The far-right ‘hooligan’ disrupting Spanish politics 

MADRID — “I don’t want to reform anything, I want to destroy the system.”

A warning from the Alternative for Germany? Or France’s National Rally? Or even Donald Trump? No, that was the message from Luis “Alvise” Pérez, a Spanish online agitator, as he campaigned (successfully) to become a member of the European Parliament.

Pérez’s party Se Acabó La Fiesta (SALF) — in English, The Party’s Over — won over 800,000 votes and three seats in the EU election. Despite that success, it’s not yet clear if SALF will become a major force in Spanish politics or is merely a short-term disruptor. What is clear, however, is that Pérez has Spain’s political class and mainstream media in his crosshairs.

SALF did not publish a manifesto ahead of the EU vote. Instead, its policies have been laid out at impromptu rallies in town squares by Pérez, whose stated priorities are the fight against corruption and a clampdown on immigration and crime.

“I want to be the next prime minister of Spain with concrete measures to overhaul my country,” he told POLITICO. 

“What I want is to change the democratic system of my country, to make it a top-level country, like England, like the United States.”

Born in Seville, Pérez spent seven years in his twenties living in Leeds in northern England, after volunteering for the centrist Union, Progress and Democracy (UPyD) as a student. On returning to Spain, he worked as a consultant for the self-styled liberal party Ciudadanos. But during the pandemic, he made his name as a digital crusader by targeting politicians for alleged corruption, linking immigration to crime, and denouncing supposedly false gender violence cases.

“His arguments were close to those of [far-right party] Vox, but his method of communicating was more hooligan-like,” said Javier Negre, a right-wing journalist ally of Pérez. “He didn’t have much to lose and his objective was to get the attention of those who were fed up with everything.”

According to data specialist Kiko Llaneras, preelection numbers show that more than three-quarters of SALF voters in the EU ballot were under the age of 45. Also, SALF’s male voters outnumbered its female voters by 2-to-1 among its youngest supporters, but by 7-to-1 in the 24-44 bracket.

But while Pérez is a truth-teller for thousands of Spaniards, many others see a cynical conspiracy theorist.

El País newspaper described him as an “alarm bell for our democratic system” and warned that he had “broadened the electoral space by appropriating the anger, the disinformation and the uncertainty of a part of society.”

Pérez admits that one main reason why he ran to be an MEP was to gain parliamentary immunity because of legal action triggered by his campaigning.

One lawsuit was brought against Pérez after he circulated on social media a bogus document that appeared to show that the then-health minister, Salvador Illa, had tested positive for Covid before a campaign debate. Pérez, who says he did not create the document, is awaiting a ruling after being accused of defamation and falsification. Also during Covid, he claimed that the former left-wing mayor of Madrid, Manuela Carmena, had a ventilator delivered to her home in order to avoid being treated in hospital. Pérez was ordered to pay Carmena €5,000 in damages but has appealed against the court’s decision.

Despite his legal woes, Pérez is unapologetic, insisting he answers only to his online followers — known as “squirrels” because his left-wing antagonists used to call him a “squirrel-screwer” — who he says fund his activities, and that he is doing work the established media refuses to do.

“Internet and large online communities are going to reformulate our political systems,” he said in an interview. “I am representing a digital community of hundreds of thousands, or millions, of people and it is to them that I am responsible and it is they who finance me.”

Taking cues from the far right

Pérez’s stances place him firmly in the orbit of the far right. He’s called for an overhaul of EU agricultural policy and Spain’s exit from the bloc if existing accords are not changed, and has outlined draconian measures to battle immigration and crime.

“I was an immigrant in England for seven years, I’m super pro-immigration,” he said. “But it’s also true that we have a security problem linked to a type of illegal immigration, from North Africa.”

Pérez has issued a Trumpian promise to build a “mega-prison” in which he says Socialist Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez should be locked up. He also declares himself an admirer of Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele, who has waged a controversial zero-tolerance war on gang violence.

Sánchez, who has used the threat of the far right to mobilize leftist voters, appears to relish the emergence of SALF. In a congressional debate after the EU election, the prime minister mentioned Pérez by name several times, casting him as part of a three-pronged radical right alongside the center-right People’s Party (PP) and Vox.

“I know why you’re nervous,” Sánchez said in the debate, addressing Vox leader Santiago Abascal. “A tough rival has emerged. You were used to making hyperbolic, exaggerated, radical declarations, competing in the far-right arena with [the PP] and now another competitor has emerged in Mr. Alvise.”

Half of SALF voters, according to Llaneras, had voted for Vox in last year’s general election, while 20 percent had voted for the PP and 15 percent had not voted at all.

Rafael Bardají, a co-founder of Vox who is no longer involved in politics, believes Pérez should be a major cause for concern for his former party and that Pérez could be a problem for Spain’s political right in general.

 “The most negative impact the vote for Alvise could have for the [right] is a fragmentation of the vote in a general election where in some electoral districts he could prevent the PP and Vox — but above all Vox — from gaining an extra member of parliament,” Bardají said.

Pérez insists that both the PP and Vox “hate” him because they have also been the targets of his corruption allegations.

In public at least, both parties are treating Pérez with caution. The PP’s spokesman Borja Sémper said his party had “full respect for those who have voted for that political option.” Vox’s politicians have avoided talking about the new arrival.

Yet, in Spain’s fragmented political landscape, Pérez and his “squirrels” could decide whether the right is able to govern after the next election, which is due in three years but could come sooner because of the country’s fractured political landscape. SALF’s impact, therefore, could go way beyond stirring controversy.