"I am the Prime Minister of Spain": Pedro Sánchez challenges Trumpism in the 'New York Times'

WashingtonAfter mocking the attacks of Elon Musk and company by quoting Goethe and Don QuixoteSpanish President Pedro Sánchez has published an opinion piece in New York Times Defending the regularization of half a million migrants in the State. Now the socialist is going after the big fish and has launched a barb at Donald Trump, awaiting a response. "What should we do with these people? Some leaders have chosen to persecute and deport them through operations that are both illegal and cruel. My government has chosen another path: a quick and easy way to regularize their immigration status," Sánchez writes in the American media outlet. The article's headline itself is a declaration of intent: "I am the Prime Minister of Spain. That is why the West needs migrants."

Beyond wanting to be the new face of European progressivism, Sánchez also seeks to repeat the effect achieved by Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva last year. The harassment campaign that Trump launched against Brazil was a gift for Lula. The new tariffs against Brazilian products as punishment for Jair Bolsonaro's conviction The attempted coup revived support for Lula and his leftist allies. Polls showed an increase in the popularity of his government just before the 2026 elections, which are shaping up to be complicated for the Brazilian left. At a time of internal crisis in Spain, Sánchez seeks to emerge strengthened by challenging the United States, which is becoming increasingly unfamiliar to Europe.

The horrific images from Minnesota, with Little Liam was detained by ICE agents and The murder of two US citizens at the hands of federal agents contrasts sharply with the scenario Sánchez proposes with regularization. "The only option to avoid decline is to integrate migrants in the most orderly and effective way possible," he writes.

Musk was one of the first far-right leaders to focus on Sánchez, accusing him of regularizing migrants to gain votes in the upcoming elections. This claim mirrors the long-held perception in the United States, particularly among Trump supporters, that undocumented immigrants vote in Democratic states. It is also false: regularization does not grant the right to vote. In Spain, one can only vote with citizenship, and what the Spanish government offers is an initial permit that allows individuals to work and pay social security contributions while they complete the process of obtaining other permits.

The Spanish president explains in the article that Spain "was a nation of emigrants" and recalls that the measure began as a citizens' initiative supported by the Catholic Church. Sánchez insists that "the West needs people" and that the challenges of immigration "have nothing to do with ethnicity, race, religion, or language," but rather with a matter of "poverty" and "inequality." He supports this argument not only with humanist values ​​but also by citing the fact that Spain currently leads economic growth among the major economies of the Eurozone.

"MAGA-style leaders may say that our country cannot handle the arrival of so many migrants, that it is a suicidal step—the desperate act of a country in collapse. But don't be fooled. Spain is experiencing strong growth among the most consecutive countries in Europe," the Socialist writes. Sánchez is boasting at a time when both France and the United Kingdom have closed ranks with Spain in the face of attacks from the tech giants for their announcement to ban social media for those under 16.