Blas Piñar López (22 November 1918 – 28 January 2014) was a Spanish

far-right Far-right politics, often termed right-wing extremism, encompasses a range of ideologies that are marked by ultraconservatism, authoritarianism, ultranationalism, and nativism. This political spectrum situates itself on the far end of the ...

politician. Having connections to

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organizations, during the Francoist dictatorship he directed the Institute of Hispanic Culture (''Instituto de Cultura Hispánica'') and served as ''procurador'' in the Cortes and as national councillor (1955–1977). He later became a member of the

Congress of Deputies The Congress of Deputies () is the lower house of the , Spain's legislative branch, the upper house being the Senate of Spain, Senate. The Congress meets in the Palacio de las Cortes, Madrid, Palace of the Parliament () in Madrid. Congress has ...

in 1979. He led the far-right New Force and National Front political parties.

Biography

Piñar was born in Toledo. He was a law student in Madrid when the

Spanish Civil War The Spanish Civil War () was a military conflict fought from 1936 to 1939 between the Republican faction (Spanish Civil War), Republicans and the Nationalist faction (Spanish Civil War), Nationalists. Republicans were loyal to the Left-wing p ...

broke out and took refuge in the embassies of Finland and Paraguay, later doing work as a clandestine "fifth columnist" for the Nationalist forces. From 1957 to 1962, he was in charge of the Institute of Hispanic Culture that was dedicated to managing scholarships between

Latin American Latin Americans (; ) are the citizenship, citizens of Latin American countries (or people with cultural, ancestral or national origins in Latin America). Latin American countries and their Latin American diaspora, diasporas are Metroethnicity, ...

and Spanish universities. After a trip to Latin America and the Philippines, Piñar wrote an article for the Madrid newspaper '' ABC''. The article, entitled "Hypocrites," harshly criticized the

foreign policy of the United States The officially stated goals of the foreign policy of the United States of America, including all the bureaus and offices in the United States Department of State, as mentioned in the ''Foreign Policy Agenda'' of the Department of State, are ...

. At that time,

Francoist Spain Francoist Spain (), also known as the Francoist dictatorship (), or Nationalist Spain () was the period of Spanish history between 1936 and 1975, when Francisco Franco ruled Spain after the Spanish Civil War with the title . After his death i ...

depended on bilateral relations with the United States to maintain international recognition for the Francoist State. Franco's minister of Foreign Affairs, after giving many explanations to the US ambassador, dismissed Piñar. Despite the dismissal, Piñar's loyalty to the Francoist State did not diminish. He was an opponent of the breakup of the regime. He voted and argued against the Political Reform Act. He saw the law not as an attempt at reform, but an attempt at disintegration. Piñar also opposed the

Spanish Constitution of 1978 The Spanish Constitution () is the supreme law of the Kingdom of Spain. It was enacted after its approval in 1978 in a constitutional referendum; it represents the culmination of the Spanish transition to democracy. The current version was a ...

and voted against it in its entirety. After the death of Franco, he created New Force (Fuerza Nueva), a National Catholic organization, and in 1979 was elected a deputy for the Unión Nacional coalition representing

Madrid Madrid ( ; ) is the capital and List of largest cities in Spain, most populous municipality of Spain. It has almost 3.5 million inhabitants and a Madrid metropolitan area, metropolitan area population of approximately 7 million. It i ...

. Much like most of the deputies, he endured the 1981 Spanish coup attempt led by Antonio Tejero, for 18 hours. After the loss of his seat in the 1982 elections he dissolved Fuerza Nueva (not the publishing house of the same name which continued publishing). In 1986, with the aid of

Jean-Marie Le Pen Jean Louis Marie Le Pen (20 June 1928 – 7 January 2025), commonly known as Jean-Marie Le Pen (), was a French politician, lawyer and activist. He founded the far-right National Front (now National Rally) party and served as the party's presi ...

, he reconstructed the group as the National Front and stood without success for the European parliamentary elections of 1987 and 1989. In 1992 he became president of the Frente Nacional Español (Spanish National Front), the product of the union between his group and the Juntas Españolas.

References

External links

Interview with Blas Piñar on Spanish site (in Spanish)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Pinar, Blas 1918 births 2014 deaths People from Toledo, Spain Members of the 1st Congress of Deputies (Spain) National Front (Spain) politicians Leaders of political parties in Spain Spanish nationalists Francoists FET y de las JONS politicians