Unidas Podemos asks Marlaska to investigate the hoax of the 1,600 Maghrebis registered in a flat in Barcelona

MADRID, 8 Abr. (EUROPA PRESS) -

Unidas Podemos has called on the Minister of the Interior, Fernando Grande-Marlaska, to carry out an investigation to clarify the origin of the hoax about the 1,600 people of North African origin, and residents of Morocco, who were fraudulently registered in a flat in Barcelona where only five people lived with the aim of collecting social assistance and voting by mail in the next municipal elections.

In a question registered in Congress, Unidas Podemos explains that the aforementioned information was published in various 'tweets', which suggested that there would be more similar cases in Barcelona, ​​assured that the news had not appeared in any media and accused the mayoress of the Barcelona, ​​Ada Colau, to benefit. The deputies Jaume Asens and Joan Mena denounce that this information was disseminated "quickly and widely" through social networks.

In the registered text, to which Europa Press has had access, the deputies of En Comú collect news that points to members of the Police and the Civil Guard as the authors of the hoax spread on the social network Twitter. "In addition, it should be considered that there would be clear indications that several of the 'retweets' were produced through automated 'bots' or directed by unidentified persons," he adds.

In the opinion of the 'purples', the massive dissemination "is intuited" as a smear campaign against Colau and the information "would represent" an "incitement to hatred towards the Maghrebi and Moroccan community" by attributing to them "directly and massively" the "commission of a scam that would affect public services and the citizenry as a whole" and "also adulterate the result of the municipal elections." Furthermore, this information goes beyond freedom of expression.

"The authors of these 'tweets' and their dissemination, among whom it has been verified that there are some jurists, psychologists and members of the State Security Forces and Corps, were aware of the falsehood of the message disseminated and their 'tweet' did not is accompanied by no journalistic news or evidence that could give credibility or verify its veracity, making it clear that it was a matter of spreading a false rumor against the Moroccan community and against the Barcelona government team," they stress. .

For all these reasons, in addition to asking Marlaska to find the origin of the hoax, Asens and Mena ask the Government if the Ministry of the Interior believes that it is in a position to find this origin, given that this type of message "can play a role decisive in electoral campaign contexts and condition the choice of vote in the 28M elections". They are also interested in whether the Ministry of the Interior has all the necessary resources to deal with the "growing" phenomenon of false news.