Workers' Front Frente Obrero | |
|---|---|
.png) | |
| Abbreviation | FO |
| Leader | Roberto Vaquero |
| Founded | 14 October 2018[1] |
| Registered | 13 March 2019 |
| Headquarters | Calle Gascó Oliag 6, PTA 42. 46010 Valencia |
| Newspaper | UNIÓN |
| Youth wing | Juventud Frente Obrero |
| Ideology | |
| Political position | Far-left[A] |
| Congress of Deputies | 0 / 350 |
| Senate | 0 / 265 |
| European Parliament | 0 / 61 |
| Local seats | 1 / 67,152 |
| Website | |
| https://frenteobrero.es/ | |
^ A: The party argues that "the left-right dichotomy is no longer valid".[8] Despite this, it has been described as far-left,[13] as well as left-wing, by the international media,[14] national media,[15] and political scientists.[18] | |
TheWorkers' Front (Spanish:Frente Obrero,FO) is aMarxist–Leninist political party in Spain, withRoberto Vaquero serving as its leader since June 2022. It was founded in October 2018 as a mass organisation by theanti-revisionist partyPML (RC) and registered as a separatepolitical party in March 2019. As of 2025, the Workers' Front took part to several national, regional, local, and European elections, winning one local seat in May 2023.
The Workers' Front's political positions include Marxism–Leninism,socialist patriotism,Spanish republicanism,Spanish nationalism,hard Euroscepticism, andsocial conservatism, with aHoxahist faction. Despite rejecting theleft–right political spectrum, considering the mainstream left to have abandoned theworking class and joined theright-wing in supportingneoliberalism, the party is commonly described asleft-wing andfar-left, more in line withCommunist parties in Eastern Europe. As a result of its conservative stances on socio-cultural issues, various critics and observers compared the Workers' Front to the far-rightVox and described it asreactionary andright-wing populist in nature, including that the party wasNational Bolshevik, a claim that Vaquero strongly contested.
The Workers' Front was established on 14 October 2018 at theAteneo de Madrid as afront organisation of the PML (RC).[1] Subsequently, the Workers' Front expanded to several cities in Spain, such asLa Coruña,León,Ponferrada,Zaragoza, andCádiz.[19] In 2021, the party participated in Okupas, a Spanishsquatting movement. FO occupied a prestigious building in theMercado de Colón district inValencia. It organized a food bank and the homeless shelter in the building, attacking the local government for not helping over 1,000 homeless people in Valencia. The party also hung the flag of theSecond Spanish Republic on the building.[20]
In May 2021, members of the Workers' Front organized a protest against the leader of thePodemos partyIrene Montero in Valencia. The party accused Montero and her party of "leaving the workers in the lurch", claiming that Podemos organizes bailouts to banks and companies while Spanish workers are going "months without pay and suffering evictions". FO protesters argued that thefeminist and pro-LGBT stances taken by Montero are "symbolic struggles that do not represent reality".[21] On 12 June 2022, their first congress was held. During the congress, the decision to become a political party was approved by the members. Representatives from other organizations, such as thePolisario Front, spoke during the congress.[22]
In the2023 Spanish general election, the Workers' Front gained 46,530 and won no seats.[15] In late 2023, the group announced they would be participating in the2023 Spanish protests against thePSOE government.[23] Since then, the Workers' Front and Vaquero (the party leader since 14 June 2022) gained a presence on social media and national television in Spain, participating in debates on current political issues, such asHorizonte on channelCuatro.[24] In the2024 European Parliament election in Spain, the party won 66,242 votes, improving its result from the 2023 general election where it received 46,274 votes.[25]
The Workers' Front was established as Marxism–Leninist party, with conservative stances on social and cultural issues.[26][27] It considers itself a "patriotic and revolutionary movement that fights for and on behalf of workers, for and on behalf of Spain", with the goal of implementing "drastic changes" in Spain and "ending the current regime".[28] Strongly connected with the PML (RC), the Italian historianSteven Forti described it as oscillating between National Bolshevism and "hardline Stalinism".[29] The party was also described ascommunist by the Spanishnewspapers of record, and was classified byEl Mundo as "a communist, republican, anti-oligarchic party".[30] In response, the party rejected the labels of political left and right, and argued that they "are two sides of the same coin".[8] The party leader Roberto Vaquero described it as "the militant, working-class left".[31] The party was described as left-wing by political commentators and political scientists,[33] and was also commonly described as far-left,[34] with Eugene Costello arguing that the party is "about as far left as you can get".[20]
