Will Spain’s PM resign after Moroccan lobbying scandal?
[29th April update: Sánchez has shamelessly relied on public rallies of his supporters to defy the judicial process and ignore serious questions. So far the UK media has colluded with him. Had a politician of the ‘right’ behaved in this way, then UK journalists would have denounced him as a populist demagogue. But a politician of the ‘left’ is given a free pass.]
Mystery surrounds Spain’s socialist Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez this weekend after he fuelled speculation that he might resign due to a series of corruption allegations against himself and his wife. Many observers suspect that Sánchez is manoeuvring to rally support on the left, and that tomorrow he will use political leverage to try to close down investigations.
Some of these allegations relate to a court case brought by a legal foundation run by a veteran Spanish nationalist, and some also involve Spain’s business and political relationships with the Kingdom of Morocco.
More than a year ago, we exposed the role of Moroccan lobbyists in the politically motivated prosecution of our European correspondent Isabel Peralta.
Isabel has campaigned against the corruption of Spanish politics: she has highlighted attempted blackmail being exerted by the Moroccan Government, who were threatening to flood Spain with immigrants unless Spain accepted Moroccan control over Western Sahara.
This is a diplomatic dispute that has been going on for more than half a century, ever since Spain gave up its colonial control over the province once known as Spanish Sahara. Morocco seeks to grab the entire area for itself, but is opposed by an independence movement called Polisario Front, which is backed by Algeria.
It was in Spaniards’ economic interest to back the Polisario, partly in order to remain on good terms with Algeria, which supplies Spain with natural gas. But for the past three or four years the Moroccan government has exerted blackmail on Spain.
Isabel denounced this blackmail at a demonstration outside the Moroccan Embassy in Madrid in May 2021. (At the time she was leading a Spanish nationalist youth group.)
Ten days after this demonstration, Madrid’s political police were visited by Sofia Bencrimo, who at that time was employed by a charity that promotes the integration of immigrants. This charity’s president is Mohammed Chaib Akhdim, a veteran politician and businessman with close personal and financial ties to the Moroccan government – the very people whose actions were being exposed and criticised in Isabel’s speech.
Chaib is a former MP in both the Catalan and Madrid parliaments for the left-wing party PSC (Socialists Party of Catalonia). This is one of the parties on which Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez depends to keep his coalition government in power.
But Chaib is also a wealthy businessman with financial interests in his native Morocco, and in particular stands to benefit from Morocco taking control of Western Sahara. Since 1992 he was been director of business development in Morocco for COMSA Industrial, a company with vast interests in engineering and construction projects in Morocco, including the disputed territory of Western Sahara.
Later the same day these police officers sent a report to the prosecutors: this was the first step in the process leading to Isabel’s criminal trial. The prosecution dossier of more than 90 pages (a copy of which has been obtained by H&D) was based on just a single complaint – the ‘evidence’ of Sofia Bencrimo, employee of the politically well-connected Moroccan lobbyist Mohammed Chaib.
In this context, and with the criminal charges against Isabel still slowly proceeding through the Madrid court system, readers will understand that H&D has taken an especially close interest in the sinister connections between the Spanish government and Moroccan lobbyists. Not only have these connections subverted Spain’s immigration policy, they have also led to our own correspondent being prosecuted. A patriotic activist is in the dock, while the real criminals are those in authority!
The full extent of this criminality is at last becoming clearer, which is why Prime Minister Sánchez made his unprecedented threat to resign, and this week is in hiding from the world’s press.
H&D cannot comment on all of the wide-ranging and sometimes bizarre allegations against Sánchez and his wife, but certain disturbing facts are already clear.
The timing of the Prime Minister’s resignation threat is related to two recent developments.
First, a Madrid court opened a preliminary investigation into his wife Begoña Gomez “for the alleged offence of influence peddling and corruption”. This investigation is based on a complaint by Manos Limpias (‘Clean Hands’), a foundation run by Miguel Bernad, a Madrid lawyer (now aged 82) whose political roots are in the nationalist party Fuerza Nueva and who was a senior ally of that party’s leader Blas Piñar.
Curiously, Bernad had personal knowledge of Ms Gomez’s strange family background. Her father Sabiniano Gómez owns several gay sauna establishments in Madrid, and conservative journalists have reported that Miguel Bernad was the city council official responsible for licensing such establishments, which several Spanish newspapers have openly described as homosexual brothels.
