Political Parties and Movements (Spain)

Last modified: 2003-07-12 by santiago dotor
Keywords: spain | politics | partido popular | partido socialista obrero espaņol | izquierda unida | partido socialista unificado de cataluņa | falange espaņola | fe de las jons | letters | bird: dove | rose (red) | fist | anarchist | g |
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• Nationwide Political Parties:
  • Popular Party (Partido Popular / PP)
  • Spanish Socialist Workers' Party (Partido Socialista Obrero Español / PSOE)
  • United Left (Izquierda Unida / IU)
  • Spanish Phalanx (Falange Española [de las JONS] / FE-JONS)
    • Free Fatherland (Patria Libre)
  • New Force (Fuerza Nueva / FN)
  • Anarchists (Confederación Nacional del Trabajo — Federación Anarquista Ibérica / CNT-FAI)
  • Independent Liberal Group (Grupo Independiente Liberal / GIL)
• Socialist Unified Party of Catalonia (Partido Socialista Unificado de Cataluña)
• Nationalist Parties:
  • Andalusian Nationalist Movements
  • Asturian Nationalist Parties
  • Basque Nationalist Movements
  • Cantabrian Nationalist Movements
  • Castilian Nationalist Parties
  • Catalan Nationalist Flags
  • Galician Nationalist Parties
  • Independentists of the Canary Islands
  • Leonese Nationalist Parties
• Neonazi and Nationalsocialist Flags in Spain

See also:

• Political Parties 1931-1939 (Spain)
• Anarchism Flags
• Spain

See also:

• Listado de partidos políticos (extensive list of all political parties) at the Spanish Ministry of Interior website

The flags of the Partido Popular (right-wing / centre / christian-democrat, currently in government), Partido Socialista Obrero Español (socialdemocrat, in government up to May 1996) and Izquierda Unida (a coalition of communist, socialist and republican parties) seem LOBs rather than flags.

Santiago Dotor, 6 October 1998

Partido Popular (PP)

by Santiago Dotor

I am not very sure of the dimensions of the logo. I believe there is another version of the PP flag with the full name instead of just the initials.

Santiago Dotor, 6 October 1998

The currently ruling Partido Popular changed its own logo to the one shown above shortly before the general elections of 1996 moving the bird (it happens to be an albatros) from below the capital letters to above them. At the time it was explained as a symbol to rise morale for the oncoming electoral victory (which by the way took place).

M. V. Blanes, 24 January 2000

Flag used until 1996

by Santiago Dotor and M. V. Blanes

Partido Socialista Obrero Español (PSOE)

by Santiago Dotor

I am not very sure of the dimensions of the logo, nor whether the flag has the party's initials below the logo.

Santiago Dotor, 6 October 1998

The Spanish socialist party has changed its logo. In the future a red stylized rose on white will substitute the current logo (the fist and the rose), though for some time both badges will be used. The new logo will be used in flags.

Jaume Ollé, 30 December 1998

Izquierda Unida (IU)

by Santiago Dotor

I am not very sure of the dimensions of the logo.

Santiago Dotor, 6 October 1998

Partido Socialista Unificado de Cataluña

by M.V. Blanes

The Socialist Unified Party of Catalonia [Partido Socialista Unificado de Cataluña] or PSUC was founded on July 23rd 1936, only a few days after the beginning of the Spanish Civil War, as the result of the convergence of four preexisting parties: the Catalan Proletarian Party, the Socialist Union of Catalonia, the catalan branch of the Socialist Worker's Party of Spain and the Communist Party of Catalonia. During the war the PSUC took part in the Government of Catalonia and was banned as result of the defeat of the Republican forces.

During the 1939-1975 regime it acted in clandestinity and as soon as democracy returned to Spain it was legally refounded in 1976. Nowadays it is federated in a Coalition named Iniciativa per Catalunya - Els Verds (Initiative for Catalonia - Green Party) and has an elected MP in the Spanish Congress and several MPs in the Catalan Autonomous Parliament.

