities & Group Interactions

In the last days of January, Hacer Nación held a Summer University in which components participated, in addition to Gustavo Bueno, vice president of Denaes, a Vox foundation, the French far-right activist Thais d’Escufon, spokesperson for Generation Identitaire. https://www.eventbrite.es/e/entradas-universidad-invierno-hacer-nacion-27-y-28-enero-503499890727
For its part, Democracia Nacional held a conference with the name Nueva Reconquista in which, in addition to having the appearance of its leader, Pedro Chaparro, after his time in jail, the Italian Roberto Fiore, from Forza Nuova, was invited https://twitter.com/DNacional/status/1615281804801462272 https://twitter.com/DNacional/status/1615944458306027524 https://twitter.com/DNacional/status/1615944957851828226 https://twitter.com/DNacional/status/1615945677833666561 https://twitter.com/ForzaNuova1997/status/1617127721192271872
The Falange and its leader, Manuel Andrino, have also met with the French Laura Lussaud from Les Nationalistes, and with Roberto Fiore from Forza Nuova https://twitter.com/ManuelAndrino/status/1616519725613285385
The Falangist Youth of Spain and the Spanish University Union, both linked to the Falange, have also received a delegation from the Romanian organization linked to the Camarazii army in Majadahonda to pay homage to Ion Mota and Vasile Marin, members of the far-right Romanian organization Guardia de Iron. The Falange leadership received, for its part, members of the George Manu Foundation https://twitter.com/JFalange/status/1614971094364028929 https://twitter.com/lafalange/status/1614229490162610176 https://www.publico.es/politica/iu-madrid-condena-homenaje-miembros-organizacion-afin-nazismo-majadahonda-ayuntamiento-majadahonda-permite-homenaje-miembros-organizacion-afin-nazismo-falange.html
For her part, Rocío Monasterio attended the V National Convention of the Portuguese Chega party. https://twitter.com/VOXEuropa/status/1620150831919013900

Introduction & Updates in National Landscape

The conflict in the Spanish judicial system has marked the agenda of the Spanish extreme right in December, a month in which a symbolic anniversary is celebrated, the Day of the Spanish Constitution, contradictory for the extreme right parties with parliamentary representation, that is, Vox.
At the state level, December 6 has been a key date. On the one hand, on this day, demonstrations have once again been held by the most reactionary sectors of the police, explicitly supported by extreme right-wing groups. These protests come from previous months when several police officers were reprimanded for spreading racist speech at events organized by Vox. In December, the demonstration was called by the Police for Freedom platform, born in 2020 as a result of the measures taken by the Government against the Covid pandemic of a denialist nature and which disseminated messages encouraging people not to get vaccinated against covid. The policeman Ricardo Ferris —sanctioned for spreading racist hoaxes— and several denialist groups participated in it and had the explicit support of the far-right party España 2000. https://twitter.com/E2000_Valencia/status/1597227245738680321
The relationship between the extreme right and the police forces was also made clear on December 11, this time by Vox, whose president, Santiago Abascal, traveled to Pamplona, ​​along with officials from the Popular Party and Ciudadanos, for the rally called to reject the Agreement of the Navarrese Government by which the powers over traffic in the autonomous community are removed from the Civil Guard. Not many other people attended the event, which several hundred demonstrators attended. The presence of the Civil Guard in Navarra has been the subject of controversy for years due to the relationship of this police force with the war against ETA and the torture and murder of people of Basque nationalist ideology. https://twitter.com/Santi_ABASCAL/status/1601927893885620225
On the same day 6, the Day of the Spanish Constitution was celebrated, born after the Franco dictatorship. It is a contradictory date for far-right parties. From the Popular Party, they have criticized the absence of Vox charges in the official acts organized on this day. From Abascal’s party, they argue their absence stating that “in the paripé of PSOE and Podemos they will not find us” and pointing out that the only act they will attend will be the raising of the Spanish flag organized by the Defense Staff, a superior institution of the Army Spanish. https://twitter.com/voxes/status/1600144403321987077 https://twitter.com/VOXCongreso/status/1600051040610492416
