Holden Caulfield
25th November 2009, 22:26
Violence broke out a far-Right rally attended by Nick Griffin at the weekend on the anniversary of the death of Fascist dictator General Francisco Franco.
The MEP and British national Party leader was a special guest at the meeting held by the Spanish far-Right National Democracy Party at a central Madrid hotel on Saturday.
Spanish police detained 28 people when a riot started between youth members of the rival ultra-right Patriotic Socialist Movement after they were denied access to the event.
Police were on high alert in the capital on Saturday as demonstrators marched through the streets to commemorate the death of Gen Franco, who died on November 20 1975.
Several hundred supporters of the regime gathered in Calle Genova, the birthplace of Jose Antonio Primo de Rivera, founder of the Falange party, before taking buses to the Valle de los Caidos, Valley of the Fallen, where both he and Gen Franco are buried.
This year, for the first time since the death of the dictator, who ruled the country with an iron-fist for 36 years, there was no mass held at the mausoleum in the hills to the west of Madrid to mark his death.
Spain's fascists traditionally gather at the vast basilica, which took 19 years to build using forced labour by Republican prisoners, to pay homage to the late dictator on the Saturday following the date of his death.
But political demonstrations at the monument have been banned under the 2007 Law of Historical Memory, brought in by the socialist government of Jose Luis Rodriquez Zapatero in an attempt to recognise the Republican victims of the civil war and dictatorship.
A spokesman for the BNP confirmed that Mr Griffin had attended a political rally in Madrid.
"He may also have made a private visit to Franco's tomb on his trip to Spain," a spokesman said.
In June the BNP won two seats in the European parliament. Mr Griffin has announced plans to run against Labour's Margaret Hodge in Barking, East London in next year's general election.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnew....y-in-Spain.html (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/spain/6630391/Violence-as-Nick-Griffin-attends-rally-in-Spain.html)
The MEP and British national Party leader was a special guest at the meeting held by the Spanish far-Right National Democracy Party at a central Madrid hotel on Saturday.
Spanish police detained 28 people when a riot started between youth members of the rival ultra-right Patriotic Socialist Movement after they were denied access to the event.
Police were on high alert in the capital on Saturday as demonstrators marched through the streets to commemorate the death of Gen Franco, who died on November 20 1975.
Several hundred supporters of the regime gathered in Calle Genova, the birthplace of Jose Antonio Primo de Rivera, founder of the Falange party, before taking buses to the Valle de los Caidos, Valley of the Fallen, where both he and Gen Franco are buried.
This year, for the first time since the death of the dictator, who ruled the country with an iron-fist for 36 years, there was no mass held at the mausoleum in the hills to the west of Madrid to mark his death.
Spain's fascists traditionally gather at the vast basilica, which took 19 years to build using forced labour by Republican prisoners, to pay homage to the late dictator on the Saturday following the date of his death.
But political demonstrations at the monument have been banned under the 2007 Law of Historical Memory, brought in by the socialist government of Jose Luis Rodriquez Zapatero in an attempt to recognise the Republican victims of the civil war and dictatorship.
A spokesman for the BNP confirmed that Mr Griffin had attended a political rally in Madrid.
"He may also have made a private visit to Franco's tomb on his trip to Spain," a spokesman said.
In June the BNP won two seats in the European parliament. Mr Griffin has announced plans to run against Labour's Margaret Hodge in Barking, East London in next year's general election.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnew....y-in-Spain.html (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/spain/6630391/Violence-as-Nick-Griffin-attends-rally-in-Spain.html)