The Spanish Government has approved in the Council of Ministers a National Plan to implement the European Strategy to Combat Anti-Semitism for 2023-2030, which will have a “specialised” protocol for reporting hate crimes when they refer to Jewish people.
In a press conference after the Council of Ministers, the Minister of the Presidency and Democratic Memory, Félix Bolaños, explained that this plan aims to “guarantee and strengthen the fight against antisemitism”.
The minister explained that the plan responds to a European strategy approved in October 2021, given the existing “concern” about the “persistence of hate speech and antisemitic attitudes” as well as the detection of “serious incidents affecting places of worship or people from the Jewish community”.
The plan, which has been written alongside the Federation of Jewish Communities of Spain, will have three objectives.
The first is the prevention and fight against all forms of antisemitism or incitement to hatred against Jewish communities, including on the Internet, where “worrying” behaviour has been detected.
The second objective is to promote the “conditions for Jews to be able to live their lives in Spain in accordance with their beliefs and traditions”; and the third is to “educate people about the Holocaust”.
Bolaños specified that this plan offers an opportunity to “improve, reinforce and guarantee some other measures to fight antisemitism”, although he pointed out that “a good part” of the plan is already included in Spanish legislation.
“This plan provides a forceful response to what we are trying to stop, it provides resources and measures to fight antisemitism and will favour the future of the Jewish community in Spain, so that it can develop its life within its beliefs and traditions”, he stressed.
The Federation of Jewish Communities of Spain (FCJE), in an official statement, welcomed the adoption of the National Plan to fight antisemitism approved by the Council of Ministers.
