Laurence Dollimore
A SEVILLA mayor has told residents he wants to see Romanians shot while trying to calm racial tensions in his town.
Antonio Nogales was instructing angry locals to ‘not take matters into their own hands’ following waves of violence against the Romanian population in Sierra Sur, Pedrera.
However the mayor has been blasted for using hate-filled and contradictory language when trying to calm down residents.
“I would like to see people shot too,” he repeated several times, “But we can not do that.”
The phrase see,med to endorse and legitimise the violence, rather than dissuade residents from taking part in it.
It comes during a period of heightened tensions between Romanians and Spanish locals.
Romanians have had their cars turned over and seven people have been arrested after serious assaults and fights.
PSOE Sevilla representative Veronica Perez has called for Nogales to resign, saying his remarks only encouraged more violence.
A video on Twitter plays a clip of Nogales’ words, which he says sound much worse ‘taken out of context’.
"A mí me gustaría ver a gente fusilada" declaraciones inaceptables de Antonio Nogales, alcalde de Pedrera y diputado provincial de IU. Ya está tardando en dimitir. Ni su pueblo ni su comarca merecen que los represente alguien con actitudes antidemocráticas. pic.twitter.com/HKmUVqG2Bn
— Verónica Pérez (@nicadichiara) January 10, 2018
He criticised Perez for ‘taking advantage of a cut of a recording in an assembly in front of an angry crowd.”