We continue with December 6, when the World Cup soccer match between Spain and Morocco was also held. The match, which the Moroccan team won, was followed by the spread of dozens of hoaxes about looting, arson, and even murders committed by Moroccan supporters. The hoaxes were spread by extreme right-wing groups such as National Democracy. https://twitter.com/DNacional/status/1600236014265827329 https://twitter.com/DNacional/status/1600498740309139462 https://www.newtral.es/bulos-partido-espana-marruecos/20221208/
And also, on December 6, the trial began for the altercations that on November 30, 2014, ended with the death of Jimmy, a Galician soccer fan. Jimmy was beaten and thrown into the Manzanares River, allegedly by supporters of the Frente Atlético, a soccer fan associated with the extreme right. However, the investigation into the death was archived in 2016, and in December, the trial began, not about his death, but about the altercations in which, in addition to the followers of the Athletic Front, anti-fascist fans of the Riazor Blues club would have participated, of Deportivo de La Coruña. The trial, in which there were 82 defendants from both the Athletic Front and the Riazor Blues, took place over 17 days. Two days before it began, two supporters of the Frente Atlético were arrested for threatening a protected witness. https://efe.com/espana/juicio-caso-jimmy/
But the main battle car of the extreme right in December has been the renewal of the magistrates that make up the high courts in Spain. Specifically, the Constitutional Court, in which several of its magistrates had spent months with their mandate expired, was blocked by the conservative bloc in the General Council of the Judiciary, made up of magistrates previously elected by the Popular Party. The PSOE government has approved an amendment to the law that defines the election of judges, which has been branded as a “coup d’état by the right and the “extreme right.” From Vox they have filed an appeal for protection before the Constitutional Court itself and a complaint against the President of the Government, Pedro Sanchez, whom they accuse of “conspiring for rebellion.” https://twitter.com/VOXEuropa/status/1601219930799890433 https://twitter.com/voxes/status/1601187372376674305 https://twitter.com/voxes/status/1602286808829599744 https://twitter.com/vox_es/status/1605182503995682816
Within Abascal’s party, the changes have also continued. After the departure of Macarena Olana, the far-right party has now named new candidates for the regional elections in País Valencià and Aragón. In PaísValecià, Carlos Flores, a professor of constitutional law who was sentenced for harassing his wife in 2002 and who in 1982 appeared on the lists for the general elections as number 8b of the Fuerza Nueva party, has been appointed candidate. In Aragon, their candidate is less well known: Alejandro Nolasco is a historian, and one of his favorite subjects, about which he has written a book, is the Blue Division, the volunteer division sent by Franco to Hitler in World War II. He is also a contributor to Intereconomía, a television channel linked to the extreme right. https://www.alejandronolasco.com/libros https://elpais.com/espana/comunidad-valenciana/2022-12-29/carlos-flores-candidato-valenciano-de-vox-una-condena-por-violencia-machista-hace-20-anos-y-exaspirante-de-fuerza-nueva.html

Transnational Activities & Group Interactions

Regarding relations with other European far-right groups, December has been a quiet month, with many parties enough to take planes. Despite this, the Deputy Secretary of Foreign Affairs for National Democracy, Gonzalo Martín, has traveled to Poland, where he has been received by representatives of the MW (Młodzież Wszechpolska), an extreme right-wing ultra-Nacjonalist and ultra-Catholic organization.
For its part, Devenir Europeo, the heir to Cedade, has received a visit from representatives of the youth branch of the German party Der Dritte Weg.

Introduction & Updates in National Landscape

November is an important month for the extreme right in Spain, with two important anniversaries, those of the deaths of the dictator Francisco Franco and José Antonio Primo de Rivera. The acts in his honor have been held despite the fact that the Democratic Memory Law, which prohibits them, has already entered into force.
