Spanish prime minister to chair hate crimes meeting after anti-gay attack
Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez on Friday will preside over a meeting of his country’s anti-hate crimes commission after an anti-gay attack in Madrid.
El País, a Spanish newspaper, reported eight hooded men attacked a 20-year-old man on Sunday in Madrid’s Malaseña neighborhood. A police spokesperson told El País the assailants also verbally abused the man and cut his lip.
“There is no place for hate in our society,” tweeted Sánchez on Monday. “I profoundly condemn this homophobic attack. We will not allow it. We will continue working towards an open and diverse country in which nobody is afraid to be who they are, in which everyone can live free and secure.”
Isabel Rodríguez, a spokesperson for the Spanish government, announced Sánchez will chair the meeting on Friday.
“Hate crimes must receive the highest social and political condemnation,” said Rodríguez, according to Reuters.
The murder of Samuel Luis Muñiz, a 24-year-old gay man, in northwestern Spain’s Galicia region in July sparked outrage across the country and around the world.
Rubén López of the Madrid Observatory against LGTBphobia, told El País there have been 103 reported anti-gay assaults in Madrid so far in 2021.