It’s certainly an odd connection: the London equivalent would be if Rishi Sunak’s father-in-law were the owner of Soho saunas rather than being one of the richest men in India…
Perhaps significantly, it’s also known that leading members of Spain’s main conservative party (PP) planned several years ago to carry out investigations of the Prime Minister’s father-in-law and exploit any scandals.
And this is where alleged Moroccan blackmail again becomes relevant.
Pegasus spyware, developed by Israel, was used by Moroccan authorities to target mobile phones belonging to Prime Minister Sánchez and some of his ministers. Rather then press for an investigation and punishment of those who had spied on him, Sánchez was happy to allow the case to drop. Partly because the Israeli company behind the spyware refused to cooperate, a Spanish judge dropped his investigation after 12 months.
Within days of the espionage case being reopened, Sanchez threatened to resign. Is he again attempting to interfere with the investigation, and if so, what revelations does he fear?
What is known is that Morocco spied on Prime Minister Sánchez in 2021, around the time when he suddenly changed Spain’s policy and began to favour Morocco over Western Sahara.
Since then, Sánchez has repeatedly favoured Morocco. A few weeks ago he announced plans for Spanish investment in Morocco totalling €45bn.
Another curious aspect is that the Kingdom of Morocco has close relations not only with Israel (hence their use of Israeli espionage software) but also with Vladimir Putin’s Russia.
In 2016, while preparing to work with Israeli technology to spy on Western European governments, Morocco signed an agreement with Russia to cooperate on military and intelligence matters.
This cooperation has extended since Putin’s invasion of Ukraine. Defying European sanctions, Morocco has become one of the Kremlin’s most important business partners. Morocco imports oil from Russia, and also exports oil to Spain.
If it were found that Sánchez and his Moroccan friends had connived at evading oil sanctions, to the benefit of the Kremlin, this would be a serious betrayal of Europe.
The Spanish government’s failed immigration policy is already a betrayal not only of Spaniards but of all Europeans; if Sánchez (via Morocco) is indirectly aiding the neo-Stalinist war machine, his disgusting record of treachery would be compounded.
As our regular readers know, our correspondent Isabel Peralta has three times had her travel to the UK interrupted due to harassment by border security working with their Spanish and German counterparts. The latest evidence ought to convince the Home Office that the real threat to British and European security interests comes from the Spanish government itself, not from Isabel. We shall continue to fight for our comrade, and we are confident that no obstacle will prevent her from continuing to champion the true Europe, as the brightest beacon of hope for our cause.
¿Dimitirá el primer ministro español tras el escándalo del lobby marroquí?
[Actualización del 29 de abril: Sánchez ha recurrido descaradamente a las manifestaciones públicas de sus partidarios para desafiar el proceso judicial e ignorar cuestiones serias. Hasta ahora los medios del Reino Unido han estado en connivencia con él. Si un político de “derecha” se hubiera comportado de esta manera, los periodistas británicos lo habrían denunciado como un demagogo populista. Pero a un político de “izquierda” se le da vía libre.]
El misterio rodea al primer ministro socialista de España, Pedro Sánchez, este fin de semana después de que alimentó especulaciones de que podría renunciar debido a una serie de acusaciones de corrupción contra él y su esposa. Muchos observadores sospechan que Sánchez está maniobrando para reforzar su apoyo en la izquierda y que mañana utilizará su influencia política para intentar cerrar las investigaciones.
[Este artículo también está disponible en inglés – This article is also available in English.]
Algunas de estas acusaciones se relacionan con un caso judicial iniciado por una fundación legal dirigida por un veterano nacionalista español, y algunas también involucran las relaciones comerciales y políticas de España con el Reino de Marruecos.
Hace más de un año, expusimos el papel de los lobistas marroquíes en el procesamiento por motivos políticos de nuestra corresponsal europea Isabel Peralta.
Isabel ha hecho campaña contra la corrupción de la política española: ha destacado el intento de chantaje ejercido por el Gobierno marroquí, que amenazaba con inundar España de inmigrantes a menos que España aceptara el control marroquí sobre el Sáhara Occidental.
Esta es una disputa diplomática que ha durado más de medio siglo, desde que España renunció a su control colonial sobre la provincia que alguna vez se conoció como Sahara español. Marruecos busca apoderarse de toda el área, pero se opone a un movimiento independentista llamado Frente Polisario, que cuenta con el respaldo de Argelia.
