Parlon disconnects the Esplugues crime from jihadism

BarcelonaThe Minister of the Interior, Núria Parlon, has unlinked last Saturday's crime in Esplugues de Llobregat from a jihadist motive. "With the information we currently have, it cannot be concluded that it was jihadism, in any way," Parlon stated in an interview with Catalunya Ràdio. The events took place in the Finestrelles neighborhood: a man stabbed a woman in the middle of the street. The young woman died due to the multiple stab wounds all over her body.

The Mossos d'Esquadra arrested the alleged aggressor hours later in Barcelona, in the Les Corts neighborhood. “A priori, it is a person who was in an altered state and probably had some kind of problem that has nothing to do with jihadism,” emphasized the minister, who criticized that there are parties and people who “take advantage of this misfortune to fuel hate speech” in order to “introduce fear-mongering narratives into the general public.”

Parlon said this in clear reference to parties such as Aliança Catalana, which linked Saturday's murder to Islamist terrorism. “We are probably talking about different problems, it is easy to make associations of this type, generate fear and foster hatred, but you will not find us here. We are fighting against crime,” she snapped. The minister asked to be "respectful" of the secrecy of the investigation in this case, and insisted that “making certain public associations with jihadism to promote hate speech is not appropriate”.

After a weekend with several incidents involving knives and two deaths, the head of the Interior assured that crime statistics “are good,” but acknowledged that events like these “do not help to defend them publicly.” “We have to work with perceptions,” she indicated, while defending the work being done with the Kanpai plan and the joint work with local police to remove knives from public spaces.