The month has also been marked by convulsions within Vox, with more and more officials presenting their resignation and denouncing the lack of internal democracy in the party, and by the proposal by the Government to repeal the crime of secession for which they were condemned the leaders of the Catalan process, which has aroused the anger of far-right parties and groups.
Updates in the National Landscape The month has started with two important milestones for the far right. On the one hand, on November 3, the exhumation of Queipo de LLano, a Francoist general with a large number of murder victims —45,000 executions are attributed to him— and rape —behind his back in Andalusia, of the basilica of La Macarena, was carried out. In sevilla. The act, which responds to the Democratic Memory Law, which came into force the previous month, has led to the protest of extreme right-wing groups and the family. Also the applause of the historical memory groups.
A day later, Macarena Olona, ​​a former Vox candidate for the Andalusian elections and now outside the far-right party, presented her new foundation, Latin American Equality, based in Panama and financed by the Spanish businessman Roberto Rollón García. Already on October 18, it had been represented in Panama, with an anti-feminist speech. Its first objective is to collect 500 signatures to present a popular legislative initiative in Spain to repeal gender laws, following in the wake of Vox, which at its September congress will also launch another form of political participation, although not binding, popular consultations. https://www.infolibre.es/politica/macarena-olona-fortalece-panama-empresario-ligado-sociedad-debe-millon-hacienda-espanola_1_1351711.html https://www.publico.es/politica/olona-lanza-fundacion-antifeminista-intencion-volver-al-congreso.html
Olona has also been the protagonist of an interview with the newspaper El País in which she denounces the “lack of democracy” within Vox as the reason for his departure from the party and in which he describes the praises of Hitler that are made in Abascal’s party. https://elpais.com/espana/2022-11-07/olona-mi-salida-afloro-las-criticas-por-falta-de-democracia-interna-y-de-respeto-en-vox.html
It has not been the only internal problem that Vox has faced this month. In Vega Baja, south of Alicante, the Vox coordinator has also resigned accusing the lack of democracy in the party and has announced that another 50 positions in the province will also resign shortly. https://aldescubierto.org/2022/11/24/dimite-el-coordinador-de-vox-en-la-vega-baja-con-duras-criticas-al-partido-y-anunciando-mas-de-50-dimisiones/
On the contrary, in Castilla y León, the only autonomous community in which Vox is part of the government, the first consequences of the presence of the far-right party have begun to be seen, with the suppression of aid for women victims of gender violence. https://www.eldiario.es/castilla-y-leon/politica/vox-borra-violencia-genero-castilla-leon-declaraciones-incendiarias-suprimir-ayudas-insercion-laboral-victimas_1_9738062.html
On those same days, senior Vox officials went to Ceuta to hold a meeting called Frontera Sur. In it, Ignacio Garriga, Javier Ortega Smith, Iván Espinosa de los Monteros, Jorge Buxadé and Rocío de Meer focused, as usual, on the closure of borders, even though they are already closed in southern Spain, and the relationship between immigration and crime. One of the guests at the conference was Samuel Vázquez, president of the Una Policía para el Siglo XXI association. Vázque was one of the speakers who accompanied the former Valencian police commissioner Ricardo Ferris on October 14 at an event organized by Vox and the Denaes Foundation, and for which Ferris was sanctioned by the Ministry of the Interior and removed from his position in the Police for giving false information to link crime with irregular immigration. The Prosecutor’s Office has also announced that it will investigate whether Ferris’s statements are the subject of a crime. The relationship between the police officer and Vox is close. On October 7, he was invited to appear in the Madrid Assembly, at the request of the far-right party to talk about security. After the October event with Ferris, Vázquez continued his tour with Vox by participating in the Frontera Sur event, also convened by Vox and the European Conservative and Reform Party. “From Una Policía para el Siglo XXI we thank Frontera Sur and Vox for the invitation and the opportunity to expose how, by renouncing to defend our borders, we are digging the grave of the West and condemning our children to a future of machete blows and gang rapes. ”, indicates the association that Vázquez presides over on social networks. https://twitter.com/vox_es/status/1584956512862351361
