Libertas Spain (''Libertas España'') is the name given to the activities of

Declan Ganley Declan James Ganley (born 23 July 1968) is an English-born Irish entrepreneur, businessman, and political activist. He was the founder and leader of the Irish branch of the eurosceptic Libertas Party. Primarily a telecommunications entrepreneur ...

Libertas.eu Libertas was a European political party founded by Declan Ganley that took part in the 2009 European Parliament election in several member states of the European Union. It won one seat in France. History Creation In 2008, the Libertas Institu ...

Spain Spain, or the Kingdom of Spain, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe with territories in North Africa. Featuring the Punta de Tarifa, southernmost point of continental Europe, it is the largest country in Southern Eur ...

. Unlike Libertas in other countries, Libertas Spain was not a political party in its own right. Instead, candidates with no national party affiliation and candidates from

Citizens – Party of the Citizenry Citizens (Spanish: ; ; shortened as Cs—C's until January 2017), officially Citizens–Party of the Citizenry (''Ciudadanos–Partido de la Ciudadanía'', CS), is a liberal political party in Spain. The party has been located in the centre to ...

, Partido Social Demócrata and

Unión del Pueblo Salmantino The Union of the Salamancan People (, UPSa), officially Union of the Salamancan People – Citizens for Salamanca, was a Spanish political party established in 2002 and dissolved in 2014 based in Salamanca which is aligned with Libertas. It was fou ...

contended the 2009 European Parliament elections in Spain under a common list branded with the Libertas identity. The candidates retained their membership of their national parties and the national parties retained their legal identity.

Preamble

On 15 February Ganley gave an interview to

ABC ABC are the first three letters of the Latin script. ABC or abc may also refer to: Arts, entertainment and media Broadcasting * Aliw Broadcasting Corporation, Philippine broadcast company * American Broadcasting Company, a commercial American ...

in which he announced that Libertas.eu intended to field candidates in Spain."Queremos presentar una candidatura en España y no seremos un partido marginal"
15 February 2009
http://www.abc.es
English translatio

/ref> Rumored Libertas.eu candidates were

Santiago Abascal Santiago Abascal Conde (; born 14 April 1976) is a Spanish politician who has been the Vox (political party)#Presidents, president of Vox since 2015. He has also been the Patriots.eu#President, president of Patriots.eu since 2024, and has been a ...

,"Libertas: rival del PP en las Europeas"
19 February 2009
http://www.diarioya.es/
English translatio
here
/ref> (but Abascal rejected Libertas.eu)

Alejo Vidal-Quadras Alejo Vidal-Quadras Roca (born 20 May 1945) is a Spanish former politician and radiation physicist. Born in Barcelona, he served as a Member of the European Parliament from 1999 to 2014 and served as First Vice President of the European Parlia ...

José Luis Balbás José is a predominantly Spanish and Portuguese form of the given name Joseph. While spelled alike, this name is pronounced very differently in each of the two languages: Spanish ; Portuguese (or ). In French, the name ''José'', pronounced , ...

"¿Quién acompañará a Durán en la lista Ciudadanos-Libertas?"
14 April 2009
http://www.libertaddigital.com/
English translatio
here
/ref> and José Manuel Otero Novas. It was also rumored that Libertas.eu candidates in Spain would stand in alliance with

Alternativa Española Alternativa may refer to: * Alternativa (video game) * Alternativa (Kosovo political party), a liberal political party in Kosovo * Alternativa (Italian political party), a populist political party in Italy * Alternative (North Macedonia), an Alban ...

under a list entitled "Plataforma Principios No Negociables" and that contacts had been made with

Cadena COPE COPE, an acronym for Cadena de Ondas Populares Españolas ("People's Radiowaves of Spain Network") formerly called Radio Popular, is a Spanish language radio station. It is the second most listened to in Spain's generalist radio. Owned by the S ...

Formation

Libertas.eu scheduled an official press conference for 17 April 2009"Miguel Duran, ex director de la ONCE, candidato de Ciutadans a las europeas"
15 April 200
http://www.elmundo.es/
English translatio

/ref> but details began to be leaked on 15 April 2009. Libertas.eu's candidates in Spain would stand as individuals alongside candidates from

(usually abbreviated to "C's") under a common list branded with the Libertas identity. The name of the list was variously reported as ''Ciutadans en las Europeas'' or ''Libertas – Ciudadanos de España'' or ''Ciudadanos – Partido de la Ciudadanía y Libertas''."El ex director de la ONCE, Miguel Durán, encabezará la lista de Ciudadanos-Libertas en las europeas"
15 April 2009
http://www.abc.es/
English translatio