There are also reports of the same flag in yellow-red instead of white-red.

M.V. Blanes, 7 November 2000

This party now exists as a part of a coalition called Esquerra Unida i Alternativa (EUiA, unified and alternative left).

Toni Esteban, 20 February 2002

by Santiago Dotor

I purchased a 3"x5" flag of the Falange Party when I visited the Valley of the Fallen monument outside Madrid. The flag is equally divided into 3 vertical stripes red-black-red with a yoke of 5 red arrows [and yoke] in the black center panel.

stormer8@aol.com, 30 January 1999

This is the current flag of Falange Española (de las Juntas de Ofensiva Nacionalsindicalista) (in short, FE de las JONS, or more usually Falange). This is the legitimate Falange party (whatever that means...), though many exist: Falange Auténtica, Falange Independiente etc.

Santiago Dotor, 1 February 1999

Incorrect variation shown in Smith 1975

by Ivan Sache

Smith 1975, pp. 340-341 ("Symbols in politics"), shows among others the flag of Spain's National Phalanx party. Vertical red-black-red (1:2:1) with red emblem in the middle of black stripe. The description above is of a flag purchased in the Franco memorial, so Smith may be wrong.

Ivan Sache, 6 August 1999

Patria Libre

by Jaume Ollé

Patria Libre is a youth group that depends directly from FE-JONS (Falange Espaņola de las Juntas de Ofensiva Nacional Sindicalista).

Javier Lorenzo Huerta, 18 November 1999

Fuerza Nueva (FN)

by António Martins

Jorge Candeias wrote about PPB as the most right-wing Brazilian party and described its flag as "blue over red horizontal bicolour with white initials centered in an italic font". This is weird, because the colours are the same as those of the most known Spanish right wing party in the late 70s and early 80s, Fuerza Nueva (New Force). Its flag was square, per bend sinister blue over red, with "F" on the top hoist and "N" on the bottom fly (white letters in a sans serif font). The colours were those of the uniforms (not the flag) of FET de las JONS, the single party during General Franco's regime — the blue shirt of the Falange and the red beret of the Carlists. The red and blue combination still tends to be seen -in politics- as denoting right wing orientations. Where do the Brazilian "right-wing red and blue" come from?

Santiago Dotor, 11 May 1999

Confederación Nacional del Trabajo - Federación Anarquista Ibérica (CNT-FAI)

by Marcus Wendel

I found some kind of a black flag with the letter A in circle on it. Since it is from Madrid, mayby our Spanish members could tell us more about it.

Dov Gutterman, 28 December 1998

The capital A within a circle is the symbol of the anarchist movement (at least in Spain, but I believe it is semi-universal). Very typical in graffitti on walls, stickers (white on black, as in that website) and the like. It belongs to no particular party or organisation.

Santiago Dotor, 28 December 1998

This [red and black] flag was used by the CNT-AIT, an anarcho-syndicalist union that fought against General Franco in the Spanish Civil War of 1936-1939.

Jamal Hannah, 5 October 1995

CNT has a branch in France, Confederation Nationale des Travailleurs, which uses the same flag as the Spanish CNT.

Ivan Sache, 23 January 2002

Grupo Independiente Liberal / GIL

2:3
by Jaume Ollé

GIL is a strange Spanish party that started winning some municipalities in southern Spain (most importantly Marbella) and later won the autonomous governments in Ceuta and Melilla [though it soon lost the latter]. Stars do not stand for municipalities or territories but for the number of players in a soccer team, thus standing for Atlético de Madrid, whose president Mr. Jesús Gil is simultaneously the leader of this party. The party's name has not got much to do with ideology but was selected mainly because its initials are the same as the leader's surname. (...) No explanation is given for the colours in the flag, that is a typical party flag, white with emblem.

Jaume Ollé, 12 April 2001