On the ground of the attacks, hatred has finally grown. However, on August 26, 2017, more than 2,000 people gathered in the town hall square of Ripoll, a small town of 10,000 inhabitants located at the foot of the Pyrenees, under the slogan “For peace. One step forward”. About thirty associations, supported by the town hall, local and regional elected officials, artists and representatives of the local Muslim community wanted to set an example.
Demonstrate that after the attacks in Barcelona and Cambrils that occurred nine days earlier, on August 17, causing 16 deaths and 140 injuries, tolerance had to prevail. That living together could be strengthened in this city where eight of the jihadists responsible for the attacks resided, including Abdelbaki Es Satty, the Moroccan imam behind the radicalization of the attackers, killed on August 16 in the accidental explosion of the hiding place of the terrorist cell, and Younes Abouyaaqoub, the driver of the van which the following day mowed down walkers on the famous Ramblas.
On a platform, in front of the crowd, the sister of two of the terrorists, Hafida Oukabir, spoke to express her pain and ask to work to improve the integration of young people, before bursting into tears, claiming “No to terrorism, no to violence, yes to peace”. “No tinc por” (“We are not afraid”), had then chanted the crowd, applauding him to the breaking point.
Anti-immigration discourse
Six years later Aliança Catalana, a new far-right party that mobilized the electorate on an anti-immigration rhetoric directly attacking the Muslim community and demanding the closure of the Ripoll mosque, won the May 28 municipal elections with 30.8% of the votes. His campaign slogan: “Save Ripoll”. The head of the list, Silvia Orriols, a 38-year-old Catholic administrative employee and mother of five, won 6 of the 17 seats on the municipal council and is expected to govern in a minority, the other parties not seeming able to agree to make her dam.
For four years, this radical Catalan separatist, the only one elected in 2019 from the Catalan National Front (FNC), a far-right identity party, has spilled her venom at each municipal assembly, speaking of “The Migrant Invasion” And of “the Islamization of Catalonia”, advocating the abolition of social assistance to foreigners, who represent 13% of the inhabitants.
“People have showcased my sincerity to the real issues they are suffering from. Here, there has never been any coexistence between communities: the Muslims form a parallel community and distrust grew when it attacked us frontally. As elsewhere in Europe, people are afraid,” she said to M The magazine of the World by telephone.
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