Alvise Pérez, the rising star of Spanish populism who has won Haftar’s favour

On Wednesday 7 October, Alvise Pérez, a far-right Spanish MEP, took to the stage at the European Parliament in Strasbourg to explain why he would be voting in favour of the resolution to ban the Muslim Brotherhood, the leading organisation of political Islam. Pérez is the leader of the Eurosceptic and populist party Se Acabó la Fiesta (Salf), a movement which, according to the latest polls, is gaining ground, exceeding 4.2 per cent of the vote – just below Podemos – and is on course to enter the new Parliament following the Spanish general election on 29 November. “Madam President,” he began, “in the Committee I hear some colleagues insulting someone who has done our dirty work for ten years: Khalifa Haftar, the Libyan general who drove out of Benghazi those who set fire to the US consulate and who fought the Islamic State, in particular those who beheaded more than twenty-one Christians on a beach. The Commissioner here present will no doubt recognise this name, because a year ago you, the European Commission, travelled to Benghazi to implore him to help you with the migrant boats in the Mediterranean. And how do you repay him? By defending terrorists and, as I hear some of my Socialist colleagues in the Commission say, by calling him a murderer.” To understand just how complex the relationship between the Haftars and Islamic extremism really is, one need only consider that just a few days earlier, on 14 September, the Spanish ambassador to Libya had travelled to Benghazi to visit Saddam Haftar, son of Khalifa and deputy commander-in-chief of eastern Libya, to implore him to use his connections with the world of jihad in the Sahel to broker the release of Juan Mirales Gomez, a Spanish citizen kidnapped in Burkina Faso. Pérez’s reference to Haftar, however, is no coincidence, and his fascination with the Libyan general reveals a network of connections that casts a shadow over one of the candidates standing for the Spanish presidency in the November election.

Pérez’s statement comes a couple of weeks after he met Saddam in Dubai, in the United Arab Emirates. The Spanish party’s Instagram page reports the news, describing the young scion from Benghazi as “Libya’s most important authority”, despite the fact that the only internationally recognised government is that of Tripoli.

Pérez’s trip to Dubai took place on 25 September, when Pedro Sánchez’s government was already in the midst of a crisis. The Salf leader explained on Instagram that the purpose of the trip was to launch the “presentation tour for his national candidacy in Spain, with the aim of reducing the deficit, lowering energy prices and controlling migration in Africa”. The admiration Pérez shows for the Benghazi leader – the two are pictured smiling in a selfie – is demonstrated by the media campaign that Salf has been waging on the general’s behalf for some time. For example, Pérez accuses the Sánchez government of enforcing the UN embargo in Libya by seizing weapons and military vessels sent by the United Arab Emirates to Haftar. Pérez’s party, on the other hand, argues for the need for a more pragmatic policy towards Libya because, it says, all other European countries are violating the embargo, unlike Spain, which, by doing so, is jeopardising its own oil interests. On social media, Pérez recounts in particular the incident in August 2025, when ten offshore patrol vessels from the Emirates, bound for Cyrenaica, were seized by the Civil Guard at the port of Algeciras in Spain. Months later, the government repurposed the vessels as naval craft made available to the Spanish police and deployed in the fight against drug traffickers in the Canary Islands. An affront, according to Salf: “This isn’t an embargo, it’s theft from a country we need to prevent our petrol from becoming more expensive, because Haftar has already shut down the oil wells.” In August 2024, in fact, the al Sharara oil field – Libya’s largest and largely operated by the Spanish company Repsol – was shut down by Haftar due to a Spanish investigation into the Libyan general, who was accused of arms trafficking. This caused enormous damage to Madrid’s energy supplies, which, Pérez continues on social media, must not be repeated today. In another video published on 23 September, Salf brings up Il Foglio, which he claims is acting as a tool in the hands of the Meloni government as part of an alleged “battle for Libyan oil” between Rome and Madrid. Pérez cites an article published the previous day, in which Il Foglio reported rumours circulating in Tripoli regarding the suspected involvement of Mikel Aguirre, a senior manager at the Spanish oil company Repsol – which has a significant presence in Libya – in the terrorist cell that had carried out drone attacks in August on the refineries in Zawiya, in the west of the country. These are allegations that Repsol has consistently denied and which, according to Pérez as well, are unfounded, despite the fact that the Libyan Prime Minister, Abdulhamid Dabaiba, confirmed the involvement of Spanish nationals in the attacks during a meeting held on 24 September with local dignitaries from Misrata. According to a statement released by Repsol last week, Aguirre reportedly left Libya in the normal course of events from Tripoli airport on 23 September for unspecified “work-related reasons”. Since then, there has been no news of the manager.

