Falange Auténtica (, FA) is a

Falangist Falangism () was the political ideology of three political parties in Spain that were known as the Falange, namely first the Falange Española, the Falange Española de las Juntas de Ofensiva Nacional Sindicalista (FE de las JONS), and afterwa ...

political party A political party is an organization that coordinates candidates to compete in a particular area's elections. It is common for the members of a party to hold similar ideas about politics, and parties may promote specific political ideology, ...

Spain Spain, or the Kingdom of Spain, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe with territories in North Africa. Featuring the Punta de Tarifa, southernmost point of continental Europe, it is the largest country in Southern Eur ...

. FA emerged in 2002 as a split from FE/La Falange. FA claims to represent the heritage of the dissolved Falange Española de las JONS (Auténtica) (FE-JONS). The term 'Authentic' refers to the positioning of FA as 'authentic' as opposed to the official Falange under the rule of

Francisco Franco Francisco Franco Bahamonde (born Francisco Paulino Hermenegildo Teódulo Franco Bahamonde; 4 December 1892 – 20 November 1975) was a Spanish general and dictator who led the Nationalist faction (Spanish Civil War), Nationalist forces i ...

. The second National Chief of the Spanish Falange,

Manuel Hedilla Manuel Hedilla Larrey (July 18, 1902 – February 4, 1970) was a Spanish political figure who was a leading member of the Falange and an early rival for power towards Francisco Franco. He was a mechanic by trade. Early life Hedilla was born i ...

(1902–1970), had opposed the forced merger of FE-JONS with the traditionalists. Hedilla who had refused to join the council of the new party and had tried to mobilize his supporters was arrested on 25 April 1937, accused of conspiring against Franco, and condemned to death. However, his sentence was commuted to life in prison on the advice of

Ramón Serrano Suñer Ramón Serrano Suñer (12 September 1901 – 1 September 2003), was a Spanish politician during the first stages of the Francoist dictatorship, between 1938 and 1942, when he held the posts of President of the FET y de las JONS caucus (1936 ...

, Franco's brother-in-law. Beevor, Antony, ''The Battle for Spain'', p. 286 FA contested the 2003 municipal election in various parts of the country. It won two seats in El Hoyo de Pinares,

Ávila Ávila ( , , ) is a Spanish city located in the autonomous community of Castile and León. It is the capital and most populated municipality of the Province of Ávila. It lies on the right bank of the Adaja river. Located more than 1,130 m a ...

, and one in Ardales,

Málaga Málaga (; ) is a Municipalities in Spain, municipality of Spain, capital of the Province of Málaga, in the Autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community of Andalusia. With a population of 591,637 in 2024, it is the second-most populo ...

History

While Falange Auténtica was officially incorporated in the Constituent Congress held in November 2002 in the city of Alicante, it had been operating since April of that year. On that date, an important meeting of the "Phalange National Table" in the town of Viznar,

Granada Granada ( ; ) is the capital city of the province of Granada, in the autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community of Andalusia, Spain. Granada is located at the foot of the Sierra Nevada (Spain), Sierra Nevada mountains, at the confluence ...

, in which the future actions of the group were defined. The result of one of the decisions made by the attendees, was the launch of a political group under the name Falange Auténtica and the start of the procedures required for public registration. The meeting in Viznar had been called by the aforementioned Phalange National Table. This had appeared in February 2002 when a large group of individual activists and several provincial centers abandoned the direction of FE/La Falange. Since its founding this political group has participated in several demonstrations against

ETA Eta ( ; uppercase , lowercase ; ''ē̂ta'' or ''ita'' ) is the seventh letter of the Greek alphabet, representing the close front unrounded vowel, . Originally denoting the voiceless glottal fricative, , in most dialects of Ancient Greek, it ...

, organised by the AVT in 2006, the Ermua Forum in 2007, and the

CCOO The Workers' Commissions () since the 1970s has become the largest trade union in Spain. It has more than one million members, and is the most successful union in labor elections, competing with the Unión General de Trabajadores (UGT), which is ...

and UGT in the same year. Different rallies and public events of Falange Auténtica have had the participation of the likes of sports journalist Jose Antonio Martin Otín, French-Spanish scholar Arnaud Imatz, and writer Fernando Sánchez Dragó.

