IT was a weekend in Madrid when it seemed that almost every nationalist and right-wing Vox supporter was out in the streets united by one goal – to sing the praises of former Spanish dictator Francisco Franco.
Remembering the death of ‘el Caudillo’ exactly 50 years ago to the day, they queued up to laud his many achievements, and how Spain was so much better off when the firm hands of their hero had shaped their country. Mass bloodshed or not.
But as the many visible Francoist demonstrators roiled through the streets of the capital, arms raised and carrying Spanish flags, a group of far shadier men filed quietly into a conference room in the city centre.
One of them, dressed in a grey suit and dazzling white shirt, beamed as the doorman greeted him with a murmured ‘comrade’ before waving him through.
He had come to co-chair a rally hosted by the so-called Alliance for Peace and Freedom (AFP) – a coalition of pro-Putin European nationalists whose manifesto calls for the mass deportation of immigrants, the eradication of what it describes as a ‘globalist-Zionist world order’, and the dismantling of the EU.
That man was Britain’s Nick Griffin, the controversial politician who led the British National Party (BNP) until 2014 – and the AFP’s current vice president.
Griffin has (understandably, as we shall see) been on the sidelines of British politics for more than a decade now. But since his AFP appointment in 2018, he has made repeated calls for the forced repatriation of millions of immigrants across Europe – a process he described as ‘remigration’.
“We face a Europe where there is a very serious problem with Islamisation as well as mass immigration,” Griffin told the Olive Press during the meeting at Espacio Ardemans.
“All our various elites now admit that within 20 or 30 years, we will be minorities in our own countries. A lot of nationalists [believe that] once you are a minority, it is all over.
“But Spain proves when you are a minority, it is not all over. You might take 800 years to take your country back, but it can be done.”
It was an extraordinary quote, and an outlandish claim, reaching back to the dark Middle Ages of European history.
Griffin was harking back to what historians call the Spanish ‘Reconquista’ – a centuries-long series of military campaigns in which the peninsula’s Christian kingdoms conquered Muslim-ruled territories, culminating in the fall of Granada in 1492.
The far-right veteran hopes Spain’s history may serve as a ‘powerful’ inspiration for the AFP – at a time when its members believe European countries are being ‘invaded’ by immigrants.
Co-hosted by Spanish nationalist party Democracia Nacional, the rally brought together members of extreme-right factions from across Europe – and even a representative of the ‘Russian Brotherhood of Academics’, a student organisation advocating military involvement for Russian youth.
Speakers at the summit included Pierre Marie Bonneau of France’s Les Nationalistes, Claus Cremer of Germany’s Heimat, Gloria Calarelli of Italy’s Forza Nuova, and Pedro Chaparro of Democracia Nacional.
Many of them accused Europe’s best-known far-right parties – including Spain’s Vox – of being too soft on immigration, with AFP president Roberto Fiore slamming Italy’s PM Giorgia Meloni, leader of far-right Fratelli d’Italia, over last year’s increase in immigrant arrivals.
Griffin echoed his peers, branding Europe’s rising right-wing groups ‘useless populists’ – and added they would rather keep immigrants as cheap labour than rid their countries of undesired foreign residents.
“Populists may send home a few criminals, a few Islamists, but never the non-white masses,” he told an audience of more than 40.
Griffin has never been far from controversy since he joined the BNP in the mid 1990s and rose to its leadership in 1999.
In 2009, he won one of the party’s two seats in the European Parliament before the movement collapsed amid infighting and financial ruin.
His tenure was overshadowed by scandal when, in 1998, he was convicted of distributing material likely to incite racial hatred after he published a pamphlet that questioned key aspects of the Holocaust.
He then faced fresh charges in 2006 when he said Asian Muslims were turning Britain into a ‘multiracial hell-hole,’ and claimed that some Muslim men were ‘seducing and raping white girls … because their ‘good book’ tells them they can take any woman they want as long as she is not Muslim’.
Today, his return to the political scene as AFP’s vice president has been marked by renewed calls for the mass deportation of non-white residents of Europe.
“As nationalists, we want our people to be free and sovereign in our country – and we want all peoples to be free and sovereign in their own countries,” Griffin said.
“For two reasons: first, it is the right and moral thing. And secondly, because then they can all go home, and that is what we really want.”
Griffin is not alone in his struggle. The young representative of the Russian Brotherhood – a dapper, gaunt blond who went only by ‘Michael’ – drew applause when he offered a stark summary of what the Madrid summit was all about.
“Our job is to push public opinion as far right as possible, normalising the idea of forced deportations and the complete cessation of immigration,” Michael said, making sure to keep his surname under wraps throughout the entire meeting.
“Ultimately, we will face fines, laughter, jail time, and – as we gain influence – the globalists’ final move: assassination, as we saw with Charlie Kirk.”
Michael’s alarming predictions of martyrdom reflect a worldview rooted in conspiracy – which several AFP members, including Griffin, appear to share.
During the summit, Fiore made repeated references to a ‘deep state’ which, he claims, is using far-reaching covert operations to pursue the interests of a globalist-Zionist elite.
The theory, embraced by both Fiore and Griffin, rests on the belief that a powerful cohort of ‘capitalists, globalists and Zionists’ benefits from sowing discord among world nations – leveraging the resulting chaos for its own profit.
Griffin, in particular, argued Zionist Jews have weaponised immigration to create a rift among European nations – allowing them to pursue their own agenda with greater freedom.
“Political Judaism is a menace,” he said. “It is not all Jews, but if you really look at the origins and promotion of mass immigration, time and time again you will find [that] Zionists and Christian-Judaic elements are largely responsible for that immigration.
“Immigration is the weapon against us,” he added.
Several AFP members also believe the secretive global order is attempting to provoke a third world war by conspiring to pit Russia against Ukraine.
AFP board member Gonzalo Martin Garcia claimed “people on NATO’s and the Mossad’s payroll” taunted the organisation that it would not dare invite Russian representatives to its Madrid summit.
“Someone is trying to bring about a third world war,” Martin said. “On one side you have globalists and anti-Europeans; on the other, people defending Christian values and a shared European history.”
The AFP’s alignment with Russia became clear last month, when members attended a St. Petersburg rally of ultra-nationalists hosted by Kremlin-linked oligarch Konstantin Malofeev, a key sponsor of the Russian Brotherhood.
The Alliance’s shoulder-rubbing with Russia comes at a moment when international relations appear unsettlingly close to the breaking point.
And while the AFP presents itself as a defender of Europe’s identity, it seems to stop just short of outright white supremacism.
AFP members currently hold no European Parliament seats – but Fiore insisted the movement is ‘growing in the streets of Europe’, and called for an alliance between ‘militant revolutionaries’ and the populace.
This might just be what Griffin needs if he is to rival fellow far right rebel rouser Tommy Robinson (aka Stephen Yaxley Lennon).
Once sidelined by scandal, he now leverages decades of experience to serve as strategist and symbol for the pan-European far-right AFP.
On Sunday, he concluded his speech by calling out ‘arriba España, arriba Europa’ – a nod to a popular Francoist slogan loosely translated as ‘Spain and Europe above all.’
He was met with cheers and applause, but only time will tell if anyone will really listen.
Click here to read more Madrid News from The Olive Press.
