Jorge Buxadé, one of the leaders and the spokesperson of the extreme right-wing Spanish party Vox, claimed that “Barcelona has become the city with the highest crime rate in Spain and is an example of the failure of multiculturalism”. EUfactcheck looked into this claim and the source it was based on, and found out that the statements made by Jorge Buxadé are false.
EU context
In the last few years, there has been an increase in the popularity of right wing parties in Europe. Vox in Spain, Fratelli d’Italia in Italy, Néa Dexiá in Greece and Vlaams Belang in Belgium are political parties where anti-immigration policies are an important point in their electoral programs.
Although there is no absolute proof that there is a correlation between immigration and the rise in popularity of right-wing parties, official studies such as “Has Immigration Contributed to the Rise of Rightwing Extremist Parties in Europe?” and “Centre-right parties and immigration in an era of politicisation” show that there seems to be a link in between the two, especially considering the political situation in Europe in the last few years. According to political scientist Sarah De Lange, the rise in popularity of the Dutch extremist party PVV, is for a big part due to the fact that an “explicit link was made between immigration and the problems faced by Dutch citizens.”
There are two claims in Jorge Buxadé statement posted on Vox website: “Barcelona has become the city with the highest crime rate in Spain and is an example of the failure of multiculturalism”. EUfactcheck investigated both of the statements.
One of Vox’s main policies is security and anti-immigration. This, together with the defense of the unity of Spain and being against the independence of Catalonia, makes that many times in their rallies have weighed these policies and these types of statements.
Is Barcelona the most dangerous city in Spain?
The first part of Jorge’s claim states that “Barcelona has become the city with the highest crime rate in Spain”. According to the Spanish Ministry of the Interior, in the first trimester of 2023, the city with the highest crime rate is El Prat de Llobregat, a city of 64,000 inhabitants located in Catalonia. Here, crime increased by 16.5%, with 86.3 offenses per 1,000 inhabitants. It is true that in Catalonia the crime rate has increased compared to the last years, but Catalonia and Barcelona are not the locations where the crime rate has increased the most.
According to the same source, crime has risen in the Region of Murcia by 14.5%, doubling the national average of 7.2%. After Murcia, it has risen in the Valencian Community (12.2%) and in Catalonia (11.3%). In other autonomous communities such as Andalusia, the Balearic Islands and Extremadura, it has risen by 10%. On the other hand, the crime rate fell in Galicia, Cantabria and Castilla y León.
Is multiculturalism the main reason for crimes?
The second part of Jorge’s claim states that the high crime rate in Barcelona is “an example of the failure of multiculturalism”. According to Oxford Reference the term “multiculturalism” refers to “the coexistence of people with many cultural identities in a common state, society, or community,” and moreover, according to the Cambridge Dictionary, the term also to “the belief that different cultures within a society should all be given importance”.
According to the Spanish National Institute for Statistics (INE), in 2022 the total number of inhabitants in Spain was 47,475,420 out of which 41,993,488 were Spanish and 5,542,932 foreigners. Moreover, the number of foreigners that got their Spanish citizenship in 2021 was 144.012 and in 2022 of 181.581. Out of the latter number, the most frequent nationality of origin people acquiring Spanish nationality is Moroccan, with 55,463 cases. The following most present percentages of foreigners were from Central and South American countries.
The statistics provided by the INE show that the most of the crime actions in Spain in 2022 imply homicide, injuries, crimes against freedom, and threats. According to the INE, in 2022 there were a total of 71,286 violations in Catalonia. 56% of the offenses were committed by Spanish citizenship and 13% by people of African citizenship. A foreigner can be referred to as any person who is not a citizen or national of the country they are currently in. A refugee on the other hand, is a person who has been forced to flee their home country due to persecution, war, violence, or a well-founded fear of persecution based on race, religion, nationality, political opinion, or membership in a particular social group.
Their primary reason for being abroad is a threat to their life or freedom in their home country.
When it comes to Italy, in 2023 the country has registered the highest number of immigrants since the migration crisis in 2015, and was together with Spain and Greece one of the main destinations for immigrants coming from Global South countries through the Mediterranean route (Operational Data Portal). With no coincidence, according to the United Nations the constant increase of immigrants has seen an alarming situation with “politicians and high-level government officials using hate speech and racist political discourse against ethnic minorities, and the rise of openly anti-immigration parties such as Giorgia Meloni’s “Fratelli d’Italia”, incrementing racism and hate crimes.
Like in Italy, in Belgium anti-immigration parties have been on the rise. The idea of multiculturalism is heavily criticized by far right parties and this rhetoric seems to work well to gain voters. In Belgium, the far right party Vlaams Belang is leading every poll so far. With the elections around the corner. It seems like they will be winning by a large margin. This shows that lots of people are scared of (too much) immigration.
Conclusion
In conclusion, not only is Jorge Buxadé’s statement false, but is also an example of the message that right-wing parties are trying to convey to the public. Although there is no absolute proof/certainty that there is a correlation between immigration and the rise in popularity of right-wing parties, there seems to be a link in between the two especially considering the political situation in Europe in the last few years.
RESEARCH | ARTICLE | Marc Barraca, Universitat Pompeu Fabra (Barcelona, Spain) | Andrea-Maria Marton (Babes Bolyai University (Cluj, Romania) | Aruslanova Alina, Mariupol State University (Kyiv, Ukraine) | Sebastien van der Voort, Thomas More University of Applied Sciences (Mechelen, Belgium) | supervised by Prof. Elene Astiani, Georgian Institute of Public Affairs (Tbilisi, Georgia)
This factcheck was produced during the Blended Intensive Programme EU Elections Lab at the School of Journalism in Utrecht, The Netherlands.
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