Spain tightens scrutiny of far-right groups after clashes

By Emma Pinedo

MADRID (Reuters) -Spain said on Thursday it would step up investigations into suspected crimes by members of far-right and racist groups after four nights of clashes with African migrants in some of the nation's worst such unrest of recent times.

Authorities have detained 11 people and filed more than 60 complaints over hate crimes and disorder since violence erupted last Friday following an attack on a local man in his 60s in the town of Torre Pacheco in southeastern Murcia region.

Police have detained three Moroccan men over the attack in a town where one third of the inhabitants are of migrant origin.

The Interior Ministry said Spain's terrorism and organised crime intelligence specialists have been asked to include hate crimes within their remit and to monitor online spaces for incitement to violence.

Far-right groups will be investigated for links to national movements, the ministry said, after government claims that Vox, the nationalist party that is now Spain's third largest electoral force, was inciting violence in Torre Pacheco.

"We cannot allow hatred to take root in our society," Interior Minister Fernando Grande-Marlaska said during a meeting of law enforcement officials.

"Crime is not on the rise, nor is it linked to migration," he added, countering a common refrain of far-right groups.

Vox has denied responsibility for the unrest and blamed the socialist-led government's migration policies.

Despite a 54% rise in foreign residents between 2011 and 2024, crime has dropped seven percentage points, with hate crimes down 13.8% last year and Spain among the world's 25 safest nations, Grande-Marlaska said.

'UNACCEPTABLE ATTITUDES'

As well as the Torre Pacheco trouble, in Alcala de Henares, west of Madrid, there were protests earlier this month after a man - identified as Malian by El Pais newspaper - was arrested on suspicion of sexual assault outside a migrant reception centre.

Four people arrested during an unauthorised protest in front of the same centre are being investigated for disorder.

Grande-Marlaska condemned the Torre Pacheco attack that triggered the unrest and highlighted swift police action to detain the three suspects including the suspected main perpetrator who was attempting to flee to France.

Calls went out on social media for people to go to the town to "protect Spaniards" and "hunt north Africans".

"These are unacceptable attitudes that have grown in recent years, encouraged by anonymity on social media, but also, and more seriously, by irresponsible politicians," the minister said.

Spain has been open to migration and its economic benefits, even as other European governments have tightened borders. But debate has reignited, led by Vox, as plans to relocate unaccompanied underage migrants from the Canary Islands to the rest of Spain have been confirmed in recent weeks.

(Reporting by Emma Pinedo, editing by Aislinn Laing and Andrew Cawthorne)