On November 11, the far-right party España 2000 attended a rally called by the Jupol police union in support of Ferris, who during the event called to “fight” against the “undignified” government. Several media outlets point out that Vox is considering presenting Ferris as the party’s candidate in Valencia. https://twitter.com/E2000_Valencia/status/1589622618348748801 https://www.eldiario.es/comunitat-valenciana/policia-cesado-difundir-bulos-xenofobos-acto-vox-llama-luchar-gobierno-indigno_1_9703837.html
At the legislative level, the proposal by the Government of the PSOE and Unidas Podemos, with the support of the Catalan party ERC regarding the repeal of the crime of sedition for which the leaders of the Procés were convicted for calling a popular consultation on the independence of Catalonia , has been the main battlefront of the extreme right, which has branded the proposal as “treason.” “We have to see how the traitor Sánchez kneels again before the enemies of Spain so that they get off scot-free and advance in their federal Spain,” said Ignacio Garriga, general secretary of Vox in Congress. https://twitter.com/VOX_Congreso/status/1592134360026976256
Other far-right groups, such as Hacer Nación, maintain a discourse similar to that of Vox, branding Catalans who advocate independence as “enemies”, following the repeal proposal. https://twitter.com/HacerNacion/status/1590830518618443776
Santiago Abascal presented the Vox plan against the proposal, which involves denouncing the legislative reform in the courts, calling a referendum to outlaw the separatist political parties and calling for demonstrations on November 19 and 27. https://twitter.com/vox_es/status/1592124339809554433
The hatred of everything Catalan on the part of the extreme right has also caused a Catalan teacher in Mallorca to be the target of death threats by sympathizers of extreme right groups. https://www.diariodemallorca.es/mallorca/2022/11/26/ultraderecha-amenaza-muerte-profesora-salle-79151996.html
Meanwhile, in Madrid, the Popular Party responded to the new Law of Democratic Memory with the inauguration of a monument to the Legion, a military body created by Millán Astray, a well-known position in the Franco regime, and related to the colonialist wars before the dictatorship and, during the civil war, for his savagery against the defenders of democracy. On November 9, the mayor of Madrid, José Martínez-Almeida, inaugurated the statue in a ceremony in which Vox had more prominence, despite the fact that the PP politician gave a speech extolling Astray. https://www.eldiario.es/madrid/almeida-homenajea-millan-astray-inauguracion-monumento-legion_1_9693861.html
The month of November in Spain is also marked by a mythical date for the extreme right, November 20, the anniversary of the death of Francisco Franco (1975) and José Antonio Primo de Rivera (1936), founder of La Falange. Despite the entry into force of the Democratic Memory Law, which punishes acts that extol the Franco dictatorship, far-right parties and groups celebrated the date with events, especially in Madrid, with a march to the Valley of the Fallen, and in Alicante, in whose prison Primo de Rivera died. https://twitter.com/Miquel_R/status/1594300722337951746 https://twitter.com/eldiarioes/status/1594073026227687427 https://twitter.com/Miquel_R/status/1596468063301664769
In the courts, November has been marked by the first permission to leave prison for the neo-Nazi convicted of the murder of the anti-fascist Carlos Palomino on the same weekend that celebrates the anniversary of his death. https://www.lamarea.com/2022/11/09/el-neonazi-que-asesino-a-carlos-palomino-obtiene-su-primer-permiso/
