Falange Auténtica

Falange Auténtica (Authentic Phalanx, FA) is a Falangist political party in Spain. 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. The second National Chief of the Spanish Falange, Manuel Hedilla (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, Franco's brother-in-law. FA contested the 2003 municipal election in various parts of the country. It won two seats in El Hoyo de Pinares, Ávila, and one in Ardales, Málaga. 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, 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, organised by the AVT in 2006, the Ermua Forum in 2007, and the CCOO 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.