The European Conservative described the Workers' Front as a representative of the "patriotic, pre-woke, pro-work left".[8] According toLa Razón, "with a republican and federalist ideology, it has been classified within the communist ideological spectrum".[35] Of the party, its leader wrote: "The need for workers' reorganization is vital, it is necessary to fight for workers' and revolutionary unity in a broad, united front of all workers. With this aim in mind, the Frente Obrero was born, which only tries to serve the unity of all those who want to rebuild a revolutionary, working class and militant left, which truly resists this system and its single thinking, which defends the workers, our country and which of course is aimed at the transformation and progress of our society."[36] He defined the Workers' Front as a "national political and revolutionary front with the aim of fighting for the unity of the workers and for the transformation of our society, it is committed to a popular and federal Republic aimed at socialism."[36]
In its party programmeA Spain for the Workers, the Workers' Front defended nationalsovereignty, Hispanic identity (Hispanidad), free university education,[37] thenationalization and socialization of the Spanish economy, energy sovereignty,nuclear energy, increasing theminimum wage, supporting the rural sector, promotingbirth rates, creating morepublic housing, introducingrent control, and limitingimmigration.[38] The party also focused on class struggle and aplanned economy, preservation of the "classical, Christian" culture of Spain, and support forSpanish republicanism.[39] It also called for Spanish withdrawal from theEuropean Union (EU) andNATO, along with expropriation of large landowners and political amnesty for political prisoners;[40] the party criticizedliberal democracy as "a scam designed to favor the party system that defends the interests of big capital", and instead supported "promoting and protecting our culture, history, and traditions from those who only want to see it disappear so they can control us more effectively".[41]
In its programme, the Workers' Front called for "the overthrow of the monarchy imposed by Franco" and its replacement by a "federal, popular republic on the path to socialism". It supported adictatorship of the proletariat, calling for the suppression of "the repressive apparatus of the state: the judiciary, administration, police", installing a government that would be "democratic regime for the working class" but "dictatorial for the bourgeoisie and other exploiting classes".[42] The party's federal popular republic would pursue "the recovery of Spanish national sovereignty", reindustrializing the country, nationalizing the Spanish economy, "repealing the successive labor reforms that have strengthened free and cheap dismissal for companies", expelling all foreign military bases, closing the border with Morocco, and immediately expelling all immigrants who committed crimes. In its opposition to the European Union, the Workers' Front argued that "Spanish sovereignty is being held hostage by the EU", which the party said "dictates how much and what we produce, tying our hands and feet, denying us the future we deserve."[43] Since its establisment, the party also expressed opposition tocapitalism, NATO,surrogacy, feminism,deindustrialization,queer theory, the Trans Law (Ley Trans),affirmative action,Islamization,[44]cosmopolitanism, andpolitical correctness.[37]
In 2021, Spanish political scientist Jasiel Paris argued that the Workers' Front represents the "classic left" orOld Left, and stands to the opposition of thepostmodernist left; for Workers' Front, "Marxism sought the empowerment of workers (who in Spain are mostly white, heterosexual men), while the postmodern left seeks empowerment against white, heterosexual men". Paris observed that the Workers' Front should be compared to the Eastern European Communist parties, such as theCommunist Party of the Russian Federation,Macedonian Left, and theParty of Communists of the Republic of Moldova, as these parties together with the Workers' Front combine "a socialist economic vision with a cultural vision that we could call conservative because it is patriotic, protectionist and family-oriented".[42] The Workers' Front was also considered similar to the GermanBündnis Sahra Wagenknecht.[45]