A los españoles les interesaba económicamente respaldar al Polisario, en parte para mantener buenas relaciones con Argelia, que suministra gas natural a España. Pero durante los últimos tres o cuatro años el gobierno marroquí ha ejercido chantaje a España.
Isabel denunció este chantaje en una manifestación frente a la embajada de Marruecos en Madrid en mayo de 2021 (en ese momento lideraba un grupo juvenil nacionalista español).
Diez días después de esta manifestación, la policía política de Madrid recibió la visita de Sofía Bencrimo, que en aquel momento trabajaba en una organización benéfica que promueve la integración de inmigrantes. El presidente de esta organización benéfica es Mohammed Chaib Akhdim, un veterano político y hombre de negocios con estrechos vínculos personales y financieros con el gobierno marroquí, la misma gente cuyas acciones fueron expuestas y criticadas en el discurso de Isabel.
Chaib es exdiputado en los parlamentos catalán y de Madrid por el partido de izquierda PSC (Partido Socialista de Cataluña). Este es uno de los partidos de los que depende el presidente Pedro Sánchez para mantener en el poder su gobierno de coalición.
Pero Chaib también es un rico hombre de negocios con intereses financieros en su Marruecos natal y, en particular, se beneficiará de que Marruecos tome el control del Sáhara Occidental. Desde 1992 fue director de desarrollo de negocio en Marruecos de COMSA Industrial, empresa con amplios intereses en proyectos de ingeniería y construcción en Marruecos, incluido el territorio en disputa del Sáhara Occidental.
Más tarde, ese mismo día, estos policías enviaron un informe a los fiscales: este fue el primer paso en el proceso que condujo al juicio penal de Isabel. El expediente de la fiscalía, de más de 90 páginas (cuya copia ha sido obtenida por H&D) se basó en una sola denuncia: las “pruebas” de Sofia Bencrimo, empleada del lobista marroquí con buenas conexiones políticas Mohammed Chaib.
En este contexto, y con los cargos penales contra Isabel aún avanzando lentamente en el sistema judicial de Madrid, los lectores comprenderán que H&D se ha interesado especialmente en las siniestras conexiones entre el gobierno español y los lobbystas marroquíes. Estas conexiones no sólo han subvertido la política de inmigración de España, sino que también han llevado a que nuestro propio corresponsal sea procesado. ¡Un activista patriótico está en el banquillo, mientras que los verdaderos criminales son los que tienen autoridad!
El alcance total de esta criminalidad finalmente se está volviendo más claro, razón por la cual el presidente Sánchez hizo su amenaza sin precedentes de dimitir, y esta semana se esconde de la prensa mundial.
H&D no puede comentar sobre todas las acusaciones amplias y a veces extrañas contra Sánchez y su esposa, pero ciertos hechos inquietantes ya están claros.
El momento de la amenaza de dimisión del Primer Ministro está relacionado con dos acontecimientos recientes.
En primer lugar, un juzgado de Madrid abrió una investigación previa contra su esposa Begoña Gómez “por el presunto delito de tráfico de influencias y corrupción”. Esta investigación se basa en una denuncia de Manos Limpias, una fundación dirigida por Miguel Bernad, un abogado madrileño (ahora de 82 años) cuyas raíces políticas están en el partido nacionalista Fuerza Nueva y que fue un alto aliado de ese El líder del partido, Blas Piñar.
Curiosamente, Bernad tenía conocimiento personal de los extraños antecedentes familiares de la señora Gómez. Su padre, Sabiniano Gómez, es propietario de varios establecimientos de saunas gay en Madrid, y periodistas conservadores han informado que Miguel Bernad era el funcionario del ayuntamiento responsable de conceder licencias a dichos establecimientos, que varios periódicos españoles han descrito abiertamente como burdeles homosexuales.
Ciertamente es una conexión extraña: el equivalente en Londres sería si el suegro de Rishi Sunak fuera el propietario de las saunas del Soho en lugar de ser uno de los hombres más ricos de la India…
Quizás sea significativo que también se sepa que miembros destacados del principal partido conservador (PP) de España planearon hace varios años llevar a cabo investigaciones sobre el suegro del presidente del Gobierno y explotar cualquier escándalo.
Y aquí es donde el supuesto chantaje marroquí vuelve a cobrar relevancia.
