Workers' Front (Spain)

Last updated
Workers' Front
Frente Obrero
AbbreviationFO
Leader Roberto Vaquero
FoundedOctober 2018
Registered13 March 2019
HeadquartersCalle Gascó Oliag 6, PTA 42. 46010 Valencia
NewspaperUNIÓN
Ideology [ citation needed ]
Political position far-left
Local seats
1 / 67,152
Website
https://frenteobrero.es/

Workers' Front (Spanish: Frente Obrero, FO) is a Spanish political party founded as a mass organization by the anti-revisionist party PML (RC) in October 2018 and registered as a separate political party in March 2019. As of 2024, it is headed by Roberto Vaquero, a geographer, historian and political activist also graduated in political sciences from the Complutense University of Madrid.

Contents

History

The Workers' Front was established on October 14, 2018 at the Ateneo de Madrid as a front organization of the PML(RC). [1] Subsequently, the Workers' Front expanded to several cities in Spain, such as La Coruña, León, Ponferrada, Zaragoza, and Cádiz. [2]

On June 12, 2022, their first congress was held. During the congress the decision to become a political party was approved by the members. Representatives from other organizations, such as the Polisario Front, spoke during the congress. [3]

In late 2023, the group announced they would be participating in the 2023 Spanish protests against the PSOE government. [4]

Since then, they, and especially their leader, Roberto Vaquero, have gained presence in social media and even national televisions in Spain, participating in debates on current political issues in programs such as Horizonte, on channel Cuatro. [5]

Ideology

Despite being strongly connected with the PML(RC) and supporting far-left ideologies such as Marxism-Leninism, the FO is not explicitly communist. Their political ideology is a syncretic combination of left-wing economic positions and right-wing cultural and ethical viewpoints. [6]

In their program A Spain for the Workers, they defend national sovereignty, Hispanic identity, free university education, the nationalization of strategic economic sectors, energy sovereignty, nuclear energy, increasing the minimum wage, supporting the rural sector, promoting birth rates, creating more public housing, introducing rent control and limiting immigration. [7]

They oppose capitalism, the European Union, NATO, surrogacy, feminism, deindustrialization, queer theory, the Trans Law, affirmative action, islamization, [8] cosmopolitanism and political correctness.

Criticism

The party has been criticized by other leftist organizations as transphobic because of denying the gender ideology and the idea that the gender (especially being a woman) is only a "feeling".

Moreover, they have considered it reactionary and racist because of being strongly opossed to the increasing presence of islamic immigration not integrated into European societies (sometimes non-respectful with women's or LGBT's rignts, other times linked to higher crime rates than the native population, or with violent events motivated by religious fanaticism).

In addition, they have been compared (negatively) to the right-wing party Vox [9] [10] because of some coincidences in the aforementioned ideas.

It has also been accused of giving credit to the Great Replacement theory, despite the fact that it is a logical consequence of the combination of the current European demography and the current migratory patterns. [11]

In 2023, FO was accused of having received money from the Algerian government by Euromagreb. This was later denied by the party. [12]

Elections

The FO participated in elections for the first time in the 2023 Spanish local elections. They ran in Villalba de los Arcos, Santa Margalida, Mislata, and Mandayona, winning one seat in Mandayona.

Election results

2023 Spanish local elections
MunicipalityVotes%Seats
Villalba de los Arcos 277.6%0
Santa Margalida 1001.8%0
Mislata 2551.1%0
Mandayona 4221.6%1

The FO then contested the 2023 general election, fielding candidates in 50 of the 52 constituencies. [13] They received 46,605 (0,19%) votes, but no seats.

Cortes Generales

Cortes Generales
ElectionLeading candidateCongressSenateGovernment
Votes %Seats+/–Seats+/–
2023 Roberto Vaquero 46,2740.19 (#14)
0 / 350
Arrow Blue Right 001.svg 0
0 / 208
Arrow Blue Right 001.svg 0Extra-parliamentary

See also

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References

  1. "Presentación del comité pro-Frente Obrero España" (PDF). UNION. October 2018. p. 6.
  2. "LA MARCHA DEL FRENTE OBRERO" (PDF). UNION. January 2018. p. 10.
  3. I CONGRESO DEL FRENTE OBRERO , retrieved 2023-07-09
  4. "Un grupo radical de izquierda alienta una protesta en Ferraz contra la amnistía". El Debate (in Spanish). 2023-11-09. Retrieved 2023-11-12.
  5. "Iker Jiménez y su Horizonte arrasan hablando de Ábalos con Roberto Vaquero de invitado". e-noticies.cat (in Spanish). 2024-03-01. Retrieved 2024-06-01.
  6. "Return of the Old Left: A Look at the Spanish Worker's Front". europeanconservative.com. 2023-03-25. Retrieved 2023-07-09.
  7. "PROGRAMA". Frente Obrero España (in Spanish). 2022-09-07. Retrieved 2023-07-09.
  8. "The Workers' Front revives the "they will not pass" warning that "Islamism wants to conquer Spain"". The Objective (in Spanish). 2023-07-19.
  9. "Frente Obrero, un discurso político homofóbico y racista que promueve la división de la clase trabajadora". La Izquierda Diario - Red internacional (in Spanish). Retrieved 2023-07-09.
  10. "El partido de los escraches a Sánchez y Podemos se presenta a las elecciones por primera vez en Castilla y León". El Español (in Spanish). 2023-06-21. Retrieved 2023-07-09.
  11. https://aldescubierto.org/2023/02/03/desmontando-las-mentiras-de-roberto-vaquero-y-la-ultraderecha-sobre-la-inmigracion/
  12. https://www.atalayar.com/en/articulo/politics/frente-obrero-denies-being-in-the-service-of-algeria-and-having-received-money-from-the-north-african-country/20230720104111188485.html
  13. "BOLETÍN OFICIAL DEL ESTADO" (PDF). JUNTAS ELECTORALES PROVINCIALES. 21 June 2023. Retrieved 9 July 2023.