On August 13, 2023, Argentinean voters went to the polls for the presidential primary election, known as the Simultaneous and Mandatory Open Primaries (PASO). The PASO is the prelude to Argentina’s national general elections, which are set for October 22 and in which the country will elect the president, vice president, governors of most provinces, and a number of other officials.
The following report examines the participation in elections of the “Frente Patriota Federal [Federal Patriot Front, FPP],” its roots and history of neo-Nazi ideology, though its candidates today tend to downplay this history. The party’s candidate for president and vice president are Alejandro Cesar Biondini and Mariel Avedano, respectively.
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Background
César Biondini, born February 13, 1983, is an Argentinian nationalist leader and lawyer. The son of neo-Nazi nationalist leader Alejandro Carlos Biondini, he was the attorney of his father’s political party and is now its presidential candidate.
In his duties, he carried out the process of legalizing the party and explained his nationalist ideology in different reports. In June 2014, he gave an interview to the information portal Infobae, in which he stated, among other things: “We are nationalists. But it is classic that the system puts a label on you. It happened to (Jean-Marie) Le Pen in France; he was accused of being a Nazi, xenophobic, etc., and nevertheless, the Front National won the elections. When family values, nationalism, and immigration issues are brought up, they accuse you of being facho [i.e., fascist], ultra-right. We do not identify with a ‘Nazi’ policy. This is Argentina and we are proud of our people.”
As part of building his image, he publicly identifies and campaigns under his middle name, César, without using his father’s name. He also includes in his speeches and interviews quotations from former Argentinian President Juan Domingo Perón, especially “the only privileged ones are the children,” which he uses in his anti-abortion campaign.
The Federal Patriot Front, FPP And Its Platform
Last May, through the publication of the Official Gazette of the province of Buenos Aires, the news was released that the local Electoral Board approved the extreme-right ultranationalist, and neo-Nazi ideology party, he FPP.
Sharing the news, the website “Diputados Bonaerenses” wrote: “It is worth mentioning that the FPP is a political space that responds to the ideals of the extreme right, and its affiliates turn out to be racist, antisemitic, anti-communist, conservative, anti-feminist, and they position themselves against the rights and freedoms of the LGBTIQ+ community.”
From its inception to the present day, the party and its candidates progressively managed to find their way into the mainstream media, where for a long time they had no place. From their programs and statements on their own platforms and sites, the members of the FPP began to be invited, interviewed, and followed by some of the most important media outlets in Argentina, which dedicated large spaces to them and at prime time.
Biondini based his electoral campaign mainly on these interviews, in which he extensively exhibited a moderate version of his ideology, government plans, and electoral platform.
“I Am Very Proud Of My Last Name”
Although César Biondini strives to show a “moderate” version of the ideology in which his party is rooted, in a recent interview with a local television channel, Telenueve, this candidate for president of Argentina declared: “I feel very proud to carry this last name.”
The significance of the Biondini name in Argentina’s political history is explained in part in the commentary on César Biondini’s candidacy published by the newspaper El Grito del Sur, which read: “César Biondini is the ‘son of’ Alejandro, a stainless neo-Nazi. A staunch marginal, his father was never able to even manage a building, and in 2019 he received 54,097 votes, 0.24 percent of the total. His father presented a candidacy on six different occasions since 2011 and never exceeded 0.63 percent of the votes in his aspiration to hold different positions. Now the generational transfer has arrived and his son, a 40-year-old lawyer, will assume representation on the ballot. Economically protectionist, politically conservative, and socially fascist, the Biondini surname will again make an electoral fool of himself but this time with a new face and accompanied by a woman, Mariel Avendaño.”
“The Swastika Must Be Disassociated From Any Horrifying Fact”
Neo-Nazi skinhead groups went into decline in membership and influence in Argentina after a massive brawl on May 8, 1996, in Parque Rivadavia, in the city of Buenos Aires in which young neo-Nazi militant Marcelo Scalera was killed. After that, the figure of Alejandro Biondini began to emerge as a new leader.
