MADRID (AP) – Prosecutors in Spain have launched two separate investigations involving a far-right party and extremist neo-Nazi sympathizers for possible hate crimes against Muslims and Jews, respectively.
The Barcelona prosecutor’s office said on Tuesday it was examining the recent campaign in the Catalan regional elections for Vox, a party that mixes Spanish nationalism, populism and an uncompromising stance against illegal migration after receiving complaints from various Islamic communities.
The groups, which represent more than 300 mosques in the northeastern region, argued that Vox’s social media campaign under the tag #StopIslamization, which included a video mixing news about Muslims and an extremist attack in 2017, was slanderous for Muslims in Catalonia .
Barcelona prosecutor Pilar López told the Associated Press that the initial investigation, which will be protected by judicial secrecy, could last up to six months before deciding whether the campaign resulted in inciting hatred against Muslims.
Vox parliamentary spokesman Iván Espinosa de los Monteros said on Tuesday that the party is 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 overthrow it.”
Making inroads into Catalan politics for the first time 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, prosecutors in Madrid 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 that joined Nazi troops during World War II.
In videos distributed by the Russian news agency Ruptively from the march in the biggest cemetery in Madrid, a woman makes a fiery speech referring to the “Jew” as “the enemy”.