The PP’s resistance to reforming the immigration law to unanimously commit to welcoming unaccompanied minors is very similar to that shown today by the coalition government led by the far-right Wilders in the Netherlands.
Raising bureaucratic obstacles to prevent or slow down the reception of minors, as prescribed by the Canary Islands Protocol, may constitute a crime of abandonment and, of course, deserves an appeal to the Constitutional Court. Placing more than 5,300 unaccompanied children in custody is not leaving them at the mercy of the central government but abandoning them, beyond the administrative mistreatment they suffer after this journey. Prolonged custody cannot be the pile in which an Autonomous Community ends up washing its hands.
In the Migration Pact adopted in Brussels a few months ago, mechanisms were also proposed to delay detention at the border under the pretext of non-entry. Of that dust, of that mud. A thesis as fanciful as it is sinister according to which anyone who has not crossed the border has never arrived and, since it does not exist, cannot be the subject of any legal protection. Kafkaesque ideas that, correctly interpreted and adapted, can give rise to administrative decisions as irregular as those adopted by the government of the Canary Islands.
The delusions of the Popular Party on the issue of immigration are deeply worrying, for humanitarian, political and strategic reasons. Erratic speeches, hesitant proposals, contradictions and suicidal decisions.
Feijóo accused Pedro Sánchez of having caused a call effect with the circular migration proposal to which he himself subscribed. A proposal that at least four autonomies governed by the popular people (Extremadura, Galicia, Rioja and Castilla-la Mancha) would like to implement tomorrow. In these Communities, coverage is necessary in certain labor sectors and the reform of the regulation of the Immigration Law, intended to alleviate the formal obstacles that prevent migrants from accessing employment, would be welcome. According to the INE, in the first quarter of 2024 there were 149,962 free jobs. For this reason, among other things, the original contracts have already been taken into account in the reform addressed by Escriva at the time and it is a topic that we now want to delve into.
Feijóo went from supporting the Popular Legislative Initiative to regularize half a million migrants who live and work in Spain, to wanting to change it and ended up linking the migrant population to squatting and crime, without batting an eyelid. Regulating the administrative situation of these people could mean between 790 and 950 million a year for the state coffers, but the cultural war is more important than the purely economic war.
The People’s Party is no longer fighting to govern, or even to exercise opposition. Its greatest aspiration is to absorb the vote of the extreme right. In fact, the resistance to the reform of the immigration law to unanimously commit to welcoming unaccompanied minors is very similar to that shown today by the coalition government led by the extreme right Wilders in the Netherlands. There, they also opposed the distribution law that establishes a distribution of migrants among municipalities. The idea is to do away with small reception centers and opt for overcrowding in large “containers”. It is about concentrating externalities in a few places that can compensate for the inconveniences. The Netherlands is fighting to obtain a voluntary exclusion from the EU asylum and migration policy and thus have carte blanche to impose an emergency law, outside of Congress and the Senate. A law that can restrict family reunification or forcibly expel anyone who does not obtain a residence permit.
In any case, in Europe, unfortunately, this drift is also shared by social democrats and socioliberals. The ultimate goal, more or less secret, is to strengthen border control or even, as is already happening in Scholz’s Germany, that of the socioliberal tripartite, to close the borders. Germany unilaterally broke the Schengen Treaty without demonstrating that there is a certain risk of alteration of public order or national security. Its neighboring countries, Holland, Poland and Austria, have taken good note of this.
Moreover, the à la carte solidarity of the Migration Pact, which made it possible to pay to avoid relocations, is already too expensive for the majority of governments that make up the Council. The Danish Social Democrats have been lecturing their European counterparts on the “containment” of immigration for some time and are committed to moving detention centres for foreigners. In other words, paying other, poorer countries to take care of human beings considered “residual”. Some are police countries, such as Libya, Tunisia, Egypt or Morocco, and others are responsible for managing those who have crossed our borders and we are obliged to accommodate them temporarily.
Labour Prime Minister Starmer went to Italy to learn about Meloni’s strategy to reduce illegal immigration. The learning process was easy and ended with thanks and praise. Meloni reduced migrant arrivals by 61% thanks to the effective management of his gendarme countries, the violation of international maritime law and a policy of constant harassment of NGOs. Now, she is also considering outsourcing the CIEs. All for Italy and the Italians, as Salvini would say. “I plead guilty to defending Italy and the Italians,” he responded after being accused of having set the 147 people (including 32 minors) of Open Arms adrift. With this unilateral and propaganda decision, he intended, as now, to mobilize his electorate. He recently received the support of Elon Musk.
In any case, in the beginning it was Hungary. Today the club feeds and grows with governments of different types. Orbán is not exactly going through his worst moments and the Patriots of Europe constitute the third group in the European Parliament. Orbán threatens Brussels with migratory pressures, has decided not to pay the 200 million euro fine imposed by the CJEU for violating the right to asylum and proclaims himself a creditor of the EU as guardian of Schengen. Overwhelmed by his friend Le Pen, Barnier will also opt for “rigorous control of immigration” in France. They win.
Violating the right to asylum and refuge with impunity is starting to become common sense in Europe. In Spain, we are still leaders in expulsions and a few days ago we celebrated Morocco’s collaboration in the “intermittent closure” of the Tarajal border in the face of the supposed approach of hundreds of people, even though our gendarme made it very clear to us that they are still the guardians. Blackmail is the minimum price we will have to pay if we reduce the issue of immigration to simple border control. We can already see the rest in the Canary Islands. Although Feijóo’s mouth is full of appeals, there is still much to be done to improve our immigration policy. In Europe, our slogan should be to fight and resist.