Also for the first conviction of a person for spreading fake news. Specifically, the convicted person is a Civil Guard agent who spread hoaxes about migrants on social networks, in which he also shared far-right messages and symbols. https://www.elsaltodiario.com/fake-news/guardia-civil-primer-condenado-difundir-fake-news-redes-sociales
Another character from the extreme right has also been the protagonist, but not because he has been accused. In November it became known that the legal defense of Laura Borrás, a Catalan politician accused of corruption, had hired Emilio Hellín as an expert, sentenced to 43 years in prison for the murder, in 1980, of the student Yolanda González, together with other members of the New Force Party. Hellín, who fled to Paraguay, who barely served 12 years in prison, has worked on different occasions as a specialist expert for the National Police and the Civil Guard. https://www.elsaltodiario.com/extrema-derecha/familia-yolanda-contratacion-emilio-hellin-nos-prometieron-que-no-volveria-a-ocurrir
Another name of the extreme right that has been the protagonist is that of Cristina Seguí, co-founder of Vox, which the Prosecutor’s Office is investigating for publicly exposing data on underage women who have suffered rape. https://www.elplural.com/sociedad/tribunales/fiscalia-denuncia-cristina-segui-exponer-publicamente-varias-menores-violadas_301731102

Transnational Activities & Group Interactions

At the international level, Vox has taken advantage of COP27 to make international propaganda with a topic that has nothing to do with the environment. Through Foro Madrid, an organization created by Fundación Disenso, founded by Vox, they send a letter to French President Emmanuel Macron recriminating having met with Venezuelan Nicolás Maduro. The letter is signed by more than 60 political personalities from 19 countries, among them, of course, the Argentine Javier Milei, or the Italian Carlo Fodanza, from Fratelli d’Italia. https://twitter.com/vox_es/status/1590811746629210112 https://www.elconfidencial.com/espana/2022-11-10/vox-aliados-fundacion-disenso-exigen-disculpa-macron-blanquear-maduro-cop27_3520838/
It has also continued to strengthen its relationship with the Polish government. At the end of November, Abascal met with Jaroslaw Kaczyński and the country’s prime minister in Warsaw to discuss borders, illegal immigration and the war in Ukraine. “Poland’s border was assaulted by thousands of illegal African and Arab immigrants sent by Putin’s allies from Belarus,” the Vox president said on social media after his visit. https://twitter.com/Santi_ABASCAL/status/1597202573567864832 https://twitter.com/Santi_ABASCAL/status/1597296232111964161
Norberto Pico, head of the Spanish Falange of the JONS, has also strengthened ties with far-right organizations in other countries, participating as a speaker, via videoconference, in a congress called “Theory and azione political cattolica” held in Rome, organized by the organizations Italian Militia Christi and La Rete dei patrioti. https://youtu.be/9dIxHYvw3IA https://twitter.com/NorbertoPico/status/1597157574578966529
For his part, Manuel Andrino, head of La Falange, has participated in the national congress of the French organization Les Nationalistes, held in Lyon, with whom he claims to have been working together for more than 30 years. https://twitter.com/lafalange/status/1591819555286159361
Beyond Europe, Abascal has participated, also by videoconference, in the Conservative Political Action Conference held on November 18 in Mexico, along with other well-known names from the world extreme right such as Steve Bannon or Eduardo Bolsonaro, son of the former Brazilian president. https://efe.com/mundo/mexico-acoge-la-cumbre-global-de-la-ultraderecha/

October has been marked by the approval of the Democratic Memory Law, which has ignited the spirits of extreme right-wing groups and parties, whose speeches and acts praising Francoism are now punishable by the new law. The link between the extreme right and the police forces has jumped into the media after the decoration awarded to the leader of España2000 and the participation of a police officer in a Vox conference. Santiago Abascal’s party also held a major event in October in which it received leaders of the extreme right from various European and Latin American countries.