Considered to be a representative of the nationalist and conservative left, the Workers' Front expressed support for traditional values and closeness to nationalism, focusing on the workerist blue-collar perspective, and its proposals reiterated criticism against "gender ideology" or the "LGBTI lobby".[46] The party expressedopposition to immigration, advocating strict border control, and arguing that the wages of Spanish workers are declining because of liberal immigration laws; however, the party also stressed that "immigrants are not to blame" and are "victims", with the real culprit being "the capitalist system, which promotes this type of migration to exploit them and lower wages in Spain", and that "the most rancid right uses immigration to generate hatred and social confrontation". Nonetheless, the party recommended strict control of immigration, including the immediate expulsion of illegal immigrants.[47]
The Workers' Front strongly criticized socially progressive left-wing parties. The party accused Podemos of being "a pawn at the service of big business and banks", while arguing thatMás País was "leaving the workers on the street". It argued that the mainstream left-wing parties of Spain alienated the workers and caused the rise of thefar-right Vox by embracing neoliberal economics and "gender ideology".[48] It also argued that there are many similarities between fascism and liberalism,[49] while rejecting feminism, theanimal rights movement,social democracy, and theLGBT movement, with Vaquero stating: "No matter how many revolutionary symbols and terms they use to disguise themselves, they are part of the system, they are part of the problem. For them, everything is fascism, but they defend the system's single mindset. They are closer to what they accuse everyone else of than they realise. ... Workers don't care about queer theory, inclusive language, quotas and other nonsense. This 'woke left' does not represent workers, nor does it provide solutions to their problems. For this reason, many workers are becoming disillusioned and criminalising the left, moving closer to positions such as those of thePP or even VOX."[31]
While defining itself within the framework of Marxism–Leninism, the Workers' Front heavily incorporated nationalist and patriotic themes into its message. For example, the party stressed and promoted the need to defend the national sovereignty of Spain, as well as revolutionary patriotism and national pride. Within its communist rhetoric, the party stressed the policies and ideas ofJoseph Stalin.[50] It also condemnd theMay 68 protests, with party leader Vaquero stating: "The left today is the heir of May 1968, when, as Pasolini said, the most working-class people in that conflict were the police, who were at least the sons of peasants. The students were, for the most part, the sons of rich people, since money was needed to study. The left today is empty, there is no revolution."[25] He also wrote:
Cosmopolitanism is currently being promoted. … It is a kind of globalism, a transgressive culture which, although they try to convince us that it is the international culture of the moment that prevails over national cultures, is nothing more than the hegemonic American culture that they are trying to impose on the rest of the world. … The collective identities that united people in the past are now under attack from individualism, consumerism and the pursuit of personal satisfaction in the moment, regardless of the consequences. The important thing is that you consume, and collective identities get in the way of that: differences with other potential consumers only make it harder for the large companies that promote this way of acting to make more profits. They seek to homogenise the population, isolate it and create docile, alienated and submissive consumers.[51]
The Workers' Front showed opposition to theindependence of Catalonia, arguing that the pro-independence Catalan parties "do not even represent independence" and instead have "fostered Islamization and mass immigration in Catalonia". Ahead of the2024 Catalan regional election, the Workers' Front announced its participation and called for Catalan voters to reject "Islamization and the fictitious separatist process".[52] The party instead proposed to turn Spain into a federation.[8] It also expressed support for Spanish ownership ofCeuta andMelilla, and decried Moroccan claims to these cities.[53] The Workers' Front also claimed the Spanish ownership ofGibraltar, calling it a colony that is an "important strategic enclave that does not belong to them [the United Kingdom]", and arguing that its native population was expelled by the British.[37] The party showed support forKurdish independence,[31] as well as the self-determination ofWestern Sahara.[43] Vaquero condemned support for Ukraine in theRusso-Ukrainian war, writing: "The new left talks a lot about the struggle for peace and against the vestiges of colonialism, but then supports any action taken by NATO. If it is in line with their conception of 'human rights', then it is fine. The left wing spent years saying 'No to war' in Iraq, but they have not taken the same stance with Ukraine. It all depends on what suitsUncle Sam."[54]
