Pablo Álvarez Meana, the son of the owners of La Suiza: an old internet acquaintance, a fake Trump advisor, and someone who “hates unionism.”
In the conflict surrounding the Swiss Six , the name of Gijón native Pablo Álvarez Meana is a recurring one: he is the son of the owners of the La Suiza bakery and the family spokesperson. But Álvarez Meana is also a long-time internet acquaintance of over a decade, boasting a lengthy resume with more questions than answers. During these ten years, since his university days, he has been litigating—or threatening to do so—with media outlets and social media users who have mocked him. His life story adds context to the battle the family is waging against the union members, asserting that they will appeal the pardon if it is granted, as well as the request for a third degree.
In 2012, Álvarez Meana became a meme thanks to the then-current Twitter account, Menéame , and Forocoches . Back then, he was better known as " 35 licencias" (the "35 license plates"). The reason: he boasted online about having earned 35 honors in the Public Management degree he studied at the University of Oviedo ( in fact, he still lists it on his LinkedIn ). Even during his university days, he had no qualms about legal battles: he got a judge to force the University of Oviedo to award him the end-of-degree prize, as reported by La Nueva España that same year.
All this internet fame started with some messages of support for Mariano Rajoy on Twitter (now X) in May 2012. As reported in this article from La Gaceta (deleted from the web, but still available through WebArchive.org) Álvarez Meana complained that people were laughing at him and announced that he was going to file a complaint: “Pablo assures that this matter 'is in the hands of his lawyers', since 'brutal crimes' have been committed in which his image 'has been humiliated'” . One of these complaints was against the administrator of Menéame , according to this article.
He also threatened to sue comedian Facu Díaz , who in 2012 was a 19-year-old Twitter user. “He got angry with me because I took a video of him where he was gesticulating a lot, sped it up a bit, and played heavy metal music in the background,” the comedian explains to EL PAÍS. “Because of that video, he told me he'd reported me,” Díaz continues; “but of course, either someone told him that wasn't a crime, or it was the police themselves, when he went to file a complaint, who told him it didn't make sense.” The Uruguayan adds: “It was very common for him to resort to threats of that kind at the slightest mockery.” Ironically, Álvarez Meana's current lawyer, Javier Gómez Bermúdez, is the judge who summoned Facu Díaz to the National Court in 2015 after he was charged with glorifying terrorism.
The La Gaceta article also reported that she had "reported the incidents to the Minister of the Interior and to the deputy leader of the Popular Party, María Dolores de Cospedal . " And as another 2012 La Gaceta article reported, the Minister of the Interior, Jorge Fernández Díaz, sent her "a letter expressing his support" and lamenting "the disregard for freedom of expression felt by some marginalized groups in society."
The mockery wasn't just focused on the 35 license plate issue. A good portion of it also targeted his YouTube channel ( which is still available ), with videos in which he called himself a " public affairs manager " and in which he offered his personal opinions on how to get out of the economic crisis the country was going through at the time. His involuntary fame reached so far that even the program El Intermedio, by La Sexta, they joked about him .
On another YouTube channel, between 2017 and 2018, he uploaded interviews with different personalities, such as Esperanza Aguirre , José Bono , Ana Botella , Juan Rosell or Judge José María Serrano, Head of Penal 1 in Oviedo, as part of a political video blog called Política España . On a third YouTube channel , Álvarez Meana talks about the case of his parents' bakery and denounced “ the persecution suffered by President Álvaro Uribe by the Colombian Supreme Court ” and “ Carmena 'The Communist' and Colau 'The Squatter' out ”.
A long resume with more questions than answersHis professional career has not been without controversy either. In 2015, the local media outlet Marbella24horas reported that Álvarez Meana had obtained a scholarship from Marbella City Hall as part of the "Marbella with University Students" program, which consisted of "€1,000 gross per month for half a year." To obtain it, one of the requirements was to be registered in Marbella. The Marbella Socialist Workers' Party (PSOE) requested an explanation for this award .
As Marbella Confidencial reported, "the Socialist spokesperson on the Marbella City Council, José Bernal, considers it 'indecent' to award the aforementioned scholarship to an Asturian activist who supposedly wasn't registered in Marbella." The Gijón native also doesn't mention this scholarship as such in his professional profile. According to the article, he states that his work there has been listed since October 2014. However, the Marbella24horas article explains that the scholarship call was made in November of that same year and the list of selected candidates wasn't made public until March 26, 2015.
The position Álvarez Meana mentions he held in the council also differs from a simple internship: he claims to have been Mayor Ángeles Muñoz's chief of staff and later an advisor to the leader of the municipal opposition. Sources at Marbella City Hall confirm that Álvarez Meana was not Mayor Ángeles Muñoz's chief of staff. The chief of staff was Ana López Márquez. Nor do the mayor's office recall him holding any other position within the council.
In the newspaper archives referring to this scholarship, in El Plural reported that at this time, "his Facebook profile indicates that he currently resides in Madrid, and on the professional network LinkedIn, his entire activity is focused on Asturias, with no hint of a possible connection to the city of Marbella." However, that information differs from what we can read today on that social network.
In 2012, when he rose to fame, and as his professional profile shows , where he defines himself as "Economic Libertarian and Values Conservative. #Antifeminist," Álvarez Meana worked in Ana Botella's mayoral office, where he apparently remained until 2015, when he went to Marbella on a scholarship. Also, according to this same resume, in the second half of 2011 he was an advisor to Ana Mato in the PP's Deputy General Secretariat for Coordination. Sources in Ana Botella's mayoral office have no recollection of his time there.
