Ahead of the forthcoming regional Madrid elections on the 4th of May, ACOM, the leading organization in the fight against Antisemitism in Spain, has launched a campaign to warn voters of the importance of this election for the regional government of six million citizens, including the largest Jewish community in Spain. The Madrilenian regional election elects the regional parliament, known as the Assembly of the Community of Madrid.
ACOM is calling on voters from Madrid to voice their opposition to anti-Semitic far-Left parties such as Unidas Podemos and Mas Madrid, and presidential candidate Pablo Iglesias, through the ballot box.
Pablo Iglesias, until recently Spain’s radical Left deputy prime minister, leader of Unidas Podemos, who quit his position to run for the position of Madrilenian President, has a history of anti-Semitic and anti-Israel statements, including that “the great Wall Street companies are practically all in the hands of Jews”, “the Jewish lobby supports initiatives against the peoples of the world”, “the Holocaust was a mere bureaucratic problem”, “Israel is a criminal state” and “an illegal country”. He also worked for the Islamic Republic of Iran’s propaganda mouthpiece to the Spanish-speaking world Hispan TV.
“That the people of Madrid could elect a paid-propagandist of Iran who is an open anti-Semite should be unfathomable,” said Angle Mas, President of ACOM. “Voting for Iglesias and these two parties is voting for the discrimination of Jews and ostracization of Jewish life and the community in a city which is rebuilding itself after 500 years. Normalized Jewish life is at risk in these elections. We call on our neighbors who care about decency, non-discrimination and democracy to oppose these parties and those who provide them legitimacy by sitting in a government with them.”
“Furthermore, as they successfully did in around 100 Spanish cities and regions, Podemos and Mas Madrid tried to approve a motion in the Madrid parliament for the region to formally join the international BDS campaign. That would have made Madrid, the capital region of Spain and center of Spain’s social, political and economic relations, a ghetto that would have excluded the citizens of the Jewish state and any pro-Israel Spanish citizens from any type of commercial, social, cultural or civic relationship with the regional Administration. This would have a severe and chilling effect.”
ACOM has so far successfully defeated Podemos BDS campaign across the country with over 70 court rulings declaring the pro-BDS resolutions discriminatory and unconstitutional.