Since its establishment, the Workers' Front attracted criticism from other leftist organizations astransphobic due to its opposition to what it calls "gender ideology" and support of the idea that gender identity (especially being a woman) is only a feeling. DuringPride Month, the Workers' Front denounced public pro-LGBT campaigns by other political mainstream, accusing them of "politicizing sexual orientation and making it something supposedly revolutionary, while implementing reactionary measures such as queer ideology or the trans law". The party altered pro-LGBT posters; for example, in a poster that read "My partner is bisexual", the party's activists crossed out "bisexual", replacing it with "unemployed". As a result, the Workers' Front's actions and rhetoric was criticized ashomophobic.[55]
Left-wing critics argued that the Workers' Front was reactionary andracist because of its strong opposition to the increasing presence of Islamic immigration not integrated into European societies (allegedly disrespectful of women's or LGBT's rights, other times linked to higher crime rates than the native population, or with violent events motivated by religious fanaticism). In addition, critics negatively compared it to the far-right partyVox,[56][57] and accused it of giving credit to theGreat Replacement theory.[58] In November 2022, the Workers' Front was attacked for organizing a march at theComplutense University of Madrid that exalted Stalin. The event resulted in members of the party clashing with local far-left student organizations, including the TrotskyistWorkers' Revolutionary Current.[59] According to left-wing critics, the Workers' Front "expresses the most reactionary Stalinism, specifically aimed at establishing itself among the youth of working-class neighborhoods".[47]
The party has been called a "left-wing Vox" given its conservative stances on social issues, such as its opposition to immigration, LGBT rights, and feminism, as well as attacking the "Islamization" of Spain and "gender ideology". The Spanish magazineThe Objective [es] argued that the Workers' Front was "reminiscent of Vox's in some points: immigration control, promotion of births, and opposition to positive discrimination against women".[60]El Español also observed that the party took a mildly defensive tone towards Vox, arguing that Vox is not fascist or far-right; instead, Vaquero argues: "They are right-wing populists; now, they call everything politically incorrect fascist and they are distorting the term."[42] Spanish political analyst Asier Balaguer Navarro rejected this claim, writing: "Yes, in the sense that many of its proposals, precisely those that coincide with the conservative party, have a lot of social resonance, and are easily assimilated by the electoral objective of the party; also yes, because of the confrontation with political correctness, defense of the unity of Spain or the rejection of the 'woke laws'. But that is where the similarities end. The Workers' Front is against the EU, it still has a communist base in which the public and the planned are a substantial part of its economic theories; it is openly republican, anti-NATO, secular..."[39]
The Workers' Front has been criticized as National Bolshevik.[29] In an interview, Vaquero strongly rejected this classification, stating: "National Bolshevism, as a term, is used by people with little understanding of ideology or politics to criminalise those who do not fit in with the revolutionary fads of the system. If you are a patriot, you are a National Bolshevik. If you disagree with the government's nonsense, you are too. If you disagree with the ravings of the Queer lobby, you are too. If you are against the bourgeois Catalan independence process, of course you are too. And finally, if you say that class struggle is the main thing and that the transversality of struggles only reinforces the system, oops! Then you're definitely a Nazbol. It's absurd. National Bolshevism does not draw on Marxism. It is twinned with fascism, and we are anti-fascists, but for real, not as a fashion, an aesthetic marked by the system itself."[31]
The Workers' Front participated in elections for the first time in the2023 Spanish local elections. They ran inVilalba dels Arcs (Catalonia),Santa Margalida (Balearic Islands),Mislata (Valencian Community), andMandayona (Castilla–La Mancha), winning one seat in Mandayona.
