The far-right Catalan Alliance party, which targets Islam and migrants, is surging in the polls and could become the second-largest force in Catalonia, alarming Muslims in Spain’s largest Muslim community.
01Summary
- 01Aliança Catalana (AC) is predicted to win 25-28 seats with 16.7% of the vote in a snap Catalan election, according to a September El Mundo poll.
- 02Spain has 2.4 million Muslims; Catalonia hosts the largest community.
- 03AC leader Silvia Orriols is also mayor of Ripoll, the town where an ISIL-claimed attack killed 16 in 2017.
- 04The party supports independence and has drawn support from other secessionist parties that failed in the 2017 bid.
- 05A fifth of Spain’s 50 million population was born abroad; Colombians, Venezuelans and Moroccans are the largest groups.
02Why it matters
The rise of anti-Muslim sentiment in a region accounting for 20% of Spain’s economy signals a shift in Spanish politics and could influence national migration and integration policies.
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