Ada Colau rejected a blanket link between immigration and crime during the Spanish election campaign. In an interview published on 13 November with video podcaster Jordi Wild the candidate for the left-wing alliance Frente Ampliosaid that some migrants did commit crimes. But the vast majority did not offend and posed no problem.
The former mayor of Barcelona described as false, according to a report by elDiario.es, the link between immigration and crime that she attributed to the political right. This is her political assessment; the interview itself does not provide a statistical study of crime and origin.
Wild had asked Colau, among other things, why immigration was increasingly a cause for concern in Spain in his view. He also raised the possibility of a cultural conflict and asked whether perhaps too many people were entering the country too quickly and without checks. Colau rejected the blanket association between immigration and criminality.
To explain her point, she referred to Barcelona’s history. Working people who had come from Extremadura or Andalusia had helped build the city’s working-class neighbourhoods. Many had faced derogatory remarks about their origins and social status at the time, Colau said. Her own ancestors had also come to the city from Huesca and Soria to work. Wild replied that his family came from Andalusia.
Colau’s example concerns internal migration within Spain. She thus drew a link between past prejudice against newcomers and today’s debate about immigration. However, historical experiences do not automatically answer statistical questions about international migration.
The interview was released at the start of the campaign for the Spanish Parliamentary election on 29 November 2026. Colau is standing for Frente Amplio. She was the first candidate from the major political forces to be interviewed in Wild’s series. According to elDiario.es, the conversation lasted more than two hours; at times, more than 100,000 viewers watched the broadcast.
Housing policy and corruption allegations against the Socialists also came up. In connection with possible cooperation with the Socialist Party PSOE Colau said, according to a report by the Europa Press news agency, that structural corruption within the party would be grounds for her to leave a coalition government.
Editor: Phillipe Schmidt-Araguin (Article created with AI assistance).