Alejandro Carlos Biondini was reportedly born in Buenos Aires on January 13, 1956, and was an Argentinian candidate for president representing the FPP. He is linked to different nationalist and neo-Nazi political groups: the Nuevo Triunfo Party, proscribed by the Argentina courts in the 1990s and again in 2009, for having a neo-Nazi ideology; and the Bandera Vecinal party, which has had legal status since 2014 after a judicial resolution that enabled it to run in elections. Since 2018 he has been the president of the FPP, the year in which Bandera Vecinal and Gente en Acción merged to create the party, which has also been described by the media as a party with neo-Nazi ideology.
In the late 1990s and early 2000s, Alejandro Biondini filed petitions to legalize the swastika, the celebration of the birth of Adolf Hitler, the name of the Nationalist Socialist Workers Party, which of course echoes the name of the “National Socialist German Workers’ Party,” which he sought for his party, and his relativization of the Holocaust. His proposal, written in the party program that he presented for its legalization, included to dismantle the “homosexual and drug addict network.”
Alejandro Biondini said in an interview: “The swastika must be disassociated from any horrifying fact. Actually, it is a sun sign that dates back to the stone age: It was used in India, it was used in China… I am interested in the culture of the East and I was interested for that reason…” When the interviewer asked: “Why do you salute with your arm raised?” He answered: “It is the Roman salute, it is used by the members of seven Falangist parties legalized in Spain, it was used here by the aboriginal communities. It is our style, the nationalist style. We claim our greeting and we are proud of it. We do not have to take care of the ghosts of others. With the same criteria, the cross should be prohibited because the Holy Inquisition existed. The raised arm is the historic salute of nationalism.”
In previous years, and in their own publications, such as the National Alert magazine, Biondini and his collaborators claimed the Protocols of the Elders of Zion is a prophetic book that would reveal “who the true enemies of humanity are.”
Biondini also asserted that “the Hebrews would have repaid our hospitality by behaving like fifth columnists and vermin whose only god is gold, whose only flag is that of Israel, and whose only calling is to continue crucifying the humble of our land.”
For the director of National Alert, “Capitalism and communism are international like the Jew, uprooted like the Jew, stateless like the Jew, enemies of Christ like the Jew.” Therefore, “crushing the head of the viper, opposing Judeo-Zionist usury with intelligence and organization” is “the only way for the liberation of the Peoples.”
Biondini’s magazine accused Israel of wanting to “squeeze” Argentina through the international financial system, while coveting strips of Patagonia to establish a second Zionist state in one of the territories indicated by Theodor Herzl.
The magazine spread stories of “the cautious arrival of thousands of Jews, founding colonies as one of the first steps in their plan of conquest. In addition to coveting portions of the Argentinian homeland, the Jews would like to rewrite national history based on pernicious and self-flagellating ‘myths’ such as that of the ‘30,000 disappeared.'”
In 1983, when the dictatorship ended and the process of returning to democracy began in Argentina, National Alert linked the government that took office that year with “subversion” and “Judeo-Zionist” interests. The first president of the democratic era, Raúl Alfonsín, was accused, smeared and caricatured as a Jew and a Zionist by Biondini and his publications, and his party, the Unión Cívica Radical (UCR, a centrist and liberal political party in Argentina), was nicknamed “the radical synagogue.”
According to National Alert: “While an ‘anti-discriminatory law’ was being processed and it was ensured that ‘the “Andinia Plan” is an invention created by “Nazi-fascism” to harm them, the “poor” victims, the eternal “cryers of the wall,”‘ the UCR would hasten the transfer of the capital to Viedma and would open the doors to the arrival of huge contingents of Belarusian Jews.
The Argentinian journalist Raúl Kollmann, the author of the book Shadows of Hitler and many other investigations on neo-Nazi groups in Argentina, defined Alejandro Biondini in an article published in 2022 as “the Argentinian führer.” According to Kollmann, “Biondini spreads the anecdote according to which Hitler, before dying, pointed to Argentina on a map and said: ‘The man will come from there.’ As is obvious, the Man is Biondini.
