Name: Spanish officials blame far-right groups for violence | DW News
Uploaded: 2025-07-17T08:03:46.000Z
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A Spanish prosecutor says he is investigating whether anti-migrant messages spread on social media incited violence between far-right groups and North Africans in the southeastern town of Torre Pachio.

Basic passive voice

Now fights broke out after three Moroccan citizens were accused of assaulting a local man in his 60s.

The suspects have now been taken into custody and police reinforcements deployed to maintain security as far-right groups call for further protest.

Riot police fire rubber bullets at protesters in a bid to quell the unrest that has shook the small town in the southeast of Spain.

Four nights of clashes saw masked demonstrators throw objects at the police and led to at least 13 people being arrested.

Spanish officials have blamed far-right anti-migrant rhetoric for the surge in violence.

I ride my scooter and I'm afraid of being hit by a bottle.

We just want justice, to be left alone, to live in peace, for our neighbourhood to be Police say they have now brought the situation under control.

And the town's mayor has warned people to stay inside and not participate in street violence.

Let's cross over to journalist Stephen Bergen, who joins us from Barcelona.

What more can you tell us about the situation?

Well, the situation now, I think we can say this is beginning to fizzle out.

There was a call on social media for all these different anti-immigrant groups to all assemble in Torre Pacheco for a mass rally yesterday, and barely 100 people showed up.

In fact, they were outnumbered by both journalists and police.

So I think the momentum, their momentum has been lost for the time being, and things can perhaps return to normal.

So let's look back then on what happened, because the unrest erupted after a man in his 60s was reportedly attacked on the street by three youths of North African origin.

Well, I think all of that is quite murky.

There was apparently the picture circulated of this man on the internet, actually wasn't the man who claimed he'd been attacked.

I think these things, because of the social media, they spread so quickly and it gives them, basically it's been an excuse for anti-immigrant groups and above all, the far-right Vox party.

It's given them a focus of something to do and something to focus on, really.

The Spanish officials, they are blaming far-right groups for violence, and they allege that they called for clashes on social media.

Is far-right anti-migrant sentiment on the rise in the region?

I think the situation here is, as in many other European countries, is that the mainstream parties are unable to gain a majority on their own and they have to form coalitions, as we've seen in many European countries.

At the moment, we have a left-wing coalition government, but the mainstream conservative party knows that it can only get into a government in a coalition with Vox, the far-right party.

So Vox, which is estimated to get as much as 18, 20% of the vote, sees itself as part of a future government, and this is spurring it on.

I think most of the far-right groups, their issues tend to be about they're opposed to women's rights, they want women back in the home, they're opposed to same-sex marriage.

The far-right doesn't get any traction at all on these issues in Spain.

The one issue that they are getting some traction on is immigration.

We have to bear in mind that in the first, there was no immigration in Spain to speak of for centuries, until the very beginning of this century.

In the first five years of the century, 5 million people emigrated to Spain, the majority of them from Latin America, and basically without any friction.

But I think, as we're seeing elsewhere, it's very easy to stir up people's discontent and give them some sort of a target, and basically North African immigrants have become the whipping boys of this.

We should bear in mind that in this town of Torretacheco, the majority of the people they're calling immigrants are in fact Spanish citizens.

Journalist Stephen Bergen in Barcelona, thank you.