Subsequently, according to his record, he continued to work in other offices, such as the Ministry of the Interior between 2016 and 2017. Interior sources confirm to this newspaper that Álvarez Meana did not work there. The Gijón native also says he worked in the CEOE presidential office. CEOE sources have confirmed that they do not remember him either.
More recently, in his move to Latin America, Álvarez Meana claims to have served as an advisor to Patricia Bullrich, Argentina's Minister of National Security. In August 2024, Miguel Álvarez Meana of CNT Prensa contacted Argentine journalist Mariano Vázquez, who used Argentina's Access to Information Portal (similar to Spain's Transparency Portal) to inquire whether Álvarez Meana was working or had worked for Bullrich's ministry. EL PAÍS has obtained the document with the Argentine government's response: "The General Directorate of Human Resources, under the Undersecretariat of Administrative Management of this ministry, has reported that Mr. Pablo Álvarez Meana is not on the payroll, nor does existing files indicate that this person has ever served in this ministry."
Vázquez adds that "through a colleague," they consulted Patricia Bullrich's spokesperson about this young man and this was the response: "At least I've never seen him, nor heard of him."
Álvarez Meana subsequently claimed to have been an advisor to Javier Milei and now claims to be an advisor to Donald Trump. Sources at the Republican National Committee consulted by EL PAÍS have no evidence that he is the US president's personal advisor on security matters: "If there were someone who speaks Spanish and is of Spanish origin in a position of that magnitude, I would know," says this source.
A member of the PP since his adolescence and a member of the local council of Gijón since 2009 , Álvarez Meana has changed parties in recent years, as he himself explained in X. From being a fervent follower of Mariano Rajoy and Pablo Casado, with whom he even recorded an advertising spot, he left the ranks of the Popular Party to join Vox in 2019.
Beyond changing parties, during this time he has been mentioned in X on different occasions for various reasons. He had some impact in 2018 with the aforementioned announcement with Pablo Casado to ask for the vote. In January 2020 , he denounced Pedro Sánchez for high treason , an idea he has insisted on years later . He also openly admits that he hates unions (on different occasions ), and has even talked about taking legal action to outlaw CNT Gijón . Furthermore, he was criticized for his tweet celebrating the conviction of Las Seis de La Suiza with his lawyer, in which he called the unionists "anarchist prisoners." The same ones he now wants to keep in prison.
I led that criminal case since 2017. You'll understand from Asturias and Argentina that I hate unions and don't recognize any role for them. The Supreme Court ruling prevents the CNT from doing what it was doing because there's already case law establishing that they engage in coercion.
— Pablo Álvarez Meana 🇺🇸 🦅 (@PabloAMeana) October 15, 2024
We continue our legal action to outlaw CNTGijon. We will not cease, nor will we give up. Our Legal Department has asked the Investigating Court to declare the investigation complex so that we can gather all the evidence we requested in September.
— Pablo Álvarez Meana 🇺🇸 🦅 (@PabloAMeana) November 15, 2018
EL PAÍS has contacted Álvarez Meana to inform him of the writing of this article and to hear his version. No response has been received.
Antonio Jiménez Barca
On June 15, 2016, according to the ruling of Gijón Court No. 1, one of the employees of the La Suiza bakery, located at 180 Avenida de Sultz in Gijón, began to feel ill. She wanted to go home, but, according to the CNT, the bakery owner wouldn't let her. The woman was pregnant and notified her partner. He showed up and argued with the owner. With a single blow, he damaged one of the refrigerators. She eventually went home and later took sick leave due to the risk of miscarriage. The owner filed a complaint against the woman's partner.
In March 2017, after the birth of her child and while on maternity leave, the woman approached the CNT (National Workers' Union) for help negotiating her dismissal because she never wanted to work there again. She complained of anxiety and stress and alleged that she had been subjected to workplace and sexual harassment by the owner. The latter case was tried separately and dismissed due to lack of evidence. The owner, in turn, accused the worker of filing a false complaint, but the case was dismissed. Union members took up the case and attempted to reach an agreement with the bakery owner. They demanded compensation of just over €6,000 and that the owner withdraw the complaint against her husband. The owner did not agree.
The union took action: from the first days of May until September 19, it organized 15 demonstrations in front of the bakery (a small business where the owner, his wife, his daughter, and two other employees worked). Half of the demonstrations were reported to the Government Delegation. The others were not. Only a dozen people (all CNT members) attended the first ones. Later, more people joined in: some gathered around 80 protesters. They lasted from an hour to an hour and a half. There were shouts of "go away now," banners, insults directed at the bakery owners and customers, traffic jams, and, on a couple of occasions, the throwing of firecrackers and stink bombs.
The ruling states that the owner was forced to close the business due to pressure and move to another city, suffering severe financial and psychological hardship. He has now opened a new bakery in Oviedo. The union members counter that the bakery was for sale before it all began. "My parents wanted to sell the bakery before all this started, it's true, and move to Andalusia," explains the son, Pablo Álvarez Meana. "But in the end, due to what happened, they sold it quickly, losing money." In the end, the judge sentenced the five women—including the worker with whom it all began—and Héctor González. The Provincial Court and the Supreme Court have upheld the sentence and the penalty. They were sent to prison on Thursday, July 10.
EL PAÍS
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