“Trying to muffle his speech, Biondini this time presents himself as a follower of far-right leader Jean Marie Le Pen… Le Pen has made justifying statements about Hitler, but Biondini considers himself a direct follower and even publicly calls himself Kalki, a figure that comes from Hindu mythology and which represents the definitive reincarnation of God who “comes to impose moral rectitude in the dark age.”
The strategy of the neo-Nazis is to try to take advantage of the enormous disappointment of the citizens with the political parties and present themselves as “a serious change.”
“In the proposals that at the time they presented to the Justice they exhibit their racism. For example, in the prohibition of abortion for those cases in which the unborn baby was white. On the other hand, the interruption of the pregnancy is allowed in the case of the son or daughter of a Bolivian, a Paraguayan, or a Jewish woman.”
César Biondini, In His Own Words And Those Of His Father
“Now disguised in lighter clothing, Biondini’s party [comes] as a more nationalist version of Peronism,” says Kollmann. Peronism refers to a nationalist and workers rights-oriented movement in Argentinian politics.
In the current electoral campaign, César Biondini presents himself as the leader of a political party, the FPP, “with an ideology based on patriotism and nationalism.” When asked about human rights, the César Biondini talks about his staunch defense of the rights of the unborn and his opposition to euthanasia.
In his campaign, César Biondini has emphasized his action plan against insecurity, which he directly links to immigration, corruption, and the government distribution of aid and subsidies to at-risk populations.
According to journalist Florencia Silva, Alejandro Biondini “said that crimes of corruption should be tried as crimes of treason against the Homeland.” At that point, he focused on asking, if the military and civilians accused of crimes against humanity were sentenced to 80 or 90 years in prison without hesitation, why not hold the corrupt to the same standard? He said that an official who has committed a crime must have an effective prison sentence, without the possibility of reducing the sentence or benefits, and the effective confiscation of assets.
Under the title “Doctrine and organization” the FPP presents its ideological base on its website saying: “The FPP is a party of Nationalist men and women united by the same thought and scale of values: the deep love for our Argentina and the firm determination to fight against its internal and external enemies. We affirm that Argentina must be for the Argentinians, native and naturalized, and we do not have to allow it to be handed over or subjected to foreign powers.”
According to this “official document of the FPP,” its platform is based on “the article ‘Being a Nationalist,’ published in 2015 by our National Leader, Alejandro Carlos Biondini: ‘Our doctrine is the Fourth Position, which sustains a Social Nationalism, deeply Patriotic, and Federal. The Fourth Position was publicly proclaimed on November 25, 2008, by our National Leader, Alejandro Carlos Biondini, through a widely publicized editorial that he broadcast on his National Alert radio program. The Fourth Position equally rejects the different synarchical fallacies with which the system of oppression tries to confuse the people. We refer especially to Marxism, liberalism, Freemasonry, Zionism, sects, as well as any other colonial ideology. It does not contradict, but rather expands and constitutes a natural evolution of the Third Position, launched in the 20th century by General Juan Domingo Perón.”
Biondini Receives 72,000 Votes
Until some time ago, the presence and activity of a party like Biondini’s – even in its “light version” – generated such a degree of controversy that the reached the highest levels of justice on more than one occasion.
According to the latest official data, Biondini did not obtain a result that would allow him to run in the next presidential elections. Still, at least 72,430 voted for him, which is more than the roughly 50,000 who voted for him in the previous ballot. Biondini published messages on his networks and media where he talked about “the forces that prevented” his victory. At the same time, he promised that they would continue “working to form a great popular front.”
In today’s Argentina, this stage seems to have been left behind. The Biondini clan no longer depends on its own platforms and media to spread its message and the party’s candidates have recently been interviewed in the main national and provincial media. They no longer meet at a book stand in Parque Rivadavia. Now they hold campaign events in public places, including the closing rally in the heart of the city of Buenos Aires, just half a mile from the current headquarters of the Israeli Embassy.
