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Extremist deported after living in Spain for 30 years

Spanish authorities have deported a Moroccan Muslim activist who has lived in the country since he was ten, after accusing him of being one of the "main advocates" of the Salafist movement of ultra-conservative Islamism in Spain.

Published: 21 November 2022 15:27 CET

SPAIN-SALAFISM-DEPORTATION

Spanish police consider Badaoui to be "one of the main advocates in Spain of the most orthodox Salafism.(Photo by GABRIEL BOUYS / AFP)

The 40-year-old was deported to Morocco on Saturday morning after he was held for several weeks at a deportation centre in Barcelona, a police source told AFP.

Officers arrested Mohamed Said Badaoui last month in the northeastern province of Tarragona, where he was the president of the Association for the Defence of the Rights of the Muslim Community.

A Spanish court in late October approved his deportation due to “his participation in activities contrary to national security” and “public order”.

Spanish police consider Badaoui to be “one of the main advocates in Spain of the most orthodox Salafism, which he preaches so influentially that an increase in radicalism occurred in Tarragona” since he moved there, according to its ruling.

Badaoui arrived in Spain at the age of ten from Morocco and has lived in the Catalan city of Reus for 30 years, where he has a wife and three children.

Police also accused him of “taking advantage” of the “vulnerability” of minors who arrive in Spain without their parents, “mainly of Moroccan origin”, to indoctrinate them in the “most radical Salafism,” which promotes a strictly conservative lifestyle.

Badaoui has rejected these accusations. Well-known in Spain’s northeastern region of Catalonia where he has lived for nearly three decades, he presents himself as an activist and anti-racism campaigner.

He has been supported by Catalonia’s main separatist parties which govern the region as well as by the regional branch of far-left party Podemos, the junior partner in Socialist Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez’s coalition government.

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'Pedro stay!': Thousands of Spanish PM's supporters take to the streets

The 52-year-old, who has been in office since 2018, stunned Spain on Wednesday when he put his resignation on the line after a Madrid court opened a preliminary investigation into suspected influence peddling and corruption against his spouse Begona Gomez.

Sanchez said he would suspend all public duties until he announces his decision on Monday. The normally hyperactive premier has since remained out of sight and silent.

“I need to stop and think whether I should continue to head the government or whether I should give up this honour,” he wrote in a four-page letter posted on X, formerly Twitter.

Supporters on Saturday held up placards saying “Spain needs you”, “Pedro don’t abandon us’, and shouted slogans such as “Pedro leader”.

“I hope that Sanchez will say on Monday that he will stay,” said Sara Domínguez, a consultant in her 30’s, adding that his government had “taken good steps for women, the LGBT community and minorities”.

Jose María Diez, a 44-year-old government official who came from Valladolid in northern Spain to express his support, said there was a real possibility that the far-right could take power if Sanchez quit.

“This will mean a step backwards for our rights and liberties,” he warned.

Inside the party headquarters, there were similar passionate appeals.

‘Pedro stay’

“Pedro stay. We are together and together we can … take the country forward, Spain can’t step back,” said Budget Minister Maria Jesus Montero, the government number two.

“Today all democrats, all progressives, are summoned to Madrid against a pack whose only aim is to overthrow a democratic and legitimate government,” said Felix Bolanos, Minister of the Presidency, Justice and Parliamentary Relations.

At one point, Socialist leaders took to the streets to thank those gathered. “They won’t succeed,” government spokeswoman Pilar Alegria told the crowd.

The court opened the investigation into Sanchez’s wife in response to a complaint from anti-corruption pressure group Manos Limpias (Clean Hands), whose leader is linked to the far right.

The group, which has presented a litany of unsuccessful lawsuits against politicians in the past, said on Wednesday its complaint was based on media reports and could not vouch for their veracity.

While the court did not give details of the case, online news site El Confidencial said it focused on links Gomez had to Spanish tourism group Globalia when carrier Air Europa was in talks with the government to secure a huge bailout.

The airline sought the bailout after it was badly hit by plunging paseenger numbers during the Covid-19 crisis.

At the time, Gomez was running IE Africa Centre, a foundation linked to Madrid’s Instituto de Empresa (IE) business school, which had signed a sponsorship agreement with Globalia in 2020.

Spain’s public prosecutors office on Thursday requested the dismissal of the investigation, which Sanchez said was part of a campaign of “harassment” against him and his wife waged by “media heavily influenced by the right and far right”.

If Sanchez decides to remain in office, he could choose to file a confidence motion in parliament to show that he and his minority government are still supported by a majority of lawmakers.

If he resigns, an early election could be called from July — a year after the last one — with or without Sanchez at the helm of the Socialist party.

The right-wing opposition has accused the prime minister of being irresponsible for putting the country on hold while he mulls his decision.

“It’s very clear to us that this is all a tactic… We know Pedro Sanchez and things with him always turn out like a soap opera,” Cuca Gamarra, the number two of the main opposition conservative Popular Party, said on Friday.

“He is making us all wait and the country is at a standstill,” she added.

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