The BBC’s got a story on how some expats living in Spain are getting involved in Spanish municipal elections. All EU citizens are eligible to vote – or stand – in council elections. I mentioned last week that I’ll be voting for the Green/United Left (aka the communists) as they’ve done a lot to improve both the look and the feel of Cerdanyola.
Much further south (the traditional home of the British expat), people haven’t got so much to be grateful for. Successive administrations from the PP, the PSOE and other parties have been criticised for large-scale corruption, especially in their dealings with land and building permissions.
So some Spaniards and ex-pats have united in a party called ‘Progreso y Orden‘ (Progress and Order). The party’s platform is to do away with those problems that ruin life in la Vega Baja of Alicante. Problems like corrupt politicians, excessive land speculation, ‘delinquency’, drug use and… immigration! Unusual as it may seem, non-Spaniards are involved with a Spanish party which is opposed to immigration. As you might have guessed, I smelled a rat. A big fat racist rat.
So I had a look at Progress and Order’s homepage (web geek’s observation: probably the worst designed website in existence: I had to use Firefox’s ‘Page info’ dialogue to navigate the site!) (Updated: here’s the link to their homepage!). When I eventually managed to find the Spanish language ‘About us’ page, I found out a lot about the founder of Order and Progress. He’s called Fernando Gadea. He’s an ex Guardia Civil (not that there’s anything wrong with that), an ‘intelligence expert’, an expert in ‘electronic security systems’, a former Spanish legionnaire and a former municipal official. He spends quite a lot of time talking about himself (even more than I do in my ‘About’ section), and seems to be your typical ex-military, ex-Guardia, private detective sort of nice chap.
Unfortunately, he forgot to mention one thing on his new party’s site which might be of interest to residents of San Fulgenio, as well as the BBC journalists who missed this little tidbit. When he was a ‘concejal’ (town councillor), he was there as a listed member of España 2000. Those of you who haven’t heard of España 2000 can check out its Wikipedia entry which is both accurate and amusing. Other Nazis in Spain consider them to be something of a joke. A splinter-group of theirs is apparently based in Catalonia, and puts up stickers in Cerdanyola which call for the repatriation of ‘non-Spaniards’ (which we can assume doesn’t include wealthy Brits or Germans: the photos all seem to be of Muslims).
So there you go… not exactly surprising that a party called Order and Progress is a bit dodgy. The BBC should probably have done some better research for their story, as it would have been interesting to read a ‘Brits and Germans in far-right Spain pact’ headline, but never mind. It’s also worth noting that not all Brits in Spain are voting for the local equivalent of the BNP. While many expats see fit to spew invective about the ‘Asians’ back home, there are plenty of us who didn’t leave home because we were sick of seeing brown faces everywhere.
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As has been reported on other blogs, British involvement in Spanish politics doesn’t stop at San Fulgencio. Bernie Ecclestone, short-arsed owner of the Formula One franchise, has just announced that there’ll be a new Grand Prix in Valencia ciutat. But only if the electorate remember to vote PP in the regional elections, as the local party boss is a chum. What a revolting little episode. I’m boycotting it. But good luck, Lewis, anyway!
nice investigative work man. btw, do you know if non-EU citizens with DNIs can vote?
Nice work man, it s amazing the lack of insight spaniards can have when it comes to gather information about our representatives. Its so frustrating to see how immigration is causing the worst of us to come out, how screwed up we must be to need a scapegoat from our incapacity to deal wth shit. Bringé´m all here, plenty of what we steal from thee is here anyways. Its only fair to share it with them. Go forth my man and keep up the good work.
Well, I’m number two on a party list in the town of Mojacar in Almeria. The town is a mixture of people from all over and has always seemed to manage pretty well. I’m English but have been living here most of my life. As long as you are fluent in Spanish, there’s no reason why you shouldn’t run – after all, if the electorate doesn’t like you then you won’t get in.
Our party has two Brits – running second and third – both fluent in English and Spanish. In fact, the entire list is broadly bi-lngual.
