A new book has painted a chilling picture of Spain's neo-fascists and
their link to some of Europe's biggest football clubs like Real Madrid.On the run after a year spent undercover in Spain's skinhead community, Antonio Salas's best-selling book "Diary of a Skin" is the first insider account of Spain's skinhead movement, a prickly issue in Western Europe's youngest democracy which still remembers the 1939-1975 right-wing dictatorship of General Francisco Franco.
The book, based on an undercover television documentary, has prompted investigations by Spain's public prosecutor into links between Real Madrid's notorious Ultras Sur radical fans and the local branch of the international neo-Nazi group Hammerskins
"The Ultras Sur are only the tip of the iceberg. All the clubs have neo-nazi fans," said Salas. A Real Madrid spokesman said the club had no comment.
Salas, an investigative journalist who has filmed undercover documentaries on outlawed Basque guerrillas ETA and criminal gangs smuggling illegal immigrants to Spain, entered the neo-nazi clan via its principal meeting point - the Internet.
"The Internet has changed the international neo-nazi movement. It's been crucial in unifying small groups," he said.
Becoming a regular of neo-nazi Internet chat rooms, Salas adopted the nickname Tiger88 after the Third Reich's Tiger heavy tank which terrorised Allied troops on the Western Front. The number 88 is a neo-nazi code for 'Hail Hitler' -- the repetition of the eighth letter of the alphabet, "H
So began an investigation which led Salas to meet influential neo-fascist ideologues in Spain, a branch of the Ku Klux Klan in the rural northwest region of Galicia, and to participate in street-battles alongside the Ultras Sur.
The birth of Spain's skinhead movement can be traced to the mid-1980s when the ultra right-wing "skins" appeared on the terraces of Barcelona's Espanyol football club and Real Madrid, emulating the British hooligan groups of the early 1970s.
Salas argues that a recent boom in immigration, due to historical ties with South America and proximity with North Africa, has stoked racist sentiment in Spain -- for long one of the European countries with the lowest levels of migrants.
"Spain has the same problem as France, Germany or England: growing pockets of crime associated with illegal immigration. This has enormously encouraged the presence of skinheads and neo-nazis in countries like England and Germany, and now it is doing the same in Spain," said Salas.
In 2001, the government counted 1.1 million legal immigrants in Spain, more than three times the number of 1991. There are hundreds of thousands of illegal migrants.
To deter illegal immigration, the centre-right government of Prime Minister Jose Maria Aznar has tightened borders, made visa requirements more stringent, and made it easier to deport immigrants convicted of petty crimes.
Senior figures, such as Deputy Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy, have explicitly blamed immigrants for a rise in crime. Recent polls have showed three-quarters of Spaniards share this belief and around half want a government, which will fight immigration.
"There has been an increase in sympathy, with the xenophobic extreme-right more than with the neo-nazis themselves, and with the political and cultural movements which radically attack immigration," said Salas, who predicts several far-right parties would play the immigration card at regional elections in May.
While football provides the most public face of skinhead activism, Salas describes an underworld of far-right concerts and rallies across Spain and lays bare a network of bookshops and bars dedicated to neo-nazi propaganda.
"It is normal to associate skinheads with football hooligans for the simple reason that in a first division football stadium there are more television cameras than at a skinhead concert or a meeting of (political party) National Democracy," he said.
In recent months, the appearance of swastika flags and banners bearing the black eagle of Franco's fascist emblem among the ranks of the Ultras Sur has stirred controversy over Real Madrid's alleged relations with its radical fans.
This has been stoked by pictures of leading Real Madrid stars such as Raul and Luis Figo holding the Ultras' flag of a double-headed axe.
After befriending leading members of the Ultras Sur, Salas alleges he can prove Europe's most successful football club has provided neo-fascist fans with scores of tickets to its ground and turned a blind eye to their violent, racist behaviour -- and even laid on a storeroom for their banners at the stadium.
He alleges the collusion of club officials and at least one police officer, who he says told the Ultras of his investigation, forcing him to flee for his life.
"The public prosecutor's office in Madrid has begun an investigation into neo-nazi movements which may be linked to Real Madrid football club," said a spokesman for the office.
The allegations come at a time when soccer's governing body UEFA has launched a campaign, including threatened sanctions on clubs and supporters, to fight racism at European grounds.
"We should avoid the use of violence, but this is a very small group of people," said Jose Luis Vicente, a senior member of Real Madrid's fan club. "The Ultras Sur is essential to provide motivation for the team on the pitch."
A section on the Ultras Sur official web page entitled "Lies" attacked "news about our group which are only based on lies and trickery" with "the sole aim of disparaging us".
Many of the young skinheads Salas met during his odyssey around Spain do not fit the stereotypical image of a deprived urban background. Some are well-educated youths from a middle-class family, which supported Franco's rule.
"I do not want to be alarmist, because I think the influence of Francoism is constantly diminishing," said Salas. "The majority of skinheads don't enter the movement because of their parents, but obviously children of a fascist have more chance of becoming neo-fascists than those of a democrat."
A lack of strong family bonds or a feeling of alienation is often the determining factors driving youths to seek camaraderie in the skinhead community. More than 90 percent of skinheads who form a stable sexual relationship retire from the movement.
"I compare them to a group of orphans who are looking for a father, always talking about who will be the next fuehrer," Salas said. "There is real affection between the comrades, I don't know if love is too strong a word, but certainly brotherhood."
Salas admits to forming friendships with two skinheads, and revelling in the sense of power from their gang-mentality, although he denies ever supporting their ideology.
"I received an e-mail from one of these guys after the book was published telling me it had made him reconsider," Salas said. "That was just one of the e-mails from nazis who have left the movement after reading the book, and that is what I find comforting. That is more important than it being a success."
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