BarcelonaJosé Ángel Antelo (Santiago de Compostela, 1987) only played five games with Real Madrid in basketball. Two ruptures of the Achilles tendon, one of the worst injuries for an athlete, cut short a promising trajectory in which the white club had placed many hopes. When he was only 31 years old, he was forced to anticipate his retirement. A few years later, he will be the candidate of Vox, the far-right party, to preside over the Region of Murcia.
Although he made his debut with the first team when he was just 16 years old, a milestone surpassed only by Luka Doncic and Roberto Núñez, Antelo’s presence at Real Madrid was anecdotal. His career developed at Cáceres, Zaragoza, Bilbao Basket, CB Hospitalet, Tenerife, Fuenlabrada, León and UCAM Murcia. Before making the jump to politics, Antelo was a member of the Association of Professional Basketball Players (ABP) and did his MBA in sports management and management.
“Our message is “Defend what is yours”. It is not a selfish formulation but a natural self-defense mechanism. For a long time they have imposed on us a grotesque agenda, focused on protecting foreign interests, sacrificing the future of our children, spoiling the destiny of a nation that can be great again with another political direction. We cannot bear that our towns become dirty and dangerous, depopulated or invaded, governed without dexterity or patriotism, unemployed and old, feared by gangs of crooks and in debt by unscrupulous leaders”, says Antelo, who took power from Vox in Murcia with a process that was contested by his rivals, who accused the former basketball player of electoral fraud.
His first motion called for a 300 square meter flag, the largest in Spain, to be placed in Murcia and hoisted every first Sunday of the month while the Spanish national anthem was played. Antelo was key for the city of Murcia to approve that the Spanish anthem should be played in schools, that there be a photograph of King Felipe VI in each classroom and that a Spanish flag be placed at the entrance or in a visible place. “Murcia sets an example for the whole of Spain by becoming a model of respect for the symbols that represent us and unite us all,” said Antelo, promoter of the text.
According to the far-right politician, the anthem, the crown and the Spanish flag are emblems that “guarantee the legal system” and are “symbols of the “sovereignty, independence and democracy” of Spain and must be “present in future generations”. The former player shared a dressing room at Hospitalet with Serge Ibaka, who a few years earlier was begging for food on the streets of Congo. When he was a junior, Antelo became European champion with the Spanish national team. Among his peers were Sergi Llull, Sergio Rodríguez or Carlos Suárez.
Catalonia and women, in the spotlight
Antelo’s message is as populist as it is dangerous. “We don’t want to live in a video game nightmare created by multinationals or be part of a big social experiment for cattle hands. Rapists are protected by feminist laws, those who attack democracy are part of the institutions, the perpetrators of the worst crimes have the prerogative to appoint their judges. In ministries, towns and autonomous communities, the worst of each house rules. Many leaders look like students with bad grades trying to save the world without trying or working. Others are so irresponsible that they don’t mind giving away paychecks to illegals at the expense of our grandparents’ pensions. Most are so scoundrels who dictate laws for their own benefit and sign contracts with which they commit the worst misdeeds”, explains Antelo.
After disseminating unsubstantiated information about Spain’s energy efficiency during a Murcia City Council meeting, Antelo used an audio of his party colleague Javier Ortega Smith as evidence to defend himself against accusations of falsification data The video and the response of the Podemos councilor, Ginés Ruiz, went viral.
“At Vox, we face alone a program agreed by the other parties to liquidate in the next legislature everything that matters to the Spanish. It’s not just about curbing insecurity in neighborhoods with more police and curbing those who walk around terrorizing our people, taking away our jobs, peace of mind and benefits. It’s not just about curbing waste, plugging and violence. We need to restore the order and freedom lost with this misgovernment, with so many useless regulations and organizations designed to place friends. We are facing a project of total annihilation, at the hands of socialism and separatism, with the complicity of the cowardly parties that also govern, the media groups that live off their spending on advertising, the unions and employers that trap funds and they laugh thanks to the politicians”, assures Antelo.