Abdu Boukra is 53 years old and was born in Morocco, but has lived in Jumilla (Murcia) for over 20 years. Previously, he studied translation in Austria, lived in Germany, and returned to the Murcian town where he married his Spanish wife. Boukra is having a drink this Wednesday night in one of the few bars in the town where men of North African origin sit on the terrace watching life go by after returning from the countryside. It's been too long since he started working at the town hall, which he points to when he speaks, about 500 meters from the establishment. In 2006, he was part of a municipal team that promoted the integration of the Moroccan community in the town. Now, he says, he doesn't understand what's happening in that same building:"They've taken away a place where we can pray, and now it's a place of prayer, but we don't know what else they might take away from us tomorrow."
On July 28, a week before the municipal budget debate began—in a council governed by the Popular Party and with one Vox councilor—the plenary session approved a PP amendment to a motion by the far-right party that effectively prevents the celebration of the two major Muslim holidays in this municipality of 27,200 residents, of whom an estimated 1,500 profess that religion. This is an unprecedented measure, since the reason that initially justified it appeals to “traditional religious demonstrations [in Spain]” and directly conflicts with the fundamental right to freedom of religion and worship, recognized in the Constitution.
These are the collective prayers at the end of Ramadan—Eid al-Fitr—and the one held two months later, on the more popular Feast of the Lamb, during which the faithful have the tradition of ordering lambs from the municipal slaughterhouse to share with their families. Both had been held at least for the past four years at the municipal sports center, and it was there that the far-right party found a way to spur a debate that had little to do with the facility's functions, but rather sought to prohibit"acts foreign to the identity of the people."
The PP's amendment has qualified the ultras' motion with a maneuver: the modification of the regulations so that this municipal venue would be dedicated exclusively to sporting activities or those organized by the City Council itself. With this nuance, it was approved, and the process has begun. And although the City Council insists on trying to calm the situation by explaining that it is merely a specific change of use for the venue, the opposition has called the proposal"xenophobic." "The measure comes from where it comes from, from a shameful and racist motion by Vox. What the PP has done is whitewash it," former mayor and Socialist spokesperson in Jumilla, Juana Guardiola, told this newspaper.
“They've made it more difficult for us. It's as if they wanted to put up another obstacle. And we're all asking ourselves: what for? What do the voters of these parties gain from this measure?” says Mohamed, who prefers not to give his real name for fear of inflaming a debate that once again targets his community. This August, Jumilla has become the new epicenter of xenophobic hatred from a far right that is experiencing its most heated summer these days, after far-right groups encouraged a hunt for North Africans on social media a month ago 100 kilometers from here, also in Murcia, in Torre Pacheco.
“There has never been coexistence here; we live in different neighborhoods, we go to different bars,” explains Boukra. Jumilla, a farming town, serves as a population center for hundreds of men who wake up early every day to work the fields not only in this inland area of Murcia, but also in the province of Albacete, which it borders. A town full of people who leave at dawn and arrive at night, and whose integration, Boukra points out, has never been easy. “But no one has ever made it as difficult as it is now. It's as if they wanted us to go back even further,” he adds.
Boukra and Mohamed, as well as the dozen or so men spending the afternoon on the terrace of the La Zona bar on the town's Levante Avenue, don't seem worried about having"lost a sports center," is how they sum it up. But the translator warns that the regulation may only be a step,"a first step toward something much worse." "If we don't have a space, we'll look for another one. We'll go pray in an open field. But this only complicates things, this only pushes us further away," Boukra concludes.
The amendment was approved on July 28th with 10 votes in favor from the PP (and the mayor's casting vote), the abstention of the sole Vox councilor, and nine votes against from the PSOE, plus that of the IU-Podemos-AV councilor. And this Wednesday, the municipal budget was approved again with the abstention of the Vox councilor. Its PP mayor, Severa González, who governs in a minority, needed Vox to at least abstain in order to pass her town's budget.
Jumilla has replicated on a smaller scale what also happened in the Regional Assembly. The PP needed Vox's abstention to approve the budget, and at the end of July, following the riots in Torre Pacheco and with the country looking toward Murcia, it managed to push it through in exchange for giving in to the far-right's proposals on immigration policy. Thus, the PP agreed to close a shelter for minors with 60 residents, reject the distribution of immigrant minors promoted by the national government, withdraw subsidies to NGOs that collaborate with migrants, and implement a protocol to establish the age of minors.
The price the Jumilla government has paid in exchange for a budget has been a blow to the heart of the Muslim community. From today, pending a change in the regulations, they will have to find a safe space to gather to pray on the two sacred dates in their calendar. These holidays only required the use of the space during the early morning hours two days a year, from 7:00 to 9:00."And this comes at no cost to them. Because many of the Moroccans who live here won't even be able to vote in the upcoming elections," Boukra concludes.
