Teruel Existe

Teruel Existe (English: Teruel Exists, TE) is a Spanish political party based in the province of Teruel. It was founded in November 1999 as a citizen platform with the goal of demanding a fair and equal treatment for the province. It has since extended to the whole of Aragon under the Aragón Existe brand (English: Aragon Exists, AE). In 1999, Teruel still had no motorways, and on the only railway line (which was single-track without electrification) the train had derailed eight times in a year. Encouraged by the success of the strike called for 4 October 2019 in twenty Spanish provinces, to protest the "forgetfulness" suffered by the so-called "empty Spain", the platform chose to establish itself as a grouping of electors to contest the November 2019 Spanish general election in the province. It became the most voted force in the province, securing one out of the three seats in the Congress of Deputies in the Teruel constituency, and two out of its four directly-elected senators, as well as becoming the first grouping of electors since the Spanish transition to democracy to be successful in entering the Spanish parliament. The platform was instrumental in the investiture of Pedro Sánchez as Prime Minister of Spain on 5–7 January 2020, for whose support its leader Tomás Guitarte received intense threats and coercion from right-wing and far-right groups, which resulted in the Ministry of the Interior having to provide him with a police escort for security reasons. The platform was registered as a political party on 29 September 2021.