El software espía Pegasus, desarrollado por Israel, fue utilizado por las autoridades marroquíes para atacar los teléfonos móviles del presidente Sánchez y de algunos de sus ministros. En lugar de presionar para que se investigara y castigara a quienes lo habían espiado, Sánchez se mostró feliz de permitir que el caso se desestimara. En parte porque la empresa israelí detrás del software espía se negó a cooperar, un juez español abandonó su investigación después de 12 meses.
Sin embargo, el pasado martes se reabrió el caso, gracias a la información facilitada a los tribunales españoles por la investigación francesa sobre un espionaje marroquí similar.
A los pocos días de reabrirse el caso de espionaje, Sánchez amenazó con dimitir. ¿Está intentando nuevamente interferir con la investigación y, de ser así, qué revelaciones teme?
Lo que sí se sabe es que Marruecos espió al presidente Sánchez en 2021, cuando de repente cambió la política de España y empezó a favorecer a Marruecos sobre el Sáhara Occidental.
Desde entonces, Sánchez ha favorecido repetidamente a Marruecos. Hace unas semanas anunció planes de inversión española en Marruecos por un total de 45.000 millones de euros.
Otro aspecto curioso es que el Reino de Marruecos tiene estrechas relaciones no sólo con Israel (de ahí su uso de software de espionaje israelí) sino también con la Rusia de Vladimir Putin.
En 2016, mientras se preparaba para trabajar con tecnología israelí para espiar a los gobiernos de Europa occidental, Marruecos firmó un acuerdo con Rusia para cooperar en asuntos militares y de inteligencia.
Esta cooperación se ha extendido desde la invasión de Ucrania por parte de Putin. Desafiando las sanciones europeas, Marruecos se ha convertido en uno de los socios comerciales más importantes del Kremlin. Marruecos importa petróleo de Rusia y también exporta petróleo a España.
Si se descubriera que Sánchez y sus amigos marroquíes habían confabulado para evadir las sanciones petroleras, en beneficio del Kremlin, esto sería una grave traición a Europa.
La fallida política de inmigración del gobierno español ya es una traición no sólo a los españoles sino a todos los europeos; Si Sánchez (a través de Marruecos) está ayudando indirectamente a la maquinaria de guerra neoestalinista, su repugnante historial de traición se agravaría.
Como saben nuestros lectores habituales, nuestra corresponsal Isabel Peralta ha visto interrumpido su viaje al Reino Unido en tres ocasiones debido al acoso por parte de la seguridad fronteriza que trabaja con sus homólogos españoles y alemanes. Las últimas pruebas deberían convencer al Ministerio del Interior de que la verdadera amenaza a los intereses de seguridad británicos y europeos proviene del propio gobierno español, no de Isabel. Seguiremos luchando por nuestra camarada y confiamos en que ningún obstáculo le impedirá seguir defendiendo la verdadera Europa, como el más brillante faro de esperanza para nuestra causa.
Demonstrate for Spain and for Europe: not for “democracy”! – Isabel Peralta reports from the front line in Madrid
H&D correspondent Isabel Peralta has been on the front line of recent demonstrations in central Madrid. In this frank assessment of the events in Calle Ferraz, their motive, and consequences, she draws a clear distinction between the radical nationalist response and “constitutional” conservatism.
(Click the bottom right of the screen above to view the podcast with more easily legible English subtitles.)
The disgraceful amnesty deal offered by socialist Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez to Catalan subversives is (Isabel points out) legal under Spain’s “democratic” 1978 constitution. Contrary to assertions by conservatives and reactionaries, the problem is not that Sánchez has acted unconstitutionally or anti-democratically.
The problem is “democracy” (in its present form) and the constitution itself. Yet the demonstrations have, Isabel believes, indicated that a revolutionary spirit – the true European spirit – is reviving among young Spaniards.
Chaos on the streets of Madrid – H&D correspondent on front line against subversion
As predicted in recent editions of H&D, Spain’s socialist Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez has secured a parliamentary deal to maintain himself in office (at least for a short time), but the price for his self-interested pact is a fundamental betrayal of Spain itself.
Sánchez has offered leaders of the Catalan separatist party Junts an amnesty for their seditious crimes. In addition to Junts and his own PSOE, the Prime Minister relies on a second Catalan party, two Basque parties (including terrorist murderers closely allied to Sinn Fein / IRA), and a collection of extreme leftists.
For almost two weeks now, Spanish patriots – ranging from conservatives to Falangists and national socialists – have been protesting in the streets opposite the PSOE headquarters in Calle Ferraz, central Madrid.