| Municipality | Votes | % | Seats |
|---|---|---|---|
| Vilalba dels Arcs | 27 | 7.6% | 0 |
| Santa Margalida | 100 | 1.8% | 0 |
| Mislata | 255 | 1.1% | 0 |
| Mandayona | 42 | 21.6% | 1 |
| Election | Leading candidate | Congress | Senate | Government | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Votes | % | Seats | +/– | Seats | +/– | |||
| 2023 | Roberto Vaquero | 46,274 | 0.19 (14th) | 0 / 350 |  0 | 0 / 208 | 0 | Extra-parliamentary |
| European Parliament | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Election | Leading candidate | Votes | % | Seats | +/– | EP Group |
| 2024 | Roberto Vaquero | 66,242 | 0.38 (12th) | 0 / 61 | 0 | – |
| Region | Election | Votes | % | Seats | +/– | Government |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Basque Country | 2024 | Did not contest | 0 / 75 | 0 | No seats | |
| Catalonia | 2024 | 10,118 | 0.32 (12th) | 0 / 135 | 0 | No seats |
| Galicia | 2024 | Did not contest | 0 / 75 | 0 | No seats | |
A partir de 2019, el retroceso electoral de Podemos ha planteado la apertura de un posible espacio para opciones rojipardas, representadas por algunos de los sectores críticos con la formación fundada por Pablo Iglesias y experiencias como la del Frente Obrero, liderado por Roberto Vaquero, movimiento que mezcla el marxismo-leninismo con posiciones ultraconservadoras en temas de valores (GÓMEZ URZAIZ, 2022; FORTI, 2021).
Este último llamamiento es de Frente Obrero, partido de ideología marxista-leninista heredero de Reconstrucción Comunista, de acciones violentas y contrario a las teorías evolutivas del marxismo.
El Frente Obrero está llamado a ocupar el espacio que ha dejado libre Unidas Podemos. Esta fuerza marxista-leninista ha diseñado un programa sólido, cuenta con un líder carismático (Roberto Vaquero) y está dispuesto aprovechar el malestar social que surgirá de la crisis del coronavirus para arremeter desde la izquierda contra el Gobierno.
Porque al reivindicar, el Frente Obrero, en la España imperialista y capitalista del siglo XXI, el patriotismo socialista del FRAP y el PCE (m-l), nacido durante las incertidumbres del tardofranquismo, dicho patriotismo se deposita, preferentemente, en aquellos sectores obreros o de clase media que no están alienados nacionalmente al poseer, aunque precariamente, dichos derechos de ciudadanía.
El Frente Obrero está en contra de la UE, sigue teniendo una base comunista en la que lo público y lo planificado son parte sustancial de sus teorías económica; es abiertamente republicano, anti OTAN, laico...
El politólogo Hasel Paris sostiene que esta combinación a priori exótica es común en los partidos comunistas europeos (como el ruso o el moldavo), que han conjugado «una visión económica socialista con una visión cultural que podríamos denominar conservadora por patriota, proteccionista y familiar».
El PML (RC), partido que tenía una línea marxista vulgar y con ciertas filias hacia el hoxhaismo, pareció recoger el guante de su secretario general y comenzó a tener una línea muy similar a la del canal de Youtube de su líder. En 2018, ya pasado todo lo relacionado con el problema que les originó su participación en la guerra imperialista en Siria, el PML(RC) fundó el Frente Obrero, al que quisieron convertir en su 'frente de masas'.
