Analysis
What’s behind the neofascist patrols attacking migrants in Spain
The crisis of the Socialists has convinced the far right to intensify its campaigns against immigration, with a barrage of fake news and racist slogans.
The list of violent attacks against migrants in Spain continues to grow. Last weekend, it was the turn of Torre Pacheco, a town of 40,000 inhabitants in the south of the country, an agricultural center in the province of Murcia, between Valencia and Andalusia. After the first attacks on Friday evening, on Saturday a pitched battle took place between militants from local neo-fascist groups, together with those who had come for the occasion from the capital, Alicante, and Almeria, and young North Africans concentrated mainly in the San Antonio neighborhood.
On Sunday evening, the deployment of local police and Civil Guard reinforcements only partially managed to prevent further attacks and clashes, frustrating the plans of about 20 masked right-wing extremists who nevertheless vandalized a kebab shop.
The “hunt for Moroccans” – and the mobilization of foreign workers to defend their community in response – began after a 68-year-old resident was beaten in the street last Wednesday for no apparent reason by a young man while another filmed the scene. The social media channels of racist and supremacist groups immediately blamed “foreigners,” inciting residents to teach them a lesson and spreading a fake video of the beating.
On Saturday night, a number of groups of white supremacists armed with iron bars or machetes roamed the town, attacking all people of North African ancestry they encountered, and converging on the San Antonio neighborhood. There, they were met by a large group of residents ready for a fight. The Civil Guard, in riot gear, struggled to stop the clash.
At the end of three days of violence, a dozen people have been arrested, mainly members of the xenophobic vigilante gangs but also migrants, and as many have been injured, fortunately not seriously. In addition, 30 people were reported to the authorities and 80 identified.
The delegate of the central government in Murcia, Mariola Guevara, has announced that police reinforcements will remain in Torre Pacheco throughout the week to prevent further incidents. But far-right chat rooms and social media channels (such as Deport Them Now) reveal that the supremacist networks are preparing new pogroms elsewhere, waiting for the opportunity to arise. The neo-Nazi group Democracia Nacional instructs its members to “seek conflict and anticipate it.”
What is behind the increasingly frequent attacks on foreigners and mosques is not only the small groups but, according to the Socialists and the left, first and foremost the hatred spread by Vox, which has not condemned the attacks in Torre Pacheco and has instead accused the center-left government's “permissive” immigration policies of being the cause of the clashes.
The crisis of the Socialists – shaken by the arrest for corruption of the party's number three, Santos Cerdán, and investigations into other prominent leaders – has convinced the far right to intensify its campaigns against immigration, with a barrage of fake news and racist slogans. Looking at the polls, the strategy seems to be paying off. According to the latest monthly survey by the Center for Sociological Research, the PSOE has fallen to 27% from 34% last month, while Vox has jumped from 13% to 19%. The “moderate right” of the Popular Party, which is following the lead of Santiago Abascal and associating immigration with crime whenever it can, doesn’t seem to be bleeding support from the reactionary wave, remaining just below June's 27%.
Eyeing the scenario of winning big in the next elections and getting to support and influence a government led by the PP – which Vox is nevertheless accusing of being part of the problem – Abascal and his followers have abandoned all caution. A few weeks ago, MPs and leaders of the party spoke out in favor of expelling 8 million people from Spain, including immigrants and second-generation immigrants.
As a party, Vox (which a year ago left all the regional governments where it had a presence) has adopted slogans against alleged “ethnic replacement” and in favor of “remigration,” calling for the immediate deportation of both irregular migrants and regular migrants who commit crimes – a policy that has been touted on a large scale by the Trump administration.
Originally published at https://ilmanifesto.it/ronde-neofasciste-scatenate-contro-i-migranti-in-spagna on 2025-07-15