A new national political party, founded “by and for Muslims” has been announced.
The Partido Renacimiento y Unión de España (Rebirth and union of Spain party), known as PRUNE, was officially presented in Granada the day before the EU - Morocco trade conference was held in that city.
The party was founded by the writer, poet, and journalist Mostafa Bakkach El-Bakkach.
Sr Bakkach, who adopted Spanish nationality in 2001, read out the party’s charter in Arabic and Spanish.
The party aims to bring Muslims into mainstream Spanish society, promoting “their interest in politics, in equality, in justice, in solidarity, and under the banner of the Spanish rule of law and the Constitution”, although the party admits that its fundamental roots lie in Islamic tradition.
The party, based on Islam, said it intended to contest the municipal elections next year in Málaga, Madrid, Barcelona, Murcia, Valencia, Oviedo and Toledo on a manifesto of ‘justice, equality and solidarity’
Sr Bakkach regretted that since the creation of the party he had been the victim of “a slur attempt to spread fear, by saying the new party is a radical pro-Morrocan Islamist party”, which he denounced as lies.
The founder of PRUNE, who has been a delegate on the Spanish Islamic Commission for the Moroccan community and vice president of the Federation of Islamic Religious Entities of Spain (Feeri), believes that “if other parties are of Christian inspiration, I do not see what the problem is that our roots lie in Islam. “
“We are a Spanish party that aspires to work in Spain, I know what interests have prompted the attacks of recent months,” he said, adding that “we are not financed by any foreign country, although there have been attempts to have our registration rejected.”
Claims that “our goal is to rebuild Al-Andalus or implement Sharia law” are “nonsense, like so many others have said.”
PRUNE refused any attempts to link it to Morocco, saying that “for us, Morocco is simply a neighbouring country of Spain.”
The party claims to have around 1,000 members, but points out that these are grassroot members who have helped it get off the ground, and that it hopes to have five times as many paying members by the time the next elections come.
“We can do great things for Spain” enthused Sr Bakkach during the presentation of his new party.