Spanish far-right figure sparks outrage with Nazi salute outside Morocco embassy

Far-right activist Isabel Medina Peralta, a prominent face of Spain’s neo-Nazi movement, has once again thrust herself into the spotlight after performing a Nazi salute outside Morocco’s embassy in Madrid, days after a Spanish court upheld her one-year prison sentence for hate speech against Moroccan and Muslim immigrants.

The gesture came during a protest linked to the recent migration crisis in the Spanish enclave of Ceuta, where thousands of people crossed from Morocco in late July, triggering a political firestorm and a wave of anti-migrant rhetoric from Spain’s far right.

Peralta, leader of the now-dismantled neo-Nazi group NS Bastión Frontal, was first convicted in April 2025 by Madrid’s Provincial Court for provoking discrimination and hatred, after a 2021 rally outside the Moroccan embassy in which she urged violence against Moroccan and Muslim migrants.

The court imposed a one-year prison sentence and a fine, ruling that her speech aimed at insulting Moroccan immigrants and stir hostility towards them.

That conviction was later confirmed on 31 July by the Madrid High Court of Justice, which rejected her appeal and upheld the full sentence, along with additional penalties including a ban on holding public office during the sentence period and the removal of online content linked to the case.

At the centre of the original case was a 2021 protest held in the wake of a previous wave of tensions over Ceuta migrations, when Peralta openly delivered racist and violent slogans. The court said her remarks were not a legitimate critique of government migration policy, but rather a call for hostility and discrimination against a protected group.

Bastión Frontal, the group she led, has long been associated with neo-Nazi and neo-fascist ideology and street violence. Founded during the Coronavirus pandemic in 2020, the group attempted to recruit young people aged 15 to 25 to carry out what it called "hunting" missions against migrant children, often leading to clashes with authorities.

The party, together with the active neo-Nazi National November party that Peralta is a member of, have repeatedly appeared in Spain’s public debate through incidents involving racist and anti-immigrant messaging, with Peralta herself becoming a symbol of the country’s hard-right fringe.

Spain's far-right microcosm

The case also underscores the normalisation of far-right discourse in Spain’s mainstream politics.

Vox, the far-right party that has built its profile around anti-immigration rhetoric, has used the Ceuta crisis to call for the border to be closed, for the army to be deployed permanently, and for mass deportations.

During the Ceuta surge at the end of July, Vox national spokeswoman Isabel Pérez Moñino said there was "no space for anybody else" in Spain and described the arrivals as a "true invasion" of "illegal immigrants" and "men of military age".

Party leader Santiago Abascal went further, calling the situation an "invasion" and an "act of war promoted by Morocco", while demanding that the border be militarised and that expulsions follow.

The conservative People’s Party has hardened also its language. Party leader Alberto Núñez Feijóo described the arrivals as a "deliberate occupation", while Madrid President Isabel Díaz Ayuso suggested Morocco may be testing Spain’s sovereignty over Ceuta and Melilla.