The European far-right had to break out this Saturday in Barcelona, amid strong security measures by the Mossos d’Esquadra and the Guardia Urbana, to hold the first of their two planned demonstrations in Spain — on Wednesday they will gather in Madrid —. But it barely gathered less than a hundred people. The rally of the Save Europe Act movement, which is touring different cities in Europe promoting its xenophobic campaign to promote the mass “remigration” of immigrants and the defense of the primacy of the “white” race in Europe, has been authorized by the Govern despite opposition criticism, which has caused the gathering of antifascist groups, in the same place and an hour earlier, which have gathered several hundred people to denounce the event as a “hate crime.” Alberto Tarradas, Vox deputy in the Parliament, a party that is among the signatories of the manifesto, attended the ultra rally.
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An hour before the ultra demonstration, antifascist groups such as the Coordinadora Antifeixista de Barcelona and Som Antifeixistes gathered in the same place, with representatives of left-wing political parties such as former Cup deputy Carles Riera attending. Opposition groups had asked the Govern to ban the ultra demonstration. The Salvador Illa government, in a statement issued on Friday, explained that it would reinforce the police device but pointed out that it allowed the gathering. Even so, it defended that the right to assembly and demonstration “is fundamental, but not absolute,” thus indicating that it would refer any criminal conduct occurring during the demonstration to the Prosecutor’s Office. On the part of the City Council, the deputy mayor of the Council, Laia Bonet, said on Friday on Rac 1 that the protest is not “welcome.” “The city rejects being the scene of calls that seek to spread racist, xenophobic ideas and those contrary to democracy and coexistence,” she said. In a statement this Saturday, the City Council explained that it will report the hate messages expressed by the ultra demonstrators at their gathering to the Prosecutor’s Office.
“The Save Europe Act call is supremacist and a hate crime, because it proposes remigration and establishing an ethnically pure Europe. We have asked the administrations to prevent this hate crime from being committed, because this is not an act of free expression,” explained David Minoves, president of CIEMEN and spokesperson for the Unit against Fascism and Racism, to the media. The antifascists gathered, whose protest had not been officially communicated, were encapsulated in a corner of Sant Jaume square by the Mossos d’Esquadra, while the rest was left for the ultra demonstration, which had been communicated. The aim of the device was that both gatherings would not have contact despite being in the same square. “We are perplexed, because the administrations put forward arguments that do not fit reality. This is a possible hate crime announced beforehand,” said Minoves.
The demonstration in Barcelona is the first officially held in Spain — there was another in early August in Algeciras, coinciding with the migrant arrival crisis in Ceuta — and is part of a European tour in which the organizers go to different cities to display large banners with xenophobic slogans. The movement has also had the support in Spain of the far-right youth group Reconquista, from the Vox orbit, with the ultra Toni Estévez as one of the spokespeople. Before unfolding the banner, Estévez shouted for “Europe and remigration.” The banner, large in size (it occupied a third of the square) and which due to the lack of attendees took several minutes to unfold, bore the slogan “Remigration saves Europe.” Once spread on the ground, those gathered shouted slogans such as “against the invasion, remigration” or “Pedro Sánchez, son of a bitch.”
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The Save Europe Act movement seeks support to demand that the European Union — they tried to register it with the European Commission through a citizens’ initiative, but the community executive rejected it — protect the “ethnic continuity” of the European “native peoples” against immigration and correct an alleged “marginalization of indigenous populations in their ancestral lands.”
This movement is led by activists Martin Sellner, Austrian, and Eva Vlaardingerbroek, Dutch, who presented their proposal during the Remigration Summit, held in May in Figueira da Foz, Portugal, a meeting in which the Spanish ultra party Vox, which supports the initiative, was represented. In addition to the signature of Santiago Abascal, leader of Vox, the initiative has the support of other ultra leaders such as former Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán and the president of Reconquista, Eric Zemmour, leader of the French party positioned to the right of the National Rally. Neither Marine Le Pen’s party nor Brothers of Italy, led by Giorgia Meloni, are among the signatories.
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