Vox president Santiago Abascal visited this Sunday the sanctuary of Covadonga (Asturias), the place where Don Pelayo began the Reconquest against Muslim domination of the Iberian Peninsula, which began in 711 and was definitively concluded in 1492, with the capture of Granada. From there, in a symbolic place for Hispanicism and Catholicism, the right-wing leader summoned the media to launch his usual messages against irregular immigration; a flag that his party does not want to abandon after years of quasi-monopolization.
At a time when the monthly survey of the Center for Sociological Research (CIS) places immigration as the main problem of the Spanish, with figures not seen since the famous Cayuco crisis of 2007, Abascal is marking territory against the upstarts. Vox had already intensified its positions in this area a few months ago, before the Catalan elections of May 12, after seeing how the emergence of the Aliança Catalana, a far-right pro-independence party, had led Junts to influence its proposals to combat irregular immigration. A problem that Vox has been denouncing for more than five years, almost alone.
On Thursday, PP President Alberto Núñez Feijóo met in Rome with Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni and praised her immigration policy, traditionally aligned with that of Vox, Meloni’s natural ally on this and other issues, but which decided after the European elections of June 9 to leave the Conservatives and Reformists group in the European Parliament, which includes Brothers of Italy – Meloni’s party – and to join the Patriots for Europe of Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán.
“Taking a photo does not help fight illegal immigration. What works is to do like Meloni, to say that whoever enters illegally will be expelled,” Abascal said this Sunday from Covadonga, addressing the opposition leader, the popular Alberto Núñez Feijóo. From Vox, before the meeting between Núñez Feijóo and Meloni, they had already minimized this meeting and even said that it was a good thing for them because, indirectly, the PP “legitimizes” partners often described as radical.
Irregular immigration has been one of the great battles between the PP and Vox and this summer caused Abascal to unilaterally break the coalition governments that he shared with the popular governments until last July. After accepting the PP, without Vox’s consent, the distribution of unaccompanied foreign minors from the Canary Islands in the autonomous communities where it governs, Vox left the autonomous executives of Castile and León, the Valencian Community, Extremadura, Aragon and the Region of Murcia. The right-wing party is now threatening to extend this separation to the municipal councils if it collaborates with Moncloa on immigration issues.
Vox has proposed everything from using the Navy to repel cayucos that approach Spanish waters to the immediate expulsion of any immigrant who enters the national territory irregularly. The party also opposes the distribution of unaccompanied foreign minors from the Canary Islands to the rest of the autonomous communities and proposes that they be returned to their countries of origin so that they can return to their families. Vox’s positions, described as “xenophobic” not only by the left, but also sometimes by the PP, have been rejected on numerous occasions by Parliament. This week, Congress will debate precisely a Vox motion in which the right proposes the immediate return of migrants who enter Spain irregularly and the forced departure of those who commit crimes while legally residing in the country.
The current situation, according to Vox’s interpretation, confirms the postulates that the party has defended since its creation in 2014. “Time proves Vox right. Even the CEI of Tezanos now recognizes the problem of immigration,” boasts Abascal from Asturias. Immigration will, it seems, be the great issue of their formation for the rest of the legislature.
