On Saturday 29th August, the Save Europe Act (led by Toni Estévez in Spain) continued their Europe Shield Tour in Madrid as part of their stated campaign to raise awareness of their (now rejected by the EU Commission) European Initiative to gain a million signatures in support of remigration.
There has already been significant controversy and conflict between supporters and traditional media, with police forced to seperate Spanish state media and supporters in Plaza de la Armería on Saturday. After the event, we spoke with Spanish National Co-ordinator Toni Estévez on why he was there.
“We don´t want to have our culture erased by mass migration” – Toni Estévez
The first question of course is why did Toni and other people like him think it was important to spend his Saturday there and what were the intentions of the event? “What we did is part of the Save Europe Act, deploying this banner in a lot of European cities. In Spain, it was in August. We are trying to have this message of remigration and demographic safety in Spain. We don´t want to get replaced. We don´t want to have our culture erased by mass migration. This is what we are asking.”
“Like any other policy, we can reverse it (mass migration)” – Toni Estévez
Now obviously , many people consider remigration to be an extreme position. Limiting future numbers has popular support but the Save Europe Act is calling for remigration, why does Toni think that is a position which is necessary now?
“There has been this new politics of mass migration in Europe and Spain in particular. We have seen tens of millions of immigrants from third world countries come to our continent. We think this was very bad for Europe, for our economy and the continuing of our culture. That´s why, like any other policy, we can reverse it and we want to do it with immigration .”
Nowadays, there is often a gulf between the publicity and clicks any social media campaign can generate online and people showing up. So was Toni happy with the roughly 200 people at the event? “I´m always happy with any patriot that is going to tell the truth in a public square. As you said, it was August , for this new movement that is only two to three months old , I think it´s successful. There was a lot of media and more people are going to learn about the Save Europe Act.”
“The (legacy) media have called people from Ceuta fascist”-Toni Estévez
Speaking of the media, Toni has stated many times that traditional media isn´t fair with his movement or politics, with ‘legacy media’ now being used as the common refrain for state broadcasters such as RNE or TVE. “All the legacy media is not fair with us, calling us words that they wouldn´t call to other people that are asking the same (demographic security). Because we want to live amoungst our own people we don´t have to be any type of xenophobe. But we feel there are people from social media that are fair with us and helping send this message.” And on the pushing and shoving of media at the event?
“All Europe and especially Spain are very tired of the media. We have seen how the media have called people from Ceuta fascist just for reclaiming their own land. They are just families that want to be in a safe Ceuta. I think that people are right to be angry with the media and as long as there is no violence, I agree with people who are angry with the media.”
“We are playing against the clock”
Finally, elections are certain in Spain next year but possible this year, Germany has regional elections and a French Presidential election is set for 2027. On the continent, it does seem that young people are far more likely to support nativist policies of immigration restrictions or remigration as proposed by the Save Europe Act. So what is Toni´s view on the next electoral cycle in Europe?
“This (young people´s support) is because young people have more life ahead and they see what is the tendency in Europe. They live more in the streets than the older generations. About the next cycles, if there was no immigration it would be very hopeful for us because each day more people, especially young people, are waking up. But we have this problem where the leftist parties are giving all the nationalities to the immigrants and of course these immigrants are going to vote for them . That is why it is going to be difficult. We are playing against the clock”.
Photos used with permission of the Save Europe Act.
You can listen to the interview in podcast form below.