Islamophobia on the rise in Spain ahead of legislative elections

The far-right political party VOX in Spain never stops its anti-Muslim and anti-migrant policies in Spanish elections. Whether on social media or on the ground, the party is promoting hate speech against Muslims and migrants ahead of the legislative elections for the 5th Cortes Generales due to convene on July 23.

The hate speech against Muslims is referred to by the term “Reconquista,” which means “reconquest” in English, and was used by Spanish people during the medieval ages to “recapture” the territories from the Muslims. In his speech after far-right political parties won in the municipal and regional elections held on May 28, the head of the national-conservative party Vox, Santiago Abascal, said, “Like many other things that Vox has done, this will be the first stone of a reconquest, also in those places where the freedoms and unity of the nation have been most attacked, even with violence,” Latinus reported.

In the local election, the party garnered 1,663 votes this year, compared to 530 votes in 2019, La Prensa Latina reported, with an increase from 3.5% to 7.1% of the vote, reflecting a rise of the far-right power. 

Abascal and his political party are known for their prejudice against Muslims and migrants, and this was also clear at the plenary session of the Congress of Deputies in Madrid in February 2022 when he welcomed Ukrainian refugees but refused Muslim migrants, Anadolu Agency reported in Spanish.

“Anyone can tell the difference between them (Ukranian refugees) and the invasion of young military-aged men of Muslim origin who have launched themselves against European borders in an attempt to destabilize and colonize it,” he was quoted as saying by Anadolu.

In April 2023, the Network Contagion Research Institute issued a report revealing that anti-Muslim sentiment has been on the rise over the past few years, saying that this rise is “exacerbated both by a rapid influx of immigrants and the rise of the far-right political party VOX.”

Moreover, the European University Institute said in the 2022 European Islamophobia report that attacks against Spanish Muslims increased in 2022, quoting figures from Spain’s Ministry of Interior that the number of case of hate speech against Muslims online increased by 20 percent in the months of July and August in 2021.