Spain: after the funeral of the sacristan killed in Algeciras, controversial politics

Residents of Algeciras gathered for a minute of silence on January 26, 2023, near the church where sexton Diego Valencia was killed.

AP - Juan Carlos Toro

Text by: RFI Follow

1 min

Spain is still in shock, after the attack on Wednesday evening in two churches in Algeciras, where a 25-year-old undocumented Moroccan migrant murdered a sexton and injured four other people, including the priest of the church of San Isidro.

The controversy is not absent on the political field.

Advertising

Read more

With our correspondent in Madrid,

Everything indicates that Yassine Kanjaa, an undocumented Moroccan who has been expelled since June 2022, became radicalized very recently.

That's what Interior Minister Fernando Grande-Marlaska says.

No criminal record, and he was not on file with any police, neither in Spain nor in a neighboring country, he says.

On the side of the Church, we invoked forgiveness, we insisted on not stigmatizing the Muslim community for an isolated act.

This is what the Bishop of Cadiz did during the funeral of Diego Valencia, the sexton murdered with a machete by Yassine Kanjaa.

Concord reigned during this funeral.

But the controversy has manifested itself in the political arena.

Right-wing opposition leader Nunez Feijoo said it has been centuries since a Catholic has been seen to kill in the name of his religion, while followers of another religion have been seen to do so, in obvious reference to Islam.

The socialist government accused him of Islamophobia.

He should have been silent, reacted the minister spokesperson Pilar Alegria.

Feijoo's statement makes it clear that the Tories don't want to be too soft on the far-right Vox party, which is trailing them in the polls.

Newsletter

Receive all the international news directly in your mailbox

I subscribe

Follow all the international news by downloading the RFI application

• Spain

• Terrorism