Vox, the only possible partner of Carlos Mazón’s PP, is beginning to clarify its conditions for supporting the party in its solo government adventure. The extreme right, which has been insisting for weeks that immigration policy is a non-negotiable point in a somewhat ambiguous manner, is placing the points of negotiation in the general policy debate, emphasizing the attention given by NGOs.
The party led by Santiago Abascal demands that the PP promote a “naval blockade” in the State and prevent the work of humanitarian rescue ships in Valencian ports. Specifically, they accuse these entities of collaborating in “illegal human trafficking” and demand that measures be implemented “to prevent ships (…) from docking in autonomous ports”. It also wants to prohibit migrant minors who enter Spain “irregularly” from accessing public aid, including the “transition plan to independent life and emancipation” and to carry out “legal medical examinations” to determine the age of foreigners entering the country.
The extreme right insists on eliminating aid to associations that promote “illegal immigration”, on eliminating “all benefits or social aid to illegal immigrants” or on promoting a plan for the repatriation of unaccompanied minors, as well as on “consulting the Spanish people in a referendum on the border”. model of defense that they want for Spain. Likewise, it saves its proposals to expel migrants who commit crimes, to repeal migration and integration strategies and to strengthen border controls.
The ultras are puffing out their chests in addition to promoting one of the most controversial measures of recent weeks outside the executive. The Mazón government is demanding that migrant rescue organizations pay the port taxes that the Consell del Botànic (PSPV, Compromís and Podemos) has exempted them from. The amount needed for parking in the port already amounts to almost half a million euros. These are the ships Open Arms, Sea Punks, Louise Michel, Sea Watch, Sea Humanity, Mission Lifeline, Resq People, SOS Humanity and Humanitarian Maritime Rescue, which have saved thousands of people from drowning in the Mediterranean.
This Thursday, the president of the Valencian courts and member of the Abascal executive, Llanos Massó, assured that “thanks to Vox, in the Valencian Community, the boats of the NGOs that facilitate the work of the human trafficking mafias will pay the docking fees in the ports dependent on the Generalitat, something they have not done thanks to the vice-president of the Botánico government, Mónica Oltra.
In defense of the resolutions of the general policy debate, approved this Friday, the spokesman of the ultra party in Parliament, José María Llanos, insisted that “illegal, blind and irregular immigration is a sine qua non condition of any negotiation” after showing his outstretched hand to Carlos Mazón’s PP. The popular president promised in his speech that fishermen would not pay port taxes and assured that the central government would charge them to NGOs, something that the Official State Gazette denies.
Llanos defends the exemption of fishermen from port taxes, announced during the debate by the president of the PP, and according to what José Luis Aguirre, the former Minister of Agriculture of Vox, promoted. If true, it would be a gesture from the PP towards its former partners, seeking to maintain the relationship despite the suspension of coexistence. The popular have reached out to the ultras to reach agreements on certain resolutions, in order to facilitate a rapprochement for the rest of the journey.
The general policy debate serves as a formal meeting between the two parties after their abrupt split last July, and as a preamble to the most difficult negotiation of the year: the Generalitat’s budgets for next year.