Our own correspondent Isabel Peralta has been on the front line at the barricades, facing an increasingly politicised and brutal police force. Demonstrators have been attacked with tear gas and police batons.
In response to the radicalisation of Spanish youth, Isabel and her comrades are forming a new organisation, Sección de Asalto. As their banner last night – “Defend Europe” – indicated, they do not see this struggle as merely another episode in the party political game.
Indeed, as Isabel made clear in her article in Issue 115 of H&D, the reactionary party Vox and their potential conservative allies in the Partido Popular are merely an alternative face of the same problem. Neither globalist capitalism nor fake “socialism” – and least of all a separatist assault on Spain itself – offers any hope for Spaniards.
Though reactionaries are trying to deny this logic, the “democratic” constitution foisted on Spain in 1978 is part of the problem. Spain requires a national revolution – not an imitation of the Franco dictatorship which wasted the revolutionary potential of the martyred Falangist leaders of the 1930s, but a revival of the spirit and ideals of Ramiro Ledesma Ramos, José Antonio Primo de Rivera, and Onesimo Redondo.
H&D will have further reports soon from the frontline in Madrid, where the sinister forces of subversion that threaten all of Europe are now seen in their clearest light, and are being boldly defied.
The Rudolf Hess memorial, the Asian Marxist lawyer, and subversion in Spain – a strange tale of the new ‘European’ left
Edinburgh’s extradition court has been the scene of a drama played out across several episodes, demonstrating certain common factors among Europe’s enemies, and the deep historical roots of a challenge facing all European patriots.
H&D‘s assistant editor – writing at the Real History blog – today explains the strange story of the Rudolf Hess memorial stone, an Asian Marxist lawyer, and subversion in Spain – an extraordinary tale of the new ‘European’ left.
Visit this site after 12th October for an update direct from the extradition court in Edinburgh, where the fate of Vincent Reynouard will be decided. Click here to subscribe to H&D so that you can learn the full story in our November edition, and obtain the two-part interview with Vincent Reynouard in issues 115 and 116 of H&D.
Jeremy Corbyn – the terrorists’ friend – attacks H&D and Isabel Peralta
Former Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn has launched an extraordinary attack on Heritage and Destiny, calling for our meetings to be banned. In a letter to Home Secretary Suella Braverman, Corbyn has targeted our European correspondent Isabel Peralta, demanding that she should be refused entry to the United Kingdom.
Isabel has never been convicted of any crime, but has twice been detained and questioned by UK Border Force, abusing their powers under the Terrorism Act.
Anyone interested in real terrorism should be looking not at Heritage & Destiny and Isabel Peralta, but at the close allies of Jeremy Corbyn, who has for decades been known as terrorism’s best friend in Parliament.
From 1985 to 1989 Corbyn was national secretary and later president of the notoriously violent group Anti-Fascist Action. AFA’s terrorist core – Red Action – held its meetings in Corbyn’s constituency office in Islington, north London, and provided security for Corbyn and for one of his closest political allies, IRA godfather Gerry Adams.
Even Corbyn’s own party has often been embarrassed by his especially close ties to the IRA. In 1984 Corbyn was reprimanded by Labour’s chief whip for taking IRA terrorists on a tour of Parliament. In 1987 Corbyn tried to appoint a notorious Irish republican sympathiser and anarchist, Ronan Bennett, as his parliamentary research assistant, but the authorities refused on security grounds to give Bennett a House of Commons pass.
Two of Corbyn’s comrades in Anti-Fascist Action and Red Action – Patrick Hayes (AFA London organiser) and Jan Taylor – were given long jail sentences for bombing the Harrods store in London on behalf of the IRA. Their fellow AFA activist, Liam Heffernan, was jailed for stealing explosives on behalf of another republican terrorist gang, the INLA.
A senior police officer later told the Sunday Times that Corbyn “knew they were open supporters of terrorism and he supported them”.
There has never been any suggestion that Corbyn was personally involved in specific acts of terrorism, but for decades police and security services monitored his close connections with terrorists and their active supporters. They were especially concerned that terrorists invited into Westminster premises by Corbyn had been able to familiarise themselves with the layout and security of the Houses of Parliament.
In 1985, Corbyn was the keynote speaker at Red Action’s national meeting. He maintained close ties for years to Red Action, a group whose journal openly stated: “both as an organisation and as individuals we support the activities of the Provisional IRA and the INLA unconditionally and uncritically.”
