Holocaust denier picked as congressional candidate in Spain

Vox tapped Fernando Paz, a historian, this week to run in the city of Albacete, in the central part of the country, in the April 28 national elections for parliament.

People shout as Esteladas (Catalan separatist flags) flutter during a protest the day after the banned independence referendum in Barcelona, Spain October 2, 2017 (photo credit: ENRIQUE CALVO/REUTERS)
People shout as Esteladas (Catalan separatist flags) flutter during a protest the day after the banned independence referendum in Barcelona, Spain October 2, 2017
(photo credit: ENRIQUE CALVO/REUTERS)

A far-right party in Spain has nominated a Holocaust denier as a congressional candidate.

Vox tapped Fernando Paz, a historian, this week to run in the city of Albacete, in the central part of the country, in the April 28 national elections for parliament, the Libertad Digital news site reported Wednesday.

Paz has said the facts concerning the Holocaust are “far from having been established with accuracy” and called the Nuremberg Trials of Nazi war criminals a “farce.”

In December, Vox became the first far-right party in decades to enter a regional parliament by winning 12 seats in Andalusia, far surpassing expectations.

On Wednesday, the Federation of Jewish Communities of Spain condemned the Paz nomination.

“In any European country where justice was served in connection with this traumatic episode of history, it is unthinkable that such a person with such views would present himself for pubic office,” the federation’s statement read.

Spain was nominally neutral during World War II under its pro-fascist dictator Francisco Franco.