As in the liturgy of some religious sects or in some military ceremonies, the meeting to present (SALF) as a political party ended this Sunday with those attending swearing, loudly and standing, to fulfill the commitments listed by its leader, Alvise Pérez. Among others, staying mobilized until the next general elections, for which the MEP has confirmed that he will present himself as a candidate. Previously, it has taken a public oath of loyalty to the members of its Executive. It was not a superfluous act: Diego Solier and Nora Junco, the other two MEPs who obtained a seat on the list headed by Alvise, have abandoned him and filed a complaint against him for urging his lynching through social networks and revealing personal data. It is one of the four causes it has.
Alvise has chosen the Vistalegre Palace, in the Madrid neighborhood of Carabanchel, for the launch of the new party – until now, an electoral group -, the same stage where Podemos and Vox had their mass baptism in 2014 and 2018 respectively. The ultra activist has not managed to fill the old bullring – with a capacity of 10,000 spectators – but he has managed to fill the ring and part of the stands. In total, about 4,000 people (more than 5,000, according to the organizers) who, in order to attend, had to advance 15 euros – in theory returned later – and provide personal information such as ID or credit card number. Quite an act of faith in a person who is accused of fraud.
Alvise denies that he financed his electoral campaign for the European elections with the 100,000 euros that a businessman gave him, but supposedly in exchange for promoting a fraudulent cryptocurrency business among his followers and in the European Parliament. Neither this recognition nor the four cases that he has open in the Supreme Court – among others, for spreading a false positive for covid from the then Minister of Health Salvador Illa – seem to have made an impact on his admirers.
“Today with Alvise you will know the truth and the truth will set you free,” the presenter of the event announced before giving way. Instead of going directly on stage, like the other speakers, the leader crossed the entire arena to the strains of triumphant music while being feted and acclaimed by the audience. His proposals have not differed too much from the usual ones of Vox and even the PP, although, following the advice of Groucho Marx, he has added ‘two hard-boiled eggs’ to them.
Thus, he has promised to reduce personal income tax five points for each child – Vox proposes four – and undertake “the largest mass deportation of immigrants”, financing it with the 4,000 million that Spain dedicates to development cooperation. He has presented himself as a Spanish version of Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele, who has rented his country’s prisons to Trump to lock up irregular immigrants, and has unearthed his promise to build a “macro prison” in which prisoners do not have “swimming pools, gyms or privileges.” In the same strong line, he has proposed reforming the Penal Code so that the assets of the relatives of those convicted of corruption can be seized and they do not enjoy any prison leave until they return everything stolen. One of the moments most celebrated by the audience was when an impersonator posed as former minister José Luis Ábalos and was arrested by supposed police officers.
Although the public has repeatedly shouted insults against the Prime Minister, speakers have taken pains to clarify that SALF is not against a specific party but rather the system as a whole. Former police officer Adrián Yacar, presented as an expert in Artificial Intelligence, has assured that “electoral fraud exists, although they want us to believe that they are isolated cases” and has announced a computer program, called Ecrutinia.2, with which SALF intends to do a parallel count of the votes in the next general elections.
Paradoxically, while casting doubt on the cleanliness of the Spanish electoral system, which no other party questions, SALF has shown little transparency about its own internal elections: during the event it was announced that Alvise had been elected president of the new party with 98.16% of the votes, but it has not been reported how many members voted for him.
After having been criticized for not fulfilling his promise to draw his full salary as an MEP – he suspended the draws under the pretext of the dana at the beginning of the legislature -, Alvise has staged the delivery of a check for 50,000 euros to the foundation for orphans of the National Police and has promised to repeat the operation soon with the Civil Guard.
The SALF leader has avoided directly criticizing the PP or Vox. According to what he himself confessed to businessman Álvaro Romillo, involved in the cryptocurrency fraud, his objective is to obtain the essential seats to complete a right-wing majority with Feijóo and Abascal. For this, he needs that the cases they have open in the Supreme Court do not lead to his disqualification. For now, he has appointed his own lawyer, Luis de las Heras Vives, as general secretary and number two of the party.
