At Vox they do not want to talk about a “red line” or “rupture now”, but they do consider that the legal reform that is underway to force the autonomies to share the reception of unaccompanied migrant minors who arrive in Spain will mean “ a critical line” in its relationship with the PP, its government partner in five autonomous communities. The national leadership of Vox even contemplates the scenario of breaking with the popular ones in those governments that they share – Castilla y León, Valencian Community, Extremadura, Aragón and Murcia – if the party of Alberto Núñez Feijóo accepts the reform of the Immigration Law that the The Government is negotiating with all parties in the face of the emergency situation that the Canary Islands are experiencing mainly.
This matter has placed the PP itself in an internal dilemma, which governs the archipelago with the Canary Coalition and does not dare to establish a single national position. Vox does say that it has it and warns the PP that it is not willing to compromise on that aspect: “Even at the risk of having to leave the governments we are in,” sources from the leadership of Santiago Abascal’s party emphasize.
The Junta of Extremadura, whose government, chaired by the PP, Vox supports, has ignored the threats. The Minister of the Presidency, Abel Bautista, has indicated that his Executive will act with “absolute commitment and absolute sensitivity” in caring for minors and that he will comply with current legislation (…) like it more or like it less.” Before Vox’s position was known, the president of the Community of Madrid, Isabel Díaz Ayuso, assured that the distribution to other communities will generate a “call effect” because the immigrants have appreciated that if they arrive in the Canary Islands “they will to end up anywhere.”
Junts per Catalunya, a party that is against the distribution, has warned that it will not support this legal reform and will focus on negotiating the transfer of immigration powers in order not to accept quotas of unaccompanied minors from other autonomous regions. The acting Government of the Generalitat, through the Ministry of Social Rights headed by Carles Campuzano, wanted to distance itself from Junts and clarified that what they are asking for is a balanced distribution that takes into account that migrants do not only arrive in Spain from the south. Theirs is a “left-wing and social position, and not a right-wing and dangerous one like that of Junts,” say Republican sources.
The legal reform proposal that the central and Canarian governments have agreed upon, and that they are now negotiating with the rest of the parties and autonomies, is a modification of article 35 of the Immigration Law so that, when the reception resources of a community are operating above 150% of its capacity, unaccompanied minors are referred to other regions, based on criteria such as GDP or population. This has given rise to a debate that predicts immediate consequences in national politics.
Vox, for now, is sticking to issuing warnings to the PP. Last Tuesday, the parliamentary spokesperson for the ultra party, Pepa Millán, already anticipated this wake-up call, but this Thursday the message was conveyed from the highest levels of the party: “If we have to break up, we will do it. We do have a national position and no attachment to positions. The Vox representatives in Aragon already told the PP, which presides over that community, when they accepted the previous distribution of minors: not one more,” these sources conclude.
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The Vox spokesperson in Congress had announced on Tuesday: “We are going to wait to see what the PP says. It is part of [la regulación de la inmigración] of government agreements. Our program is also well known by members of the PP,” he stated. The management of Vox states that this issue was already addressed at the time with the autonomous representatives of the PP in each territory and their position was clear to them.
Those around Abascal do not want to say publicly that Vox is willing to endanger the coalition governments of the right and the extreme right in five autonomous regions, but they do want the idea to gradually become clear that immigration is not just another issue for them. The party, which links illegal immigration with crime in its speechesmaintains that this is an issue as nuclear as that of the defense of the Spanish language in bilingual communities or the rejection of historical memory laws.
This position was expressed personally by Pepa Millán on Wednesday to the Minister of Territorial Policy, the socialist Ángel Víctor Torres, and to the president of the Canary Islands, Fernando Clavijo, of the Canary Coalition, who maintained contacts in Congress with all parties. Vox believes that establishing a distribution of migrant minors from the Canary Islands to other autonomies is “promoting the call effect.” An idea that was repeated even more forcefully this Thursday by his spokesperson in the Youth Commission, Joaquín Robles, before the debate on a non-legislative proposal from ERC that requested greater resources for reception and less stigmatization.
The Vox deputy mocked this “do-gooder and silly speech” and the “ERC supremacist lessons” and argued that “in Spain there is food and health care for a certain number of the population”. He also questioned whether these minors, “always boys, not girls”, come from places at war. Robles finally specified: “In Vox we are not racist, we are prudent in the extreme sense”. In this debate of the commission, the PP spokesperson, María del Mar Vázquez, did not reveal what her party’s final position will be on the legal reform that the central and Canary Islands governments intend and limited herself to replying to the Republican deputy that in Andalusia governed by the popular Juan Manuel Moreno, integration and reception policies have been applied for years.
The deputy of the Canary Coalition, Cristina Valido, reminded everyone present that, given the seriousness of the problem, the solution should not be contaminated by partisanship, and in fact she chose to abstain from the ERC proposals, but she did call for an urgent solution before the situation of the reception centers on the islands, which are at 150% of their capacity and with more than 6,000 minors. The representatives of Junts, the PNV and EH Bildu did not participate in the discussion, because they were not there. Sources from the parliamentary leadership of the PNV did clarify that they have been negotiating with the central government for weeks and warning it that the Basque Country has its centers saturated with more than 500 minors while other regions, such as La Rioja or Cantabria, barely receive migrant minors, according to the Peneuvists.
As for Junts, sources from this group indicated this Thursday, after also personally telling Minister Torres and the Canarian president, that they are not willing to support this reform of article 35 of the Immigration Law or for Catalonia to welcome more migrant minors in its territory. Junts stresses that it makes no sense to support the power of the State to decide on this distribution when what the pro-independence party is negotiating with the Government is for the Generalitat to assume “the powers and tools” regarding immigration.
Junts says it understands “the reality and the urgency of the Canary Islands”, but responds “no” to the minister and the Canarian president. The pro-independence party maintains that, the last time there was a distribution, of the 6,000 migrant minors, Catalonia welcomed 2,000; and points out that the Canary Islands have received 50 million euros from the State in this regard and Catalonia 1.8 million. Junts will not vote in favour of the law, say these sources, because “it is not rigorous”, although they could abstain. The group went so far as to propose to the Government that it present the initiative through a royal decree but give a one-year deadline to carry out the distribution. When asked about what should be done with the helpless migrant minors, Junts responds: “We are not unsupportive, we have already welcomed as many as anyone else. Let them do what they want in the rest of the State.”
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