El Frente Obrero no se achanta cuando le hablan de Cuba, Corea del Norte, China o Venezuela porque para este partido todos estos países son o ejemplo de neoliberalismo (China), de capitalismo de Estado (Cuba) o de desvaríos juanches (Corea del Norte). ... Y también mira con simpatía hacia la República Popular Socialista de Albania (1944-1985) de Enver Hoxha, que se divorció de la Unión Soviética tras la muerte de Stalin y de China tras la muerte de Mao. ... Esta visión de la historia desde el hoxhismo no es nueva entre el comunismo español, que apoyó un dirigente albano que se quedó sin apoyos en la esfera internacional (hecho que conllevó el aislamiento y atraso tecnológico del país).
... the Frente Obrero Group, a far-left organisation which campaigns for the re-institution of a Republic in Spain...
Frente Obrero, el partido de ultraizquierda pero nacionalista español que ha hecho de su seña de identidad sus ataques a Sumar y Podemos...
Detrás del escrache están los mismos que intentaron expulsar a Iglesias de la Complutense: el grupo de extrema izquierda Frente Obrero, capitaneados en esta ocasión por Carmen López, una joven de 23 años que se encuentra cursando el último año de Química y que lleva dos años militando en la organización.
La gran casa de estudios del liberalismo acogió en esta ocasión a Juan Pina, Secretario General de la Fundación, y Roberto Vaquero, líder de la organización de extrema izquierda Frente Obrero.
... by the microscopic leftist, communist Leninist Frente Obrero party, through posters attacking a symbol of Moroccan sovereignty, in an immoral way that has nothing to do with freedom of expression.
Frente Obrero es una formación nacionalista y de izquierdas, que se opone frontalmente a lo que ellos consideran una izquierda identitaria que antepone los derechos de las minorías, incluidos los inmigrantes, a los intereses de la clase trabajadora 'española'.
The two most relevant among these parties are an environmentalist party, Partido Animalista con el Medio Ambiente, and a left-wing Spanish nationalist party, Frente Obrero, which may have attracted some of the more pro-labor Vox votes.
Roberto Vaquero es la cabeza visible del Frente Obrero, la organización política de izquierdas que más está creciendo en el momento actual en España.[Roberto Vaquero is the visible head of the Workers' Front, the fastest growing left-wing political organisation in Spain at the moment.]
A partir de 2019, el retroceso electoral de Podemos ha planteado la apertura de un posible espacio para opciones rojipardas, representadas por algunos de los sectores críticos con la formación fundada por Pablo Iglesias y experiencias como la del Frente Obrero, liderado por Roberto Vaquero, movimiento que mezcla el marxismo-leninismo con posiciones ultraconservadoras en temas de valores (Gómez Urzaiz, 2022; FORTI, 2021).
Este último llamamiento es de Frente Obrero, partido de ideología marxista-leninista heredero de Reconstrucción Comunista, de acciones violentas y contrario a las teorías evolutivas del marxismo.
Si damos un vistazo al último siglo, encontramos diferentes experiencias derojipardismo o, como se le llamaba al principio, nacionalbolchevismo en momentos de tensiones o rupturas geopolíticas. ... Si exceptuamos la referencia al papa emérito, podría suscribir estas afirmaciones Roberto Vaquero, líder del Frente Obrero, una organización que se mueve entre elrojipardismo y el estalinismo puro y duro.[If we take a look at the last century, we find different experiences ofrojipardismo, or, as it was originally called, National Bolshevism, during times of geopolitical tension or upheaval. ... With the exception of the reference to the Pope Emeritus, these statements could be endorsed by Roberto Vaquero, leader of the Workers' Front, an organisation that oscillates betweenrojipardismo and hardline Stalinism.]
In Valencia, left-wing protestors from the Frente Obrero ripped al the flags out and threw them away before the symbolic manifesto could be read out at mid-day.
Entre las demandas y propuestas del Frente Obrero, se encuentran la defensa de la soberanía nacional, la educación universitaria gratuita y la nacionalización de sectores estratégicos. Además, se oponen a la discriminación positiva, a la corrección política y a la Ley Trans, entre otros puntos.