An investigation by Searchlight’s contacts in Spain has uncovered the identity of a masked man behind the launch of a new Spanish nazi party – and the reasons he wants to hide.
Also involved is one of the best known younger Spanish nazis, Isabel Peralta, who has twice spoken at nazi conferences in the UK and is known to work closely with Heritage and Destiny and the small German nazi movement Dritte Weg (Third Way).
She recently joined the newly-launched gang of extremists called Núcleo Nacional (National Nucleus).
Veteran falangist
NN have higher level connections than the usual nazi street gang. At the launch of their Madrid headquarters, Peralta spoke alongside Enrique Lemus, a veteran of the falangist scene who has close links to the international fascist networker Roberto Fiore.
The third member of the panel wore a balaclava mask, and was identified only as “Iván”. He has regularly posted on social media during the past year or two, sometimes with a balaclava and sometimes wearing a frog mask, derived from the American and European far-right’s use of “Pepe the Frog”.
He has also used the nickname Rana or Una Rana Baneada (“a banned frog”).
Searchlight can reveal that the main reason “Ivan” hides his name is to disguise his family ties to the right-wing of the Partido Popular (PP), Spain’s main conservative party.
His father is Enrique Rico Pérez, a former PP councillor and wealthy businessman in the north-eastern Madrid district of Valdeolmos-Alalpardo. Other wealthy backers of NN include Pedro Jésus Espada, a councillor in another Madrid district, Velilla de San Antonio.
Future coalition
Iván’s full name is Iván Rico Olivares, and his brother David is a fellow NN activist. The two brothers recently travelled with Peralta to the southern Spanish town of Torre-Pachecos, after days of anti-immigration rioting.
Rival groups on the right have accused Peralta and NN of acting as the militant wing of Vox, a Farage-style party that is currently polling between 15%-18% and hopes to form a future coalition government with the PP.
Stirring up trouble on the streets over immigration is designed to benefit these right-wing forces, in Spain as in the UK.
There are bitter debates within the football hooligan and falangist scene over whether Peralta (whose glamour guarantees headlines beyond the scope of most such movements) and her new NN friends are using them as puppets of the conservative right.
Another split is (as in much of Europe) over Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Enrique Lemus and another falangist veteran within NN, Carlos Paz (best known as a pro-Iranian propagandist), are vocal supporters of Putin.
Bloody schism
But Peralta’s close friends at the British magazine Heritage and Destiny and the German nazi groupuscule Dritte Weg are pro-Ukraine.
As usual, the far right agree on promoting hate but have personal ambitions and rivalries that will guarantee a bloody schism in the near future.
