Violência Xenofóbica em Espanha: O Desafio dos Extremistas

Em Torre-Pacheco, uma cidade agrícola na região de Murcia, Espanha,Several nights of xenophobic violence shook the town in mid-July. It all began when a 68-year-old retiree, Domingo D., claimed he was attacked by three young men of Maghreb origin on July 9th. The incident quickly gained traction on social media, accompanied by a video that was later debunked as fake evidence.

Local officials, including the regional president of Vox, José Angel Antelo, publicly linked immigration to crime. Meanwhile, the city organized a rally against insecurity. In subsequent days, armed groups patrolled neighborhoods with high immigrant populations, leading to clashes, destruction, and multiple injuries. It took five days and the deployment of police reinforcements for the situation to stabilize.

These events are not isolated. They fit into a series of similar episodes across Europe, such as the xenophobic riots in Dublin in 2023, protests against social housing allocations for a Romani family in Rome's Casal Bruciato in 2019, anti-migrant violence in Chemnitz, Germany, in 2018, and attacks on NGOs and asylum seekers on Lesbos island in Greece. Everywhere, far-right groups try to present these mobilizations as spontaneous expressions of public frustration over immigration.

However, what do these episodes reveal about the territorial roots and media strategies of the far right? Far from being spontaneous or a new rise of extremism, events like those in Torre-Pacheco show how organized groups manipulate situations to fit their narrative. The far right thrives on fear and division, using local issues as a smokescreen for their broader agenda.