During his trip abroad to Mauritania, Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez did his best to present his country as open to migration: “Spain has long been a country of emigrants, and today we owe much of our prosperity and good economic situation to the people who come to us”.
Immigration as an economic factor: until recently everyone agreed on this - both the Spanish left-wing coalition and the conservative People's Party (PP), albeit with some limitations. But this consensus is already crumbling, the German public broadcaster ARD reports.
Opposition calls for tough measures
Five days after the racist riots in Torre Pacheco, opposition leader Alberto Núñez Feijó of the NP called for a tougher hand on migrants: "For us, it is clear: people must come here to work and integrate into Spanish society. We cannot accept people who are not here for that." He also explained that illegal migrants who commit crimes in Spain must be deported immediately.
Political observers see a trend of retreat in the far-right Vox party. It is the third largest party in the Spanish parliament and even before the riots it had spoken out in support of deporting millions of migrants, ARD recalls.
The social discourse is shifting ever further to the right
The Spanish conservatives do not go that far, but the Popular Party is increasingly adopting the arguments of the far right, says Mikel Ramos, an expert on the subject of right-wing extremism. "Unlike other conservative or liberal European parties, the PP has never drawn a red line between itself and the far right. At the moment, it adopts the views of “Vox“, which equates migration with crime and insecurity. This is a problem because it means that the Popular Party is increasingly moving away from the center of society, whose representative it claims to be." According to the researcher, this is also contributing to a change in social discourse - increasingly to the right and increasingly influenced by social networks.
A radical group called "EU, deport them immediately" has meanwhile called for the hunt for migrants from the Maghreb. It is campaigning in a very aggressive tone on social networks. On Telegram, for example, a call has appeared to hang the Spanish prime minister and to gas Muslims, says Ramos.
A 29-year-old man from Catalonia, who has been spotted at events of the far-right party “Vox“, is considered the group's coordinator. It is also alleged that he participated in an international meeting of identitarians and far-right groups in Milan a few weeks ago. He was arrested by police on Monday and is being investigated by prosecutors for an alleged hate crime.
The propaganda reaches people across Europe
It is not known who else belongs to the group, but it is known that it is mainly European. “These people are dangerous not because they are many, but because they reach many people with their propaganda”, right-wing extremism researcher Mikel Ramos told ARD. According to him, this propaganda spreads quite quickly.
According to the Spanish Observatory on Racism and Xenophobia, platforms such as Telegram, YouTube, Instagram, etc. have removed only eight percent of the 54,000 reported hate speech posts posted there last month alone. In Torre Pacheco, it took less than 24 hours for the hate speech on these platforms to escalate into real racist riots, ARD also points out.
Author: Julia Maher ARD