Right-wing groups in Spain 'hunt down' migrants

France 24

14-07-2025

"To be free, we must be feared," Macron said on Sunday as he announced that France will increase its defence spending, Le Telegramme reports. The French president added that since the World Wars, "freedom has never been so threatened". While some on the left of the political spectrum denounce the "arms race", the announced effort is approved by seven out of 10 French people, according to a poll by French right-wing paper Le Figaro. "Amid crises, the French endorse their army," reads the headline. The topic of the Bastille Day parade goes hand in hand with the defence talk. The French daily Aujourd'hui en France details the look of the parade: 7,000 men and women, nearly 70 military planes, 35 helicopters and more than 200 horses in the French capital. French conservative paper La Croix focuses on the parade's controversial opening act: " Indonesia in the spotlight, not human rights", reads the title. Indonesia is a big importer of French arms and is this year's guest of honour. But La Croix says that France is turning a blind eye to the massive crimes Indonesia is blamed for.
In Spain, several people have been injured after anti-migrant unrest in Torre Pacheco, a town in the southeast of the country, erupted on Friday, The Guardian reports. Tensions started rising last week when a 68-year-old man was reportedly beaten up by three people of North African origin. Spanish daily El País reports that right-wing groups have been trying to "hunt down" migrants. El País spoke to a migrant in Torre Pacheco who was provoked. He says that those who participate in the unrest aren't people from the town, but young people coming from the region, organised and led by right-wing groups on social media. Spanish daily El Mundo writes that 70 percent of Spaniards support deportations of illegal migrants, proposed by Spain's far-right party Vox. The paper says that citizens see migration as a source of inconvenience, rather than a potential opportunity. An editorial in El País says that Vox is "manipulating immigration". According to the paper, the party uses radicalised and xenophobic discourse and even conspiracy theories to justify mass deportations.
Immigration is also a big topic in the United States. The Washington Post reports that ICE plans to deport migrants to countries where they aren't even citizens. The "dramatic shift in policy" could mean that thousands of people are sent to countries where they have no family at all and where they don't even speak the language. In some cases, they will be given as little as six hours' notice. The Los Angeles Times looked at data around the ongoing detentions. The daily says that even though Donald Trump has vowed to deport "the worst of the worst", the data shows that the majority of people currently detained by ICE have no criminal convictions, and very few of those who do have committed high-level crimes. The paper says this is "a stark contrast to the chilling nightmare Trump describes".
Finally, we bring you a fascinating prison escape story from the eastern French city of Lyon. Left-wing paper Le Monde reports that on Friday, a 20-year-old prisoner managed to escape by hiding in the laundry bag of his fellow inmate, who was being released. He was in prison for criminal conspiracy and organised murder, but the prison administration only figured out that he was missing a whole day later.