Spanish fascists extol virtues of an ultra-rightist nation
| Madrid
Addressing a crowd of several thousand people with their arms raised in the traditional fascist salute, Blas Pinar, leader of Spain's Fuerza Nueva (New Force) ended his electoral diatribe against Spain's ''rotten democracy'' in classic style: ''Amid a dismembered and disunited Spain, Fuerza Nueva emerges, blown clean of dust and straw by the breath of God.''
As the crowd cheered in Madrid last Sunday, the ultra-rightist continued. ''New Force,'' he claimed, ''is the voice that acts in the name of God and of Spain.''
Now, however, Mr. Pinar may lose the parliamentary seat he won in 1979. He is in competition for the 100,000 needed votes with former Lt. Col. Antonio Tejero de Molina.
Colonel Tejero is serving a 30-year military sentence, under appeal, for military rebellion for his star role in the aborted February 1981 coup. A regional court accepted his request for early retirement, making him eligible for public office and possible parliamentary immunity if elected. Having failed to occupy all 350 parliamentary seats during the coup, he is now content to occupy one.
But, according to the latest poll, it is unlikely that either Solidaridad Espanola (Spanish Solidarity), led by the now just plain Antonio Tejero, or Fuerza Nueva, will get any parliamentary representation at all after the Oct. 28 national elections.
Nevertheless they have been adding color to the electoral campaign that has already had some melodrama with the discovery of another coup planned for the day before elections. Both parties are being investigated by the Defense and Interior ministries for their alleged role in serving as a civilian cover for coup-plotting activities.
The ideology of FN dates to about the same period as the 1920s building that serves as headquarters for the ultra-right organization. Inspired by Mussolini's model of a fascist state, FN officially advocates a return to dictatorship. On its ''equal time'' television spot, Blas Pinar extolled the virtues of Franco's military rebellion of July 18, 1936, that started the Spanish civil war.
But to astonished television viewers, he went even further back in time to the Middle Ages and the Inquisition to try to convince Spain that ''our unity of destiny should be inspired by the regime of the Catholic kings (sic),'' Isabel and Ferdinand. An emotional reference to ''certain gentlemen unjustly imprisoned for planning a coup'' followed.
But Tejero's party, which has been trying to no avail to film its leader incommunicado in a military garrison in Cartagena, has been denied permission for equal time on TV. Its video (with Tejero's voice recorded off screen) was considered to be ''anti-constitutional and a glorification of a coup.'' Along with two extremist left-wing parties that were also denied equal time because for their ''anti-constitutional content,'' Solaridad has taken up the banner of free expression and complains of censorship.
''It will take a long time for the government, the political parties, and Spaniards to understand what democracy means,'' said Tejero's lawyer, Angel Lopez Montero, who described his client as ''totally qualified to lead the nation.''
Madrid citizens were already surprised by Tejero electoral posters that pictured Tejero smiling and in civilian clothes. ''A sincere man to overcome so much demagogy, a practical and energetic man to overcome the present and light up the future, . . .'' the poster claimed.
In spite of competition from Tejero, FN headquarters still does a thriving business selling all sorts of Tejero souvenirs: key chains, jewelry, and pictures.
The store also sells all the traditional fascist paraphernalia and insignias, records of fascist anthems, Franco souvenirs, and a plastic-coated voucher ''in case of a coup'' that guarantees that the bearer is ''not an addict of democratic regimes'' and therefore of good moral conduct. Paramilitary uniforms (blue shirts with the Falangist insignia, red berets, red kerchiefs) were also for sale. Posters of uniformed youths with their arms raised in the fascist salute silhouetted against a rising sun were also available with the caption, ''We will be the first tomorrow.''
But Spanish police take the ultra-rightists very seriously. Police have arrested 25 ultra-rightists in the last few days for their alleged participation in terrorist activities in Madrid, Barcelona, and Valladolid, the Spanish Interior Ministry confirmed Oct. 27. One of the arrested ultras, Carlos Artigas Roson, was a Fuerza Nueva candidate for the Senate.