by Alfons LUNA
Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez warned Wednesday that fascism could return as X owner Elon Musk, an ally of US President-elect Donald Trump, "openly attacks our institutions" and "stirs up hatred".
Musk, who is set for a role in Trump's administration, has provoked fury across Europe with a string of attacks on the continent's leaders, including German Chancellor Olaf Scholz and UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer.
During a speech for the start of official commemorations on the 50th anniversary of dictator Francisco Franco's death, Sanchez accused Musk of heading an "international reactionary" movement that "openly attacks our institutions, stirs up hatred and openly calls for the support of the heirs of Nazism in Germany's upcoming elections".
"All this is a problem, a challenge, a challenge that should challenge all of us who believe in democracy," the Socialist premier added at the event at Madrid's Reina Sofia art museum, home to Pablo Picasso's "Guernica" painting, one of the most famous anti-Franco works.
"Autocratic regimes are advancing halfway around the world," Sanchez said, warning that "the fascism we thought we had left behind is now the third political force in Europe", a reference to far-right parties that have gained ground across the continent.
Musk has offered strong support to the extreme-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) ahead of snap elections in the country on February 23, and will host a discussion on X with the party's leader Alice Weidel on Thursday.
The billionaire has also called for Starmer to be removed and urged the release from jail of Tommy Robinson, one of Britain's most prominent far-right agitators.
French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot earlier on Wednesday urged the European Commission to protect its member states with "the greatest firmness" against interference in political debate by Musk, telling France Inter radio: "We have to wake up."
Sanchez has announced around 100 events in schools, universities, museums and the streets this year to "showcase the great transformation achieved" in the half-century since Spain initiated its democratic transition following Franco's death in November 1975.
The general overthrew a democratic republic in a brutal civil war that killed hundreds of thousands and ruled with an iron fist with the backing of fascist forces from 1939 until his death from natural causes aged 82.
Spain's main opposition conservative Popular Party (PP) believes the initiative is an opportunistic ploy by the minority leftist government to distract attention from its political and legal woes.
Corruption investigations are ongoing against Sanchez's wife and political allies, while the Socialists have to negotiate painstakingly with an array of fringe and separatist parties to pass legislation.
But the Socialists have retorted by pointing to the origins of the PP, born in 1989 as the successor to the Popular Alliance, founded in 1976 by a former Franco minister.
Sanchez recalled the "ironclad censorship" that existed during the Franco dictatorship and other restrictions such as a ban on divorce and limits on the use of the regional Basque and Catalan languages.
"You don't have to be of a particular ideology, left, centre or right, to look with sadness, with great sadness and also with terror, at the dark years of Franco's regime and fear that this regression will be repeated," he said.
"Forgetting the mistakes of the past is the first step towards repeating them again," he added.
Neither King Felipe VI nor PP leader Alberto Nunez Feijoo attended the event. Feijoo instead visited towns in the eastern region of Valencia that were ravaged by recent floods that killed over 200 people.
"Sanchez, with Franco. Feijoo, with the people of Valencia," the PP said in a statement.
© Agence France-Presse