Spain and France will create a joint database on jihadism

USPA NEWS - The Prosecutor of the Spanish National Court and the Paris Public Prosecutor will meet next Monday in Paris to discuss how to improve cooperation between the two countries in the fight against jihadist terrorism.

Among other means, the Spanish and French prosecutors will study the possibility of creating a joint database on suspected jihadism. The meeting will be held in Paris on Monday and will involve the chief prosecutor of the Spanish National Court -judges with exclusive jurisdiction over terrorism-, Javier Zaragoza, and the chief prosecutor of Paris, François Molins. Among the topics for discussion it is how to cross the data in their research on jihadi terrorism, in order to improve Franco-Spanish coordination in that fight.

Under this theme, nine Spanish political parties signed on Thursday an anti jihadist pact promoted by the two major formations, the conservative Popular Party and the Socialist Party. Last February, the two parties had signed an agreement against jihadism, who now have joined seven other minority formations, including the centrist Citizens, also a centrist Union, Progress and Democracy (UPyD in its acronym in Spanish ) and the Catalan nationalist party Democratic Union of Catalonia. They attended the meeting but did not sign the pact communist United Left (IU its acronym in Spanish), the populist Podemos and Catalan nationalists of Democratic Convergence of Catalonia and Basques of the Basque Nationalist Party (PNV its acronym in Spanish).

These four parties disagree with the contents of the pact, while some of the formations that signed reject the revisable permanent prison but considered more important to show the unity of the Spanish political parties against jihadism. Despite that, all participants in the meeting agreed to continue meeting to advance a common stance against terrorism.

The fight against jihadism collides squarely with the Spanish electoral campaign for the legislative elections of December 20, starting at midnight on Friday December 5. The Spanish Government intends to await the results of the elections to decide on its contribution to the fight against jihadism, although the French Government, which continues to seek allies after the attacks of November 13 in Paris wishes that Spain would soon decide their contribution. In this respect, the former Secretary General of NATO and former EU High Representative for EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana said Thursday that the Spanish Government should decide before the elections if military support to France.

"It is important that a decision also taken out of respect for the French," said Solana, who believes that the Spanish contribution to the fight against jihadism should be resolved in dialogue with the French Government and, in any case, does not have to be resolved "or bombing or putting troops on the ground." Despite pressure, the Spanish Prime Minister, Mariano Rajoy, preferring to wait until the new Parliament is constituted to decide on its contribution to the anti-jihadist struggle.