Some of the paymasters of “anti-fascism” will be embarrassed by the fact that Jeremy Corbyn is now championing their cause. In addition to his support for the IRA, Corbyn has frequently been accused of “anti-semitism”, for example over his praise for a mural that promoted allegedly “anti-semitic tropes”.
H&D has been contacted by several Londoners appalled by Corbyn’s consistent association with terrorists and their propagandists. We have been offered premises in Corbyn’s Islington constituency to hold our next meeting, and we are discussing several options for this event.
Unlike Jeremy Corbyn’s murderous friends and allies, Isabel Peralta – the young Spanish activist whom Corbyn has so disgracefully targeted – has never committed any offence against UK law. In reply to Corbyn’s attack, Isabel writes:
“I honestly find it hard to believe that my mere presence in a country is so dangerous that even one of the main English politicians, former leader of the second-largest political force in England, writes to the Home Secretary asking for me to be banned. I find it difficult to believe that someone who has not committed any crime and has never been convicted is ostracised or exiled from several European countries. But it is like this. Our fanaticism moves mountains and our enemies have more faith in our triumph than we do ourselves.
“One does not fear a madman, one does not take seriously a merely anachronistic or atavistic enemy. There is fear of a revolution. We are a revolution, a living, organic idea, destined to be proudly implemented throughout Europe.”
Let there be no doubt: H&D will continue to expose the truth about Jeremy Corbyn and his crazed Marxist and Irish Republican friends. We shall continue to fight for the true Europe. And we shall contest (at whatever level proves necessary) any attempt to intimidate or exclude our comrade and European correspondent Isabel Peralta.
Deadlock in Spanish election as ‘right-wing’ Vox stumbles
During the past fortnight British media coverage of the Spanish general election has verged on hysteria as journalists and politicians (including former Prime Minister Gordon Brown) recycled the tired ‘anti-fascist’ rhetoric of Spain’s Civil War era. Many on the British left are eager to revive memories of that era, since they are dimly aware that unlike today’s ‘socialists’, their fathers and grandfathers actually believed in something.
The conservative Daily Mail ran a scaremongering article that associated today’s Vox party with 1930s nationalism, and even mangled nationalist history by conflating the reactionary caudillo Francisco Franco with the radical Falange.
The reason for all this hysteria was that Vox – a party that the media likes to portray as ‘far right’ – seemed likely to be the power-broker putting the conservative Partido Popular (PP) into government.
In the September issue of H&D, our correspondent Isabel Peralta will explain the true nature of Vox and the true crisis of Spanish ‘democracy’, in the context of yesterday’s election results and the inevitable post-election horse-trading.
But in this initial report we simply look at the results.
Vox polled 12.4% (down from 15.1% at the previous election in 2019) and lost 19 of its previous 52 seats in the Congress of Deputies. The conservative PP with just over 33% of the vote (up from 20.8% at the 2019 election) won 47 extra seats and now has 136. Even if the PP struck a deal with Vox‘s 33 Congressional deputies, the combined ‘right’ would be seven short of a majority.
Spanish elections are decided on a regional party list system, similar to the one used in European parliamentary elections that led to Andrew Brons and Nick Griffin being elected as MEPs in 2009. Each of the fifty provinces elects a list of Congress seats (ranging in size from Madrid with 37, to the mountainous province of Soria with two), while the autonomous Spanish cities in North Africa – Ceuta and Melilla – have one seat each.
Whereas Vox is essentially a right-wing conservative party, there were also candidates from the tiny nationalist party FE-JONS which for electoral purposes is allied to another tiny party La Falange. They paid the price for many years of ideological confusion and poor leadership. FE-JONS contested just eleven of the 52 constituencies, and in each case their vote was below 0.1%.
Vox‘s leaders, who seem to care more about personal and factional advancement than ideological principles, will be disappointed that the election result deprives them of their longed-for role as kingmakers.
The reality is that this election was a victory for the conservative PP, but its leaders will struggle to exercise any meaningful political power. Partly because conservatism is a bankrupt ideology, but also because they would need support from both Vox and at least seven votes from regionalist parties. While in other circumstances the PP might possibly be able to buy support from the Catalan populist party Junts (who have exactly the seven seats necessary) it is inconceivable that Junts would support a government that included Vox.