Updates in the National Landscape
The main milestone of the month has been the definitive approval by the Senate of the Law of Democratic Memory, with which for the first time the Spanish State condemns Franco’s coup d’état and his totalitarian regime. Among some of the novelties of the new law, in addition to the State’s assumption of the search for the disappeared during the dictatorship, is the resignification of the Valley of the Fallen, a mausoleum built by Franco to honor the fallen Francoists in the civil war and the himself, whose body was already exhumed from this pantheon in 2019. It also contemplates sanctions for actions that suppose the exaltation of the Franco regime. A point that has caused the protest of the groups of the extreme right and of Vox. On the day of its processing, a few dozen militants from the Falange Española de las JONS and La Falange went to the Senate to protest. The two Falangist parties also issued a joint statement in the days prior to the approval of the law in which they accused the socialist government of “imposing a manipulated version of history” and, above all, criticizing the exhumation of the body of José Antonio Primo de Rivera, founder of the Falange, from the Valley of the Fallen. On behalf of Vox, its MEP Jorge Buxadé gave conferences at the European Parliament headquarters in Strasbourg against the new law and, at the national level, the party is trying to protect by law certain “elements of Spanish heritage” related to the Franco dictatorship. https://twitter.com/fedelasjons/status/1577682575199444992 https://twitter.com/lafalange/status/1577680644523556867 https://www.lamoncloa.gob.es/serviciosdeprensa/notasprensa/mpresidencia14/Paginas/2022/051022-bolanos-ley-memoria-democratica.aspx#:~:text=El%20Senado%20ha%20aprobado%20la,inolvidable%20para%20la%20democracia%20espa%C3%B1ola. https://twitter.com/VOX_Europa_/status/1583430577067212800 https://twitter.com/eldebate_com/status/1582063899670896650 https://twitter.com/lafalange/status/1578364084726423552 https://twitter.com/ViktorMedina/status/1584527841831505921 From the Popular Party they have also already announced their opposition to changing the name of streets that currently honor the Blue Division, sent by Franco to fight alongside the Nazis in World War II. https://twitter.com/AntonioMaestre/status/1584911792593141760 Entities such as the Francisco Franco Foundation have also responded to the new law, in the face of its possible outlawing, and from Hazte Oír have sent letters to the current King Felipe VI encouraging him, since the monarchy in Spain is heir to Francoism, to “prepare for what that comes over him”. https://www.publico.es/politica/fundacion-franco-le-recuerda-felipe-vi-trono-gracias-dictador.html
Other milestones in national politics in Spain that have led to a reaction on the part of the extreme right have been the pending renewal of the magistrates who form part of the General Council of the Judiciary, which in Spain would be the equivalent of the government of the judges, and the announcement by the government of the revision in the Penal Code of the crime of sedition for which the leaders of the Catalan independence movement were convicted in Catalan institutions in 2019. The announcement of the criminal change has been used by the Popular Party to announce a sine die blockade of the renewal of the judicial body, a decision applauded and supported by the far-right Vox party. https://twitter.com/Santi_ABASCAL/status/1586349341555314688 https://twitter.com/Santi_ABASCAL/status/1584873581896683520
The rejection of the Catalan independence movement has also been the protagonist in two mythical dates for the extreme right in Spain. On the one hand, on October 12, Hispanic Heritage Day, which in Catalonia was celebrated with anti-separatist rallies in which dozens of people displayed Francoist symbols, and on October 9, the day of the Valencian Country, a date on which the extreme right also celebrates its anti-Catalanism . In Valencia, España2000 and La Falange have called demonstrations against Catalanism and against the current Valencian government. https://twitter.com/E2000_Valencia/status/1575923088646078471 https://twitter.com/lafalange/status/1579160274564616192 https://twitter.com/lafalange/status/1579086109195538433 Three days later, on October 12, Columbus Day, groups and parties of the extreme right again called demonstrations. The most notorious were in Barcelona, ​​although they did not gather many people. One of the convening parties and groups was National