VOX is leading a campaign in Seville to prevent the construction of a mega-mosque on an industrial estate near Polígono Sur, one of the city’s most deprived neighbourhoods.
The right-wing populist party has taken opposition to the project from the city council to the streets. It has submitted planning objections, demanded information about its financing, encouraged local mobilization, and announced that it will take the matter to court if the municipal government of the Partido Popular (PP) ultimately grants the licence.
The complex is presented as an Islamic ‘cultural centre’ containing a prayer hall, a minaret, a library, a café, classrooms and social spaces. Its promoters have spent nearly two decades pushing for the building of a large mosque in the Andalusian capital.
VOX, however, argues that the initiative cannot be presented as a straightforward cultural facility. The party maintains that religious worship is the project’s central purpose and questions whether it can be developed on a plot whose planning designation does not expressly provide for that use.
“The residents of Polígono Sur have said enough. They do not want a mega-mosque or their neighbourhood to become the next chapter in the Islamisation of Spain,” said Javier Cortés, a regional MP and VOX spokesman in Andalusia, during a visit to the area.
Cortés said his party would
fight in the streets, in the courts and in the institutions until we stop it.
VOX has become the main political force opposing the project. The party initially succeeded in persuading the city council to remove the issuing of the licence from the agenda while further technical and legal reports were requested. The urban planning department later concluded that the construction met the required conditions and the procedure resumed.
The municipal government, led by PP mayor José Luis Sanz, argues that the licence is subject to fixed legal criteria. According to the city council, if the project complies with planning regulations, the authorities cannot reject it for political or religious reasons.
VOX rejects that position and is calling for a public consultation among residents. It also questions whether the neighbourhood should host an infrastructure project of this size while it continues to suffer from bad public security, poor sanitation, housing problems, inadequate public transport and a lack of public services.
The residents are also expressing frustration. Dozens gathered near the proposed construction site on July 27th, with participants carrying banners opposing the mosque and announcing a petition campaign. The opposition is not confined to religious concerns: several residents say they were not informed and argue that the district should have other priorities.
The campaign also threatens to rupture the agreement between VOX and the PP in the city council. VOX’s municipal spokesman has warned that it would be “almost impossible” to continue supporting a government that, in the party’s words, is “rolling out the red carpet” for the mosque.
This is not the first dispute of its kind. VOX has promoted similar initiatives in municipalities such as Jumilla, where it called for restrictions on the religious use of municipal sports facilities, and Cercedilla, where it demanded transparency over the relocation of an Islamic centre. In Algeciras, the controversy concerned the provision of burial spaces for Muslims.
In Seville, the party has decided to turn the mega-mosque into a recognisable political battle over identity, coexistence, planning law, and the ability of residents to decide which projects transform their neighbourhoods.
The PP insists that it is merely applying the law. VOX responds that governing also means choosing what kind of city is built.