Il Foglio contacted Pérez to ask what he meant by the “struggle” between Rome and Madrid over Libya, and why Spain should ignore the UN arms embargo: “It’s very simple,” he replied, “ Italy is giving boats to Libya and to Haftar himself to curb migration, which, thanks to him, is now over 90 per cent under control. And if the embargo worries you so much, I would remind you that there are Italian military personnel training the Libyan army in Benghazi, and that Haftar’s soldiers are being trained right now in Italy with the cooperation of your own government.”

“I have known the Haftar family for over five years, through Parliament,” adds the populist candidate, who claims to have had no intermediaries in his friendship with the Libyan general. Yet, immediately after meeting Saddam, also in Dubai, Pérez had dinner with Yusuf al Ubeidi, a citizen holding both Libyan and Spanish passports who lives and works between Spain and the Emirates and who presents himself as “Haftar’s interpreter”. It was al Ubeidi who posted photos on Instagram of the meeting – apparently a very cordial one – with Pérez. The dinner between the two is noteworthy for one reason: al Ubeidi is currently on trial in Spain for arms trafficking in Libya, specifically on behalf of Haftar.

Pérez plays down the whole affair and tells Il Foglio that Yusuf’s case “was dismissed by the judge over a year ago. He has nothing to do with it: he has merely – and continues to – carry out his work as a translator”. A job which, according to the Spanish press, leads him to collaborate with influential figures. In 2024, a report by the Civil Guard, which the daily newspaper El Independiente claims to have consulted, included photographs showing Ubeidi in a restaurant alongside Colonel Francisco José Vázquez, head of the Unidad Central Especial número 2, a special unit of the Civil Guard responsible for combating terrorism and organised crime. Il Foglio has been unable to verify the authenticity of these photographs.

Contrary to what Pérez has stated, the legal proceedings against Ubeidi for arms trafficking, which began in 2023, have not been concluded. The case is before the Audiencia Nacional in Madrid and has unfolded along three separate strands. One, relating to the provision of parachute training to Haftar’s forces, appears to have been dismissed. The second, however, is still ongoing and sees Ubeidi accused of brokering the sale between Spanish companies and Haftar of 100 AGM Rattler TS35-384 thermal sights, 200 Primary Arms LX RS10 holographic sights and 500 Picatinny rails for AK103 assault rifles, for a total amount of 240,931 euros. According to the prosecution, al-Ubeidi and other defendants “are alleged to be part of a criminal organisation involved in the smuggling of WMD (weapons of mass destruction and dual-use goods) and prohibited goods into Libya, destined for Haftar’s LNA (Libyan National Army)”. Among the accused, the case files also list Lario Lovric, a Croatian national and founder and CEO of a major contracting firm, Aldra Alameen Security Services, based in Dubai and with several ongoing projects in Libya in the field of energy infrastructure security. Last June, al-Ubeidi filed a motion to have the case dismissed, but this was rejected by the court, which decided to proceed with the trial.

Meanwhile, the articles in L’Independiente containing any reference to Haftar’s interpreter have disappeared from the internet. Al Ubeidi, who always addresses others in the plural in his messages, states that “all Spanish newspapers have removed the articles published against us because the matter has been legally resolved in court and because the reports were false”. This version of events is contradicted by the ruling in which the Audiencia Nacional decided last June to proceed with the trial. Al Ubeidi, for his part, says he “has faith in the justice system”, but does not seem averse to resorting to intimidation when necessary: “We know who is providing you with false information about us,” he warns.