The electoral arithmetic just about allows for a coalition of the left, far left, and separatists, but it’s difficult to imagine that this could last for long. Such a coalition would partly depend on Sinn Fein / IRA’s friends in the Basque party EH Bildu, whose roots are in the banned party Batasuna that acted as the political wing of the terrorist ETA.
In short: Spain is set for months of instability and possibly fresh elections in the autumn. In the September edition of H&D our correspondent Isabel Peralta will report on Madrid’s ‘democratic’ circus and the media fallacy of Vox as a ‘far right’ party.
Falangist leader exhumed from Madrid war memorial
On the 120th anniversary of his birth, the remains of Falangist leader José Antonio Primo de Rivera are today being removed from his tomb at the Valley of the Fallen (Valle de los Caídos), a vast memorial to the dead of Spain’s Civil War. H&D‘s Isabel Peralta reported today from the scene of José Antonio’s reburial in Madrid (see video below).
José Antonio founded the Falange Española in 1933 in an effort to transcend petty factionalism and offer Spaniards a non-Marxist critique of capitalism:
“The National-Syndicalist State will not stand cruelly aloof from economic conflicts between men, nor will it look on impassively as the strongest class subjugates the weakest. Our regime will make class struggle totally impossible, since all those cooperating in production will constitute an organic whole therein. We deplore and shall prevent at all costs the abuses of partial vested interests, as well as anarchy in the workforce.”
In November 1936, aged 33, José Antonio was murdered by leftist assassins in the prison yard at Alicante. After the nationalist victory in 1939 his Falangist followers carried José Antonio’s remains 300km to the Escorial near Madrid, and in 1959 he was reburied nearby at the newly consecrated Valley of the Fallen, a huge cathedral carved out of a mountain, where Spain’s caudillo Francisco Franco was also buried in 1975.
For decades the Valley of the Fallen was a place of pilgrimage for Falangist veterans and Spanish nationalists from various factions, who were often joined on November 20th each year (the anniversary of both José Antonio’s murder and Franco’s death) by comrades from across Europe. H&D‘s assistant editor Peter Rushton was part of BNP delegations to the Valley on several occasions during the 1990s.
The left-wing government in Madrid have for several years made clear their determination to desecrate José Antonio’s grave as an act of political spite. Last autumn they introduced new laws designed to criminalise aspects of Spanish history. One was designated a “democratic memory law” and the other was a new law against “anti-semitism”, which effectively means a law exempting Jews and Zionism from criticism.
José Antonio’s family surrendered to official pressure, and took the decision to go ahead with his exhumation and reburial of his remains at Madrid’s San Isidro cemetery.
H&D correspondent Isabel Peralta first wrote about the impending exhumation of José Antonio in Issue 110 of our magazine, and also made several videos discussing related issues (see versions below with English subtitles).
Isabel has recently been banned from Twitter but has a new website at www.isabelperalta.net with an English version at www.isabelperalta.net/english
Reports on the Spanish government’s attack on their own history will appear at these sites and here at H&D. Isabel also writes in the forthcoming edition of our magazine, which will be published at the start of May.
Europeans mark two contrasting anniversaries
H&D‘s friends and comrades in Europe have marked two contrasting anniversaries in recent days.
In Dresden commemorations were held for the greatest crime of the Second World War – the terror bombing that destroyed this ancient city in February 1945. As discussed in a new article by our assistant editor Peter Rushton at the Real History blog, no one knows the true death toll at Dresden, partly because the city was packed with refugees who had fled from Stalin’s Red Army as it advanced into eastern Germany. Based on his detailed archival research, the British historian David Irving has estimated 135,000 deaths.
Dresden was the culmination of a deliberate policy of terror bombing – a deliberate decision to flout pre-war agreements (and to abandon the policies of the British government at the start of the war, maintained until Churchill took office).
The most famous British military historian, J.F.C. Fuller wrote in 1948:
“It may seem a little strange, nevertheless it is a fact, that this reversion to wars of primitive savagery was made by Britain and the United States, the two great democracies… With the disappearance of the gentleman as the back-bone of the ruling class in England, political power rapidly passed into the hands of demagogues who, by playing upon the emotions and ignorance of the masses, created a permanent war-psychosis.”
Fuller went on to acknowledge that as a consequence of the seizure of power in Britain by such “demagogues”, notably Churchill, “the obliteration of cities by bombing was probably the most devastating blow ever struck at civilisation”. Fuller wrote of “the moral decline which characterised the war.”