Democracy, with a march from Plaza de España to Montjuic with Pablo Lucini, Enrique Lemus —from El Alcázar—, Vicente EStarelles —Spain in Memory— and Miguel Blasco —Here the voice of Europe— as headliners. Falange, for its part, summoned its followers to the monument to Christopher Columbus, where Vox supporters also gathered under the slogan “For the unity of Spain.” https://lalertacanal.cat/cronica-ultradreta-a-barcelona-feixistes-neonazis-12-octubre-hispanitat-genocidi-2022/ https://twitter.com/D_Nacional/status/1577594865629667330 https://www.elnacional.cat/es/sociedad/manifestacion-ultra-fascismo-montjuic-barcelona-democracia-nacional-mossos-esquadra_898755_102.html https://twitter.com/lafalange/status/1578850023478992896 https://twitter.com/vox_es/status/1580189487245586432
October has been an important month for Vox, which has held its big party , Viva22, on the 9th and 10th, which they claim has been attended by 35,000 people and in which they have presented their latest communication strategy, Spain Decide, a program with the that the party claims to intend to promote popular consultations on issues such as energy policy, migration, education, outlawing separatist parties, water, subsidies and data sovereignty. https://xn--espaadecide-4db.es/general/files/ESPANA-DECIDE.pdf https://twitter.com/vox_es/status/1579444120971526145
The party led by Santiago Abascal has also had strong changes in its organization chart in October, with Javier Ortega Smith now assuming the vice presidency of the party and the candidacy for the next municipal elections in Madrid, and Ignacio Garriga, number one of Vox in Catalonia, the position Secretary General of Vox. https://twitter.com/Igarrigavaz/status/1577990196901154817 https://twitter.com/Santi_ABASCAL/status/1577979131471478784
Falange and Falange Española de las JONS have also celebrated their anniversary this month, although with a more discreet party. The party held an act in front of the Teatro de la Comedia in Madrid on October 29, which was authorized on the 22nd of the same month despite the fact that the Democratic Memory Law prohibits acts that praise the coup. https://elcorreodeespana.com/amp/politica/530323508/Autorizado-el-acto-del-proximo-sabado-dia-29-para-conmemorar-la-fundacion-de-Falange-frente-al-Teatro-de-la-Comedia-.html https://twitter.com/_viejaguardia/status/1582401759053770752 https://twitter.com/lafalange/status/1586777325143822338 https://twitter.com/_viejaguardia/status/1583440520008777728
España2000 has also had its moment of glory this month. Its leader, José Luis Roberto, has been awarded by the National Police in Paterna (Valencia) for the collaboration that his company, Levantina de Seguridad, provides to this body. The award has caused controversy to the point that the Minister of the Interior, Fernando Grande-Marlaska, has announced that the Higher Police Headquarters of the Valencian Community is going to open a file “to purge the responsibilities that come”. https://www.elsaltodiario.com/extrema-derecha/policia-nacional-premia-conocido-lider-ultraderecha-valenciana https://www.elmundo.es/comunidad-valenciana/2022/10/06/633ecb96fc6c830d208b45a9.html
It was at the beginning of October, and a little less than two weeks later, another story appeared in the media linking the police with the extreme right. This time the protagonist was Ricardo Ferris, a police inspector, who in a conference organized by Vox in Valencia, stated that “irregular immigration is equal to crime” and that “practically all of those detained”. Six days later, the General Directorate of Police relieved Ferris of his position for offering false data at the conference with the aim of relating immigration to crime. https://www.elsaltodiario.com/crimenes-de-odio/asociaciones-antirracistas-llevan-fiscalia-excomisario-llamo-delincuentes-migrantes https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YDgpTMpmUf0&ab_channel=VOXCortesValencianas https://elpais.com/espana/comunidad-valenciana/2022-10-20/interior-releva-al-inspector-jefe-de-una-comisaria-de-valencia-que-aseguro-que-la-mayoria-de-detenidos-son-extranjeros.html
October has also been a prolific month in terms of far-right violence and its response in court. On October 25, the police arrested a man for an attack on a person of Moroccan origin on the 7th of this month in the Sevillian town of San Juan de Aznalfarache. The detainee, who already has a history of assaults on people of foreign origin, had tattoos of Nazi symbols. Specifically some sigel runes of the Schutzstaffel (SS). https://www.europapress.es/andalucia/sevilla-00357/noticia-detenido-varon-tatuajes-corte-nazi-apunalar-varon-origen-marroqui-san-juan-sevilla-20221025191354.html