/ref> "C"'s original plan was to place

Jose Manuel Villegas Jose is the English transliteration of the Hebrew and Aramaic name ''Yose'', which is etymologically linked to ''Yosef'' or Joseph. Given name Mishnaic and Talmudic periods * Jose ben Abin *Jose ben Akabya *Jose the Galilean *Jose ben Halafta * ...

at the head of the list, but this was abandoned."La elección de Miguel Durán como candidato desata una nueva crisis en C´s"
20 April 2009 22:10
http://www.elconfidencial.com
English translatio

/ref> Instead, Villegas was put at number two on the list and the head of the list was named as Miguel Durán. Miguel Durán is a lawyer and businessman. He was the general manager of the National Organization of the Spanish Blind, from 1986 to 1993,"Miguel Durán, cabeza de lista de la coalición Ciudadanos-Libertas"
15 April 2009
http://www.libertaddigital.com
English translatio
here
/ref> the director of

Telecinco Telecinco is a Spanish free-to-air television channel operated by Mediaset España. The channel was previously known as Tele 5, because it had first begun its experimental transmissions on 10 March 1989, and a year later, it was officially laun ...

from 1990 to 1996 and of Onda Cero Radio from 1990 to 1993. Miguel Durán was charged in 1997 by the judge

Baltasar Garzón Baltasar Garzón Real (; born 26 October 1955) is a Spanish former judge in Spain's central criminal court, the '' Audiencia Nacional'' responsible for investigation the most serious criminal cases, including terrorism, organised crime, crimes ...

for alleged tax crimes committed during his time at

but was later acquitted. He is not a member of

but is running as an individual member of

. The official press conference took place on 17 April 2009 and "C" later issued a communique giving the principles under which the list would contend the election."Principios rectores del Acuerdo Político de la coalición Libertas - Ciudadanos de España"
22 April
http://www.ellibrepensador.com/
/ref> The list was registered with Spain's Central Electoral Commission under the name ''Libertas – Ciudadanos de España''.
27 April 2009, ttp://www.soitu.es/ http://www.soitu.es//ref>

Split

Antonio Robles Almeida, "C's" member of the

Catalan Parliament The Parliament of Catalonia (, ; ; ) is the unicameral legislature of the autonomous community of Catalonia. The Parliament is currently made up of 135 members, known as deputies (//), who are elected for four-year terms or after extraordinary ...

, promptly objected, stating that he could not justify an alliance with a party that was diametrically opposed to "C's" position on xenophobia and

social liberal Social liberalism is a political philosophy and variety of liberalism that endorses social justice, social services, a mixed economy, and the expansion of civil and political rights, as opposed to classical liberalism which favors limited g ...

issues such as freedom of sexual orientation,

abortion Abortion is the early termination of a pregnancy by removal or expulsion of an embryo or fetus. Abortions that occur without intervention are known as miscarriages or "spontaneous abortions", and occur in roughly 30–40% of all pregnan ...

contraception Birth control, also known as contraception, anticonception, and fertility control, is the use of methods or devices to prevent pregnancy. Birth control has been used since ancient times, but effective and safe methods of birth control only be ...

assisted suicide Assisted suicide, sometimes restricted to the context of physician-assisted suicide (PAS), is the process by which a person, with the help of others, takes actions to end their life. Once it is determined that the person's situation qualifie ...

and

stem cell research In multicellular organisms, stem cells are undifferentiated or partially differentiated cells that can change into various types of cells and proliferate indefinitely to produce more of the same stem cell. They are the earliest type of cell ...

."Diputado de C's arremete contra la decisión del partido de ir a las europeas con Libertas y el partido de Tamayo"
19 April 2009
http://www.europapress.es/
English translatio

/ref> José Domingo also objected. "C's" alliance with Libertas was subject to approval by an April extraordinary session of "C's" General Council, although Robles stated that party chairman,

Albert Rivera Alberto Carlos Rivera Díaz (born 15 November 1979), known as Albert Rivera, is a Spanish former politician who was the leader of Citizens from its founding in 2006 until 2019. He was a member of the Parliament of Catalonia (2006–2015) and the ...

had already approved it and that the election office and money were already in place. That extraordinary session approved the alliance"Ciudadanos se rompe: Antonio Robles dejará el partido y el escaño"
23 April 2009
http://politica.e-noticies.es/
/ref> and Robles immediately resigned his party membership.

Candidates

Results

External links

Libertas Spain on TwitterMiguel Duran website

References

{{Use dmy dates, date=April 2020 Political parties established in 2009 Libertas.eu 2009 establishments in Spain