MADRID (AP) – Spanish prosecutors have launched two separate investigations involving a far-right party and neo-Nazi extremist sympathizers for possible hate crimes against Muslims and Jews, respectively.
The Barcelona Public Prosecutor’s Office said on Tuesday that it is analyzing the recent campaign in the Catalan regional elections by Vox, a party that mixes Spanish nationalism, populism and an uncompromising position against illegal migration, after receiving complaints from several Islamic communities.
The groups, representing more than 300 mosques in the northeast region, claimed that Vox’s socialization campaign under the hashtag #StopIslamization, which included a video mixing news about Muslims and an extremist attack in 2017, was slanderous of Muslims. from Catalonia.
Barcelona prosecutor Pilar López told The Associated Press that the initial investigation, which will be protected by legal secrecy, could take up to six months before deciding whether the campaign would incite hatred against Muslims.
Vox parliamentary spokesman Iván Espinosa de los Monteros said on Tuesday that the party was proud of its actions. The campaign highlighted the risks, he said, “brought by some who do not accept the Western lifestyle and even come to tear it down.”
Making his way for the first time in Catalan politics and sounding alarms across the political spectrum, Vox won 11 of the 135 seats in the regional parliament on Sunday, more than the other two center-right parties combined.
In a separate case, Madrid prosecutors opened an investigation into anti-Semitic messages expressed by a small group of extremists who gathered on Saturday to honor the memory of a Spanish platoon who joined Nazi troops during World War II. .
In videos shared by the Russian news agency Ruptly on the march to the largest cemetery in Madrid, a woman gives a heated speech referring to the “Jew” as the “enemy”.