This afternoon Fernando Grande-Marlaska sought allies in the representatives of the political parties to manage the delicate situation imposed by the war between Israel and Hamas. Fernando Grande-Marlaska has used the meeting that he called yesterday to ask for calm, cooperation and to try to remove the alarmism that has been unleashed in recent days. In the opinion of the acting Minister of the Interior, “the political and social consensus of a country is one of its strongest strengths.” Thus, he has asked for “responsibility and a sense of state” to avoid messages that generate “distrust or unnecessary alarmism” in citizens.
“Spain can trust that its Security Forces are putting all the means and capabilities at their disposal to guarantee the safety of all Spaniards,” he emphasized. Marlaska chaired a meeting this Friday with the representatives of the parliamentary groups, after last Tuesday the experts in the fight against terrorism agreed to reinforce with complementary measures the level 4 out of 5 of anti-terrorist alert due to the current situation and after the attacks perpetrated in Brussels and France.
The meeting, which lasted just over two hours, was attended by the spokespersons of all the parliamentary groups except for ERC, due to scheduling problems, although Interior sources have confirmed that Marlaska has spoken by telephone with Gabriel Rufián. Cuca Gamarra has attended for the PP; for the PSOE, Patxi López; for VOX, María José Rodríguez; by Sumar, José María Guijarro; by Junts, Josep María Cruset; by EH Bildu, Jon Iñarritu; for the PNV, Mikel Legarda; and for the Mixed Group, Cristina Valido from the Canarian Coalition.
The acting Minister of the Interior has stressed that the security forces are vigilant to act against “radicalization” and messages that promote Islamophobia, anti-Semitism or racism, in addition to those hoaxes that generate misinformation.
The Popular Party, for its part, requests the acting minister to convene the Monitoring Commission of the Anti-Jihadist Pact after the complementary measures of level 4 of anti-terrorist alert have been reinforced. The spokesperson for the ‘popular’ in Congress, Cuca Gamarra, pointed out during the meeting that the State Pact against Anti-jihadist Terrorism is fully in force and has demanded that Grande-Marlaska convene the Monitoring Commission of that pact “as an instrument to continue addressing the situation we find ourselves in after the decision to reinforce level 4 – out of 5 – of anti-terrorist alert with complementary measures,” PP sources pointed out.
Marlaska has responded, the same sources say, that he does not rule it out but added that there were more groups at this Friday’s meeting than those that would be on the pact monitoring commission. He was thus referring, according to other PP sources, to some of the Government’s partners, who have not signed this Anti-Jihadist Pact, such as Podemos, the PNV or ERC, although they have attended as observers, as happened in 2017.
The PP complains that the Monitoring Commission of the Anti-Jihadist Pact has not been convened since Pedro Sánchez is President of the Government, “despite the fact that the Popular Party has requested it on different occasions.”
The PP has also demanded that the State Security Forces and Bodies “have all the material and human resources they need in this situation while at the same time transferring recognition to the work they carry out in the fight against terrorism.”
At Vox, for their part, they acknowledged their disappointment and disbelief at the Government’s poor plan after finishing the meeting. “What the minister is concerned about is misinformation, hate speech and Islamophobia,” lamented the party’s spokesperson in Congress, Pepa Millán. Those of Santiago Abascal rely on the international context to demand that the Executive redouble the control of illegal immigration, which they relate to the cases of terrorism that have occurred in Europe in recent days. For this reason, among other measures, they demand the withdrawal of nationality from all those who sympathize with jihadism, as well as paralyzing for now the nationalization procedures of those citizens from “Islamic countries.”