Common front against Sánchez in the EU for the regularization of immigrants

BrusselsIf Pedro Sánchez's stance on immigration was already dissonant with the rest of the bloc, his distance from his partners has widened following the Ceuta crisis to the point of appearing irreconcilable. This Friday, the Spanish executive president was the target of criticism from his partners in a "difficult" debate on immigration in which he was left alone, according to sources present in the room speaking to ARA. The focus of the reproaches was the regularization process for thousands of immigrants that a group of states, led by Denmark, Italy, and Poland, consider a "pull factor" for immigration to the continent.

As soon as she arrived at the leaders' summit, Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen asked Brussels to examine the bloc's migration policies. "I have asked the European Commission to examine the case of a country that does practically the opposite of the rest. That is, someone arrives illegally in a country and, suddenly, they are allowed to stay legally," insisted the Danish leader, who believes that Spain's policy "contradicts" European immigration policy and maintains that it has broad support within the bloc.

The Commission President, Ursula von der Leyen, embraced the proposal and opened the door to investigating migration policies further, such as the regularization promoted by Spain. The German leader recalled that the EU already has a mechanism to exchange information on national decisions regarding immigration that have cross-border implications, but she endorsed Frederiksen's proposal to strengthen it.

Support for a tougher migration policy was staged by the eighteen countries that attended a breakfast promoted by Meloni, Frederiksen, and their Dutch counterpart, Rob Jetten, which was also attended by representatives of the European Commission. In this informal meeting, at which Spain was not present, they sought mechanisms to further harden migration policy with instruments that would allow, for example, suspending the right of asylum in emergency situations. "It was a blame game against Spain," assure diplomatic sources close to the breakfast.

In the context of the same confrontation, Denmark, Italy, and Poland have proposed amending the European summit's conclusions to introduce a criticism of Spain's regularization policy, which they consider a "pull factor" for immigrants. The proposal from these states was for the text to recognize the need to work on reducing "incentives for irregular immigration" and to seek mechanisms for "cooperation" between states when a country's migration policies could affect the rest. But nothing could be further from the truth. In the end, the conclusions were limited to reiterating previous commitments and postponed any progress on this matter. The lack of references to the proposals from Denmark, Italy, and Poland reflects Sánchez's ability to halt an initiative that required the unanimity of the Twenty-seven.

"Replacing the population to cling to power"

Some leaders have not held back from making reproaches in public. The Prime Minister of the Czech Republic, Andrej Babis, for example, has gone so far as to argue for the imposition of controls at his borders to prevent immigrants coming from Spain from entering. "We see what is happening in Spain; some politicians are willing to replace the population just to cling to office and stay in government," the ultra-right leader criticized. He lamented that "it is already too late" for some of these countries and urged to "defend the borders to prevent immigrants from arriving" in their countries (in the east) coming from Western Europe. "We are prepared to do so," he insisted.

In the same vein, the Austrian chancellor spoke out, reproaching that Spain's policy does not go in the direction of Europe and that it "has an effect" on the rest of the states. "Spain has sent a signal by legalizing the status of many irregular immigrants and this is not a good signal, because here in Europe we are trying to combat irregular immigration," assured Christian Stocker.

After the summit, Sánchez toned down the harshness of the criticisms and defended that Spanish policies "do not go against the current" of those of other countries, which, he argues, also grant work permits to immigrants. In fact, the president of the Spanish executive boasted of Spain's "good figures," which reflect that it "is an advanced student" in migration matters. Sánchez acknowledged the differences with his political family colleague, the social democrat Frederiksen, and distanced them from the Czech position which, conversely, he equated with that of "the far-right Vox in Spain".

Goodbye to controls with Italy

The migratory reproaches against Sánchez arrive on the same day that the Spanish president has agreed to a truce, precisely, with Giorgia Meloni. The two leaders have agreed to work to soon lift border controls at ports and airports, two months after the Ceuta crisis. The decision was made by the leaders in a meeting on the margins of the Brussels leaders' summit, in the first face-to-face meeting between the two leaders since the summer, according to what Spanish diplomatic sources have confirmed to ARA.

However, the Italian government has decided to extend the suspension of the Schengen area with the Spanish state for one week. During this period, in which Spanish controls will still be in force, the interior ministers of both countries will work to eliminate them, according to the same sources. Meloni's executive suspended the free movement of people with Spain at the end of July, following the massive entry of immigrants into Ceuta, a measure to which the Spanish executive responded with reciprocity.