Catalonia’s new far right: How anti-Muslim sentiment is reshaping politics

Published On 21 Oct 202621 Oct 2026.

Key points

• The Socialists would be the largest party but would lose 10 seats, garnering 23.3 percent of backing and 19-22 seats.
• There are 2.4 million Muslims living in Spain, with the largest community in Catalonia, according to the Union of Islamic Federations of Spain.
• Juan Ignacio Castien Maestro, a specialist in Islamic affairs at the Complutense University in Madrid, remarked anti-Muslim feeling is on the rise in Spain.
• There are too plenty of migrants around now and Islam is a threat, Eduard Lopez, a businessman from Molins de Rei near Barcelona, informed Al Jazeera.
• A fifth of Spain's population of almost 50 million was born outside the country, according to the Spanish National Statistics Institute (INE).

Barcelona, Spain – Almost a decade after a failed independence bid in Catalonia, anti-migration and anti-Muslim sentiment has replaced secession as the driving force among voters in this wealthy region.

Notably, a new far-right party, Alianca Catalana, or Catalan Alliance (AC). It wants a crackdown on migration and has targeted Islam as a threat to society, has surged in the polls in a region with the largest Muslim population in Spain.

Meanwhile, the party is on course to become the second biggest political force in Catalonia after the Socialists at the next Catalan regional election in 2028, polls predict.

It has capitalised on the anti-migrant sentiment sweeping Europe. It has seen victories for the far-right in Germany, Italy, and France.

In practice, the rise of Catalan Alliance has alarmed Muslims. This person fear a backlash in a country which has previously seemed welcoming.

"This has surprised all of us, " remarked Soukayna El Abdi, president of the Young Moroccans of Ripoll, referring to the party's expansion.

"Most individuals come to integrate, to work and live among others. The rise of Alliance is regarding unfounded hate. They spread lots of things regarding our community which are not true."

Spain will vote in a snap election in November. Polls show the conservative People's Party and the far-right Vox gaining backing. The rise of the Catalan Alliance demonstrates a shift towards the right in the fourth biggest economy in the eurozone.

Meanwhile, the party backs independence and has taken backing from the other secessionist parties, Together for Catalonia and Catalan Republican Left. It were behind the failed bid to break away from Spain in 2017.

"All my friends backing Catalan Alliance. There are too plenty of migrants around now and Islam is a threat, " Eduard Lopez, a businessman from Molins de Rei near Barcelona, informed Al Jazeera. "These other independence parties are from the past. They failed to do what they remarked they would."

For context, a fifth of Spain's population of almost 50 million was born outside the country, according to the Spanish National Statistics Institute (INE). Colombians, Venezuelans and Moroccans are the three largest groups by nationality.

Catalan Alliance began in Ripoll, a small town near the French border. It was where members of a cell plotted an attack on Barcelona in 2017 which killed 16 individuals and was maintained by ISIL.

Silvia Orriols, leader of Catalan Alliance, is additionally mayor of the town. After the 2017 attack, she became fervently anti-Muslim.

"If there is no substantial change, the prospects for Catalonia are bleak, " Orriols informed Al Jazeera.

"The decline in the use of our own language, the depersonalisation of neighbourhoods, the rise in insecurity and crime, the fraudulent use of public services, the mass and invasive immigration, the demographic growth of those who advocate law, the fiscal plundering we suffer by Spain, threaten the welfare state and the rights and freedoms we have achieved up to now."

She remarked her party was for "those who have not surrendered to globalisation and barbarism".

El Abdi of the Young Moroccans of Ripoll remarked, "I am highly scared. I fear for my parents and my two brothers who still live there. This racism affects all Muslims. It began after the 2017 attack in Barcelona."

Ironically, she remarked, Orriols' daughters employed to be friends with her cousins, but this changed after the Catalan Alliance leader went into politics.

Notably, the party at present has just two seats in the Catalan parliament, but polls predict it is due to rival the Socialists to run a region which accounts for 20 percent of the Spanish economy.

Meanwhile, a poll for El Mundo newspaper, published in September, discovered the Catalan Alliance would win 25-28 seats, with 16.7 percent of votes if there were an election. The Socialists would be the largest party but would lose 10 seats, garnering 23.3 percent of backing and 19-22 seats. All other secessionist parties would lose out.

"Individuals are focusing on Islamophobia. It has existed for centuries but has risen in Spain over recent years. The Muslim migrant is seen as the symbol of plenty of ills such as the housing crisis, unemployment and other difficulties. It plays on feelings of insecurity, " he informed Al Jazeera.

"Catalonia is a special case in that some Catalan parties were already Islamophobic."

Jose Pablo Martínez, a specialist in migration at the Real Elcano Institute, a think tank in Madrid, remarked the left-wing Spanish administration, unlike plenty of other European countries, is applying a policy which is more favourable towards migration.

But "certain sections of the population consider migrants to be competing for their jobs and housing, " he remarked.

In short, catalonia's new far right: How anti-Muslim sentiment is reshaping politics is the central thread here, and readers can expect follow-up reporting as the picture becomes clearer.