There are – it’s true – some Brits enteering into local politics who don’t speak much Spanish – but no doubt they’ll learn. Fast!
I s’pose I should add – there’s not much point in being ‘anti-foreigner’ when you are, yourself, a foreigner…
I for one have to agree with some of the principles Mr Gadea pursues:
“Following a – REFERENDUM, (AND IF SUCCESSFUEL), WE WILL ASK FOR A SEPARATIONâ€
I wonder if Sr. Gadea would be keen to apply the same principle to Catalonia or the Basque Country!!
Also, let’s not ignore the creative spelling of successful as success-fuel. Some marketing folk get paid millions to come up with stuff like that.
All in all, very amusing.
Interesting post and definitely something the BBC should have picked-up on. However, I’m not surprised they didn’t. How many times did the mainstream media, Spanish or British, mention the fact that Jose Maria Aznar was a member of a fascist political party in his youth? If they weren’t even willing to talk about the true ideological background of the president of the country, then there’s no way they’re going to worry about what’s really behind some tiny expat political party on the Costa Blanca.
Yeah I suppose that’s true. They certainly hinted at it in the article: perhaps that was seen as enough for a piece which (as is usual with BBC journalism) didn’t seem to be focused on much beyond the ‘human story’ of some plucky Brits ‘having a go’ in the sunshine.
Cuando alguien no está de acuerdo con la corrupción, el desastre urbanistico,y la política del despilfarro y demas….. Ya sabemos se empieza a criticar, injuriar y desaclificar, detrás de un ordenador.
Progreso y Orden es un partido luchador y totalmente contrario de la corrupción, no es racista, su presidente fué legionario en el Africa antes de ser Guardia Civil y allí habían de todas las nacionalidades, blancas y negras, y en su partido hay rumanos, negros, polacos, etc… menos hablar mal de lo que no se conoce o alguien interesado en injuriar ha puesto cosas en internet.
Well why was he part of the racist and fascist España 2000 party then?
el presidente de progreso y orden NUNCA SE PRESENTÓ por las listas de españa2000, mirar en la base de datos del ministrio del interior que es público.
En internet se pone lo que a cada uno le interesa, y lo que es falso, es injuria
http://www.esp2000.org/relaciones2.htm
REUNION ESPAÑA 2000 EN ALICANTE (3-10-03)
A fin de reorganizar el grupo de España 2000-Alicante hoy nos hemos reunido en un complejo turístico de la bella ciudad de Denia:
-Alain Lavarde(delegado del Frente Nacional Francés en España)
-José Luis Roberto(Presidente de España 2000)
-Fernando Gadea(Concejal de España 2000 en San Fulgencio-Alicante.)
-Miguel A. Arranz(Director General de Expansión de España 2000)
-José Luis P.(candidato a la alcaldía de Crevillente por Democracia Nacional)que a su vez iba acompañado de otro ex-militante de Democracia Nacional-Alicante.
-Samuel Azor(miembro de la Junta de España 2000)
-Jordi A.(delegado de España 2000 en Alicante)
-Sr. Juan(miembro del Frente Nacional Francés en Alicante)
-Alfredo N.(conocido empresario alicantino)
– is this some other guy then?
FERNANDO GADEA CON ESPAÑA 2000
Fernando Gadea, articulista, escritor, experto en seguridad, ex – miembro de las Fuerzas de Seguridad del Estado, primer concejal español del nuevo nacionalismo lepenista (fue concejal de DN), actualmente es concejal del partido Progreso y Orden en San Fulgencio (Alicante) se pasa a España 2000.
España 2000 tiene su primer concejal.
¡ Viva España!.
Actually, I don’t even want your answer. It’s self evident. I did the research, admittedly online, and I reported what I found.
Fernando, if it is you, I recommend that you spend less time debating obvious facts on my website and dedicate a bit more time to fixing your atrociously ugly and badly designed website. It’s an insult to anyone with eyes.
Adéu.
Tom, great work!
You should be a formal correspondent in Catalonia for the British media, so we would not get the clueless dudes we have to put up with at the moment.