Ideology

Falange Auténtica proposes the

socialization In sociology, socialization (also socialisation – see American and British English spelling differences#-ise, -ize (-isation, -ization), spelling differences) is the process of Internalisation (sociology), internalizing the Norm (social), norm ...

of the economy by taking the

trade union A trade union (British English) or labor union (American English), often simply referred to as a union, is an organization of workers whose purpose is to maintain or improve the conditions of their employment, such as attaining better wages ...

as the basis for working life in a way that the people involved in the management of enterprises and the economy through trade unions organized by productive sectors. It rejects

capitalism Capitalism is an economic system based on the private ownership of the means of production and their use for the purpose of obtaining profit. This socioeconomic system has developed historically through several stages and is defined by ...

and promotes the strengthening of

social protection Social protection, as defined by the United Nations Research Institute for Social Development, is concerned with preventing, managing, and overcoming situations that adversely affect people's well-being. Social protection consists of policies and ...

. They argue that the ownership of the means of production should lead to the

collectivization Collective farming and communal farming are various types of "agricultural production in which multiple farmers run their holdings as a joint enterprise". There are two broad types of communal farms: agricultural cooperatives, in which member- ...

, but not as advocated by

Marxists Marxism is a political philosophy and method of socioeconomic analysis. It uses a dialectical and materialist interpretation of historical development, better known as historical materialism, to analyse class relations, social conflict, and ...

in the

ownership Ownership is the state or fact of legal possession and control over property, which may be any asset, tangible or intangible. Ownership can involve multiple rights, collectively referred to as '' title'', which may be separated and held by dif ...

of the state, but in the sense of

collective ownership Collective ownership is the ownership of private property by all members of a group. The breadth or narrowness of the group can range from a whole society to a set of coworkers in a particular enterprise (such as one collective farm). In the la ...

of the neighborhood, community or unions. They include the right to a decent life, which not only leads them to reject the death penalty, abortion, torture, racism and

euthanasia Euthanasia (from : + ) is the practice of intentionally ending life to eliminate pain and suffering. Different countries have different Legality of euthanasia, euthanasia laws. The British House of Lords Select committee (United Kingdom), se ...

, but also discrimination based on religion, gender, and sexual orientation. They believe that political participation should not be seen only as a right but also a duty of citizens and therefore political participation should not be limited to political parties, but should also actively extended to civic associations, unions and companies.

Foreign policy

Argentina Argentina, officially the Argentine Republic, is a country in the southern half of South America. It covers an area of , making it the List of South American countries by area, second-largest country in South America after Brazil, the fourt ...

, they maintain a close relationship with the Authentic

Peronist Peronism, also known as justicialism, is an Argentine ideology and movement based on the ideas, doctrine and legacy of Juan Perón (1895–1974). It has been an influential movement in 20th- and 21st-century Argentine politics. Since 1946, Pe ...

Movement. While their attention is centered on foreign policy in Latin America, outside of this field they have shown on numerous occasions their sympathy to the Lebanese

Kataeb Party The Kataeb Party (), officially the Kataeb Party – Lebanese Social Democratic Party ( '), also known as the Phalangist Party, is a right-wing Christian political party in Lebanon founded by Pierre Gemayel in 1936. The party and its parami ...

Election results

Their electoral successes have been limited to the municipal level, only ever getting councilors in the municipalities of two small towns: Ardales and El Hoyo de Pinares. These results have been described as "absolutely marginal". Falange Auténtica was presented to the municipal elections of 2003 in ten municipalities, obtaining two councilors by the Avila town of El Hoyo de Pinares and a councilor for Ardales, Malaga. Under the departments of the party in the town of Avila, the first pilot project Electronic Democracy in Spain was performed. In the 2007 municipal elections, they presented lists in most municipalities although the results were more modest. They only won two councilors in Ardales, which supported the candidate of the United Left, to access the mayor and thus displace the most votes but without an absolute majority socialist candidate. This provoked enough excitement both in the days before the vote of investiture, as after the outcome. The situation generated some controversy within IU, which threatened with expulsion from the council while it was assumed with apparent ease in the political field of Falange Auténtica. Falange Auténtica has been submitted to all election calls since its inception, except for the Spanish general elections of 2011, which although initially showed interest in participating, finally did not, as part of the Platform for Constitutional Freedom where they advocated achieving a majority abstention to make way for the opening of a constituent period.

References

External links