Kirsty Mckenzie
AN investigation has been launched after 300 people attended a far-right gathering Madrid.
Madrid Provincial Prosecutor’s Office has officially launched a criminal probe following the event on Saturday, March 13.
The gathering of alt-right protestors took place at Almudena, the capital’s largest cemetery, and featured antisemitic speeches and a Nazi salute.
Hundreds attended the event organised in support of Blue Division, the voluntary military unit sent by Franco to support Hitler’s invasion of the Soviet Union during the Second World War.
One woman was filmed speaking at a lectern and telling the crowd ‘the enemy is always going to be the same albeit wearing different masks: the Jew.’
She added: “Because there is nothing that is more true than this statement: the Jew is to blame, the Jew is to blame, and the Blue Division fought for this.”
The Jewish community have blasted the neo-nazi gathering, calling for those involved to be punished.
The Federation of Jewish Communities of Spain in a statement Monday called on prosecutors to launch an investigation into the march which ‘incited violence and discrimination’.
The FCJE, which represents Jewish communities in Spain, said that it considers it to be ‘unconscionable in a country with rule of law and full democracy for these serious accusations to go unpunished.’
Rodica Radian-Gordon, the Israeli ambassador in Spain, wrote on Twitter that the support of the Blue Division ‘cannot have a place in a democratic society’.
Her full tweet read: “Antisemitic proclamations made in homage to the Blue Division in Madrid are disgusting and cannot have a place in a democratic society. Education and learning the truth about history is the way to avoid the past repeating itself.”
Following the complaints, the Madrid Provincial Prosecutor’s Office confirmed they had officially initiated criminal investigation procedures to gather information on the anti-Semitic proclamations made.
It comes as the prosecution service in Barcelona confirmed they would launch a probe into the recent campaign in a regional Catalan election by Vox after receiving complaints from several Islamic communities.
