Bastion Frontal, Hogar Social, National Democracy, Skin Moncloa… groups and subgroups diluted in recent times have found in Madrid a new far-right port in which to land and join forces to re-emerge with new impetus, a very young spirit and political ambitions. They called themselves the National Nucleus (NN), even though the germ of this far-right movement emerged – according to police sources – in the Ferraz protests of November 2023, in front of the PSOE headquarters. So they coined the name “National November”. Today, two years later, after a studied marketing campaign and merchandising with which they shaped their brand and gave free rein to their aesthetic of scarves and tight black dresses, there are now 1,500 members, according to the same sources. “They are mostly very young and pay a fee of ten euros a month,” underline sources from the Police Information Service. They have their “Nest” in Las Tablas, as they called the large venue – with gym included – where they show off their symbols, summon their current and potential followers and inflate their body muscles.
In these two years they have opened two more branches – in Barcelona and Valladolid – and they intend to open two more soon in Marbella and Asturias. They have a great desire to grow, led by a woman, the neo-Nazi Isabel Peralta (formerly of Bastión Frontal), and by Iván Rico Olivares, who notoriously have no other occupation or benefit other than proselytism, according to police sources. On the networks, their natural environment, they are encouraged with messages and videos from David Rico Olivares (Ivan’s brother), the singer Alberto Pugilato or the youtubers David Santos. The Rico Olivares brothers, sons of a former PP councillor, are very active in the networks, but maintain a much more discreet profile in real life, residing in a small town in Guadalajara near Madrid, according to the same sources.
In an attempt to find political space to participate in the system “to explode it from within”, the youth of the Núcleo Nacional have flirted intensely with the historic Falange, and at the same time distanced themselves from the football ultras and their more radical fans, who they do not want in their ranks.
This week of 20-N, which also coincides with the 50th anniversary of Franco’s death, they joined the demonstration on Friday evening called by the Falange, according to police sources. The protest was initially rejected by the Madrid government delegation and subsequently authorized by the Superior Court of Justice. The slogan of the call was a mixture of its ideology: “For the victims of DNA; for the victims of healthcare management; for the victims of immigrant violence; for the victims of terrorism; for the victims of abortion and euthanasia; and for the victims of accidents at work”, we read in the propaganda distributed through its official channels on social networks.
Hate crimes and death threats
The procession, which began near the PP headquarters in via Génova, culminated again at the PSOE headquarters in Ferraz. There, the nearly 700 participants – according to police sources – uttered xenophobic chants and harsh slogans against President Pedro Sánchez (“Pedro Sánchez, shot in the back of the head”), which could be judicially investigated as hate crimes or death threats. A possibility that the Government is studying.
This month of November was marked in red in the calendar of the Núcleo Nacional and its leaders and members mobilized very actively and participated in some clashes, such as the demonstration on November 8, when they crossed the Paseo del Prado in Madrid towards the Cortes with a banner with the words “White Lives Matter” (“White lives matter”, as opposed to the anti-racist slogan: Black Lives Matter”) and posters with messages such as: “Remigration” or “More, out of Spain.” That night, some of the hundreds of marchers ended up running through the streets around the Congress, chased by riot police.
This week, in the desire to increase the number of members of their association and their income, they have announced a new event for last Saturday at six in the afternoon: “Meeting of new militants and affiliates of the National Nucleus”.
At 6pm, around 50 young people, between 18 and 35 years old, went to “El Nido”, a large venue located in the Las Tablas neighbourhood, north of Madrid, still under renovation. They opened it in June and there is a gym because health and exercise, they say, are one of their core values. It also has a library adorned with a Hitler painting, a meeting room that still serves as a warehouse, and a larger conference room with a terrace and a bar where they also sell the group’s T-shirts and bracelets.
There the speeches are given in front of an audience made up mostly of young people (only four women, including Peralta), dressed in black. During the speechwith which they want to make things clear to those who have approached out of curiosity or sympathy, they talk about race, about immigration as the biggest problem in Europe today and about the need to better filter their militants to avoid problems with the police or make themselves ridiculous in front of the media that target them in their mobilisations.
A community of supermen
The idea of the collective, according to Peralta herself, is to create a community of “supermen” willing to die for the country and their companions, disciplined at work, in the gym and in studies.
They are aware of the importance of intellectualizing their speech and, in order to be able to defend their ideas with arguments, every week they organize a reading club there in which they discuss books that deal with themes of fascist, Phalangist, Francoist or, as they prefer to call it, National Socialist ideology. Peralta, a staunch defender of Nazi Germany, wants to organize a meeting where some of the books Hitler ordered burned will be read to understand, he says, why they were ordered to do so.
During Saturday’s speech, they also highlighted their differences with Vox to their new campaigners. They pointed out that while they have similar ideas about immigration, the same is not true about race. “We are racist or racist,” Ivan Rico admitted during the speech. They also accused the party that stood in the elections not long ago, accusing the PP of being “the cowardly right”, of being lukewarm. Their idea, they say, is to go against the system, contrary to the Constitution and democracy. However, they recognize that their plans include forming their own political party one day, not long ago, to put an end to what they detest from within. “You need to be aware that when you try to end the system, the system also tries to end you,” warns Peralta in this regard.
Beyond these public and publicized meetings, the more effective actions with which they try to make themselves visible and their activity in the networks, Núcleo Nacional, as have the groups that compose it, carry out hidden work in neighborhoods and neighborhood associations, especially in those where there is a greater percentage of immigrant population or in reception centers, as in the case of the Hortaleza neighborhood. It is there that they transmit and disguise their anti-immigration ideology, trying to unite discontent with the insecurity of the neighborhood. In recent times they have also been opening up to Europe, meeting similar movements from countries such as Austria, Poland, Bulgaria, Hungary… Their objective: to strengthen themselves by expanding and amplifying the far-right current that crosses the European continent.
