Fran Perea Reveals Career & Family Costs of 2008 Political Support
Madrid, Spain – actor and musician Fran Perea has publicly detailed the professional and personal repercussions he faced after voicing support for then-Prime Minister José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero in 2008. Perea claims a subsequent “cancellation campaign” led to lost contracts and ultimately cost both of his parents their jobs.
The Málaga-born artist expressed regret that expressing a political opinion could result in professional retaliation,stating,”I thought then that we lived in a country where you could give yoru opinion without it meaning that someone would cross you.” Perea, who described his support for Zapatero’s PSOE party as a “democratic and reasoned” decision, lost performance contracts with several city councils due to his political stance.
Adding to the fallout, Perea alleges a defamation campaign targeted his family, spearheaded by a journalist from El Mundo. His father, a technician in the Málaga Education delegation and head of an education and popular culture NGO, and his mother, an advisor for the PSOE in Andalusia focused on Social Welfare, became subjects of articles accusing them of benefiting from political connections and improperly leveraging their positions.
Perea asserts the journalist published “very crazy” articles without attempting to verify information with his family, leading to a barrage of negative attention and the eventual loss of his parents’ employment. He emphasized that neither he nor his family were contacted for comment prior to publication of the allegations.
