Catalonia’s new far right: How anti-Muslim sentiment is reshaping politics

The rise of Catalan Alliance is causing alarm among Muslims ahead of Spain’s snap election in November. Save Share Barcelona, Spain –Almost a decade after a failed independence bid in Catalonia, anti-migration and anti-Muslim sentiment has replaced secession as the driving force among voters in this wealthy region. A new far-right party, Alianca Catalana, or Catalan Alliance (AC), which wants a crackdown on migration and has targeted Islam as a threat to society, has surged in the polls in a region with the largest Muslim population in Spain. The party is on course to become the second biggest political force in Catalonia after the Socialists at the next Catalan regional election in 2028, polls predict. It has capitalised on the anti-migrant sentiment sweeping Europe, which has seen victories for the far-right in Germany, Italy, and France. The rise of Catalan Alliance has alarmed Muslims, who fear a backlash in a country which has previously seemed welcoming. “This has surprised all of us,” said Soukayna El Abdi, president of the Young Moroccans of Ripoll, referring to the party’s growth. “Most people come to integrate, to work and live among others. The rise of [Catalan] Alliance is about unfounded hate. They spread lots of things about our community which are not true.” Spain will vote in a snap election in November. Polls show the conservative People’s Party and the far-right Vox gaining support. The rise of the Catalan Alliance shows a shift towards the right in the fourth biggest economy in the eurozone. The party backs independence and has taken support from the other secessionist parties, Together for Catalonia and Catalan Republican Left, which were behind the failed bid to break away from Spain in 2017. “All my friends support Catalan Alliance. There are too many migrants around now and Islam is a threat,” Eduard Lopez, a businessman from Molins de Rei near Barcelona, told Al Jazeera. “These other independence parties are from the past. They failed to do what they said they would.” A fifth of Spain’s population of nearly 50 million was born outside the country, according to the Spanish National Statistics Institute (INE). Colombians, Venezuelans and Moroccans are the three largest groups by nationality. Catalan Alliance started in Ripoll, a small town near the French border. It was where members of a cell plotted an attack on Barcelona in 2017 which killed 16 people and was claimed by ISIL....