The Spanish nationalist group Devenir Europeo carried out a campaign of leaflets and posters targeting universities and military academies in an effort to raise awareness of the events of the Second World War and how they shaped our world. Our correspondent Isabel Peralta was very much involved in this campaign: she also marked this week’s other important historic anniversary.
In February 1943, 4,000 Spanish anti-communist volunteers – the División Azul (‘Blue Division’) – successfully fought off a vastly greater force of Stalin’s Red Army at the Battle of Krasny Bor, near Leningrad, allowing their German allies to regroup and maintain the Leningrad front.
Speaking beside the División Azul memorial at the Almudena cemetery, Madrid, this week, Isabel pointed out that her compatriots won at Krasny Bor not because they had greater numbers or greater weapons, but because they had greater faith in their cause – the noble ideals of the true Europe.
Spain is now at the front line of the struggle to maintain freedom of research and freedom of speech on historical and political questions. Under their new ‘democratic memory law’ some forms of historical revisionism are now illegal, although in other respects Spanish laws on ‘incitement of racial hatred’ are less restrictive than in the UK.
Isabel herself is presently facing trial in Madrid for a speech at an anti-immigration rally outside the Spanish Embassy last year.
Celebrate St Edmund – the original English Patron Saint
Today – November 20th – is St Edmund’s Day. While St George (who had no historical connection to England) is commonly regarded as our Patron Saint, the original Patron Saint of England was St Edmund, who was King of East Anglia for about fourteen years until he was killed by Danish invaders in 869.
These invaders destroyed all records of Edmund’s reign, so it’s no longer even known precisely when and where he was born.
But about 150 years after his death, the Anglo-Danish King Canute converted to Christianity and began the tradition of venerating St Edmund as a Christian martyr and Patron Saint of England. For the next 500 years the abbey that Canute founded to house his relics, at Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk, was one of England’s most important shrines, attracting pilgrims from across the country.
Mediaeval chroniclers depicted Edmund as having been born in Nuremberg and descended from Saxon kings. His actual birthplace is uncertain, though we do know that the East Anglia over which he ruled was one of several Anglo-Saxon kingdoms in what later became England, and was established around 550 by Germanic tribes arriving from the Frisian region (in what is now the Netherlands and north-western Germany) and Jutland (in what is now Denmark).
St Edmund’s origins, his death, and even the date of his feast day, combine to make him a highly appropriate patron saint of England in 2022 – when more than ever we should be aware of our racial roots and aware of the need for solidarity with our fellow Europeans against the encroaching tyranny of the multiracial new world order.
Liberals tell us we are a nation of immigrants, and point to the successive waves of migration that created England: including Edmund and his Anglo-Saxon ancestors, as well as the Viking invaders who killed him.
Racial nationalists by contrast understand that our fellow Europeans are our racial cousins, whereas the offspring of non-Europeans remain fundamentally alien, whether they were born in London or Lagos.
So whether he was born in Nuremberg or Norwich, St Edmund was an English king and a European king.
The fact that 20th November is the Feast Day of St Edmund, King and Martyr, is also appropriate for another reason. Today on the frontline of the European racial nationalist battle against alien tyranny, our Spanish comrades mark the anniversary of the martyrdom of José Antonio Primo de Rivera, the Falangist leader murdered by communists on this day 87 years ago. November 20th has for decades been a day of pilgrimage for Spanish nationalists to the Valley of the Fallen, where he was buried in a vast basilica carved out of a mountain near Madrid.
The 21st century equivalents of his murderers now aim to desecrate José Antonio’s grave at this memorial to the victims of the Spanish Civil War. As H&D‘s European correspondent Isabel Peralta explains in the video below, this is part of a tyrannical “democratic memory law” by which Spain’s left-wing government is imposing a particular version of history. In this one-eyed ‘history’, the Spanish communists and their allies are to be treated as heroes – in fact Spain this month has a new postage stamp celebrating its Communist Party – whereas nationalists are to be damned as villains.
Isabel herself will next week face trial under the Spanish equivalent of the UK’s race laws: a politically motivated trial designed to distract from the failure of Spain’s immigration policy. H&D will soon be reporting on this trial, and before then we shall have a report on today’s commemoration of José Antonio.
The battle for Europe continues – and St Edmund is the ideal patron saint for Englishmen to concentrate our minds on this battle.
So let us all celebrate St Edmund today, celebrate the legacy of José Antonio, and celebrate the new generation of racial nationalists who will reclaim and rebuild a Europe fit for Europeans.