The previous month, at the end, three other people who carried Nazi symbols were arrested in Gerona for stabbing a young man at the Santa Coloma de Farners festivities on September 23. https://www.ccma.cat/324/apunyalament-a-santa-coloma-de-farners-preso-per-a-un-detingut-vinculat-al-neonazisme/noticia/3186853/ In Catalonia, the leader of National Democracy in the autonomous community, Alberto Bruguera, and two other extreme right-wing people have been sentenced for insulting and assaulting three Catalan pro-independence people in 2018. The sentence, just one and a half years in prison, which It will not imply the entry into prison of any of the three, a long way from the one requested by the Prosecutor’s Office, which amounted to six years in prison. https://www.eldiario.es/catalunya/condenados-penas-minimas-tres-neonazis-agresion-grito-rojos-cerdos-independentistas_1_9640982.html In Madrid, Melisa Domínguez, leader of Hogar Social Madrid, was tried on the 19th of this month for calling a rally in front of one of the largest mosques in Madrid, whose walls were covered with messages of hate the next day. The prosecutor asks for three years in prison for her. https://www.elsaltodiario.com/islamofobia/fiscalia-pide-tres-anos-prision-para-dirigente-hogar-social-islamofobia https://www.europapress.es/madrid/noticia-fiscal-mantiene-anos-carcel-cabecilla-hogar-social-vincular-islam-yihadismo-20221019133543.html
There have also been developments in the judicial process against Manuel Murillo, initially sentenced to seven and a half years in prison for attempting to assassinate Spanish President Pedro Sánchez in response to the processing of the Democratic Memory Law. The National Court has increased the sentence to 15 more months to reach nine years in prison. https://elpais.com/espana/2022-10-27/la-audiencia-eleva-la-pena-de-carcel-al-tirador-ultraderechista-que-queria-matar-a-pedro-sanchez.html In Valencia, despite the fact that since April the harassment of women who go to a clinic to have an abortion is included as a crime in the Penal Code, the courts have decided to acquit them of the ultra-Catholic organization 40 days for Life, which calls prayers in front of the clinic. https://www.eldiario.es/comunitat-valenciana/acoso-organizado-clinica-interrupcion-embarazo-valencia-mujeres-sienten-intimidadas_1_9632796.html
Transnational Activities & Group Interactions
The great Vox party in Madrid, under the slogan ‘The History we made together’, became the meeting point for great personalities of the world extreme right on October 8 and 9, such as Donald Trump, Giorgia Meloni, Álvaro Uribe, Viktor Orbán or Mateusz Morawiecki, André Ventura —from the Portuguese Chega party—, Javier Milei —from the Argentine La Libertad Avanza party—, Jose Antonio Kast —from the Chilean Republican Party—, former Bolivian president Jeanine Áñez and Texas senator Ted Cruz, representative of the most right wing of the Republican party. https://www.newtral.es/viva-22-vox/20221009/
After his big party, in the following two days Vox held an Ibero-American Summit “against communism and globalism” at the Sao Paulo Forum. Among its participants were, once again, Jose Antonio Kast and Javier Milei. Also Mike Gonzalez, from the Heritage Foundation, Rodrigo Ballester, from the Hungarian Mathias Corvinus Collegium. https://twitter.com/VOX_Europa_/status/1577241073717760001 https://twitter.com/rodballester/status/1581954850987814912
From Spain 2000 in October they traveled to Rome for the anniversary of the March on Rome. Although there is no information on the number of militants of this far-right party that participated in the trip, its leader, José Luis Roberto, has published images of his visit to Casa Pound in Rome. https://twitter.com/E2000_Valencia/status/1573310365232168962 https://twitter.com/JLRoberto1953/status/1586296757939585025 https://twitter.com/JLRoberto1953/status/1585954438749081601/photo/1 https://twitter.com/JLRoberto1953/status/1585688178597429263/photo/1
Transnational Developments on Discourse in Mainstream Media
In the European Parliament, the main interventions of the Vox MEPs have been focused on the subsidies granted to Moroccan agriculture and the alleged participation of George Soros in the Catalan independence process. https://twitter.com/VOX_Europa_/status/1585572501438038016 https://twitter.com/VOX_Europa_/status/1585582379216797701