A photograph with Juanjo Gastañazatorre, a councillor in the Basque town of Durango, wearing a black SS uniform saluting to the camera, appeared on the website eldia.es.
@eldia También hubiera sido malo que se disfrazara de Stalin.
— alicia maría (@ishtar1987) 24 февраля 2015
The incident forced the secretary general of the PP in the Basque Country, Nerea Llano, to make a swift apology.
“We cannot allow a career so dedicated to the defense of freedom, human rights and democracy like that of Juanjo Gastañazatorre to be tainted by a mistake,” she claimed.
However, Gastañazatorre himself hasn’t been overly concerned by the events.
"If it bothered or offended anyone, they just don’t get the Tenerife Carnival," he was quoted by a Spanish newspaper El Correo.
Nevertheless, he apologized for wearing a Nazi costume, adding that it wasn't his intention to insult anyone, all the more the victims of the Nazi regime.
This wasn’t the first tactless action concerning Nazi-attributes recently which resulted in hasty apologies. Martin Baker, a flag-collector from South Yorkshire, 54, raised the red and black Waffen SS flag on pole next to his house on Friday. By his own admission, he didn’t know the meaning of the symbol.
“I want to say sorry to everyone who might have been upset by the flag. I didn't know exactly what it means,” Mr. Baker was quoted as saying by the Yorkshire Post. “I don’t want to upset anyone, so took it down as soon as people started contacting me about the fuss it was causing,” he said. He promised that the next flag, he would hoist, would be dedicated to love, peace and happiness.
According to the Local, there have been a host of incidents earlier in the year: at the beginning of February two PP youth leaders were fired after a photo capturing them making some Nazi gestures and holding a fascist flag appeared in the Internet.
In 2015 Britain’s Prince Harry appeared on the front page of the Sun, wearing a swastika armband and a desert uniform resembling those worn by Erwin Rommel's German Afrika Korps, at his friend’s party. The Prince then made a public apology and said “it was a poor choice of costume.”
