Feijóo now proposes withdrawing nationality from Spaniards of foreign origin who commit serious crimes

Madrid / Barcelona"Giving away Spanish passports? [...] That's over" and "The passport must be earned". These phrases were spoken this July by Alberto Núñez Feijóo during his end-of-year review as leader of the opposition. Amidst the controversy over the amnesty law of the Spanish government, and immersed in a competition with Vox over the toughness of the discourse on immigration, the president of the PP was already proposing a tightening of the conditions for accessing Spanish nationality. Only two months later, and in the midst of a crisis in Ceuta, the Popular Party goes a step further: they now propose withdrawing nationality from Spaniards of foreign origin who commit serious crimes.

As reported this Tuesday by El Mundo and confirmed to ARA by party sources, the PP is preparing an organic bill that would open the door to withdrawing the status of Spanish citizens from people born abroad who commit crimes such as murder, sexual assault, terrorism, or organized crime, and also from those who accumulate a specific criminal record of recidivism. The regulation would be approved in the event that Feijóo reaches the Moncloa, so it remains an electoral proposal, and the details are not finalized.

At this moment, as detailed on the Ministry of Justice website, the reasons for losing nationality in the case of having been born outside the Spanish state are three: using for three years the nationality that was renounced to acquire the Spanish one; voluntarily entering the "armed service" or holding a political position in another country against the prohibition of the Spanish government, and committing falsehood, concealment, or fraud in the acquisition of nationality.

The PP's proposal would not only serve to expand these assumptions. In line with the conservatives' statements in recent months, it would also toughen the requirements for acquiring a passport with a higher level of language and constitutional values examination. All of this adds to the series of proposals launched without great detail in recent months by the popular party, in an attempt to counter the growth of Vox in the polls. Without going any further, Feijóo had also proposed in July to expel legal immigrants who commit crimes. "When the immigrant is irregular, they will be expelled immediately; when the immigrant is regular, it will depend on the crime they commit," he said.

Vox puts more pressure

"We are glad that the PP is joining our positions," reacted Vox spokesperson in Congress, Pepa Millán, although she warned that it is not enough and demanded that the Popular Party stop in the Senate the rule that grants Spanish nationality to those born before 1977 in Western Sahara. In a press conference at the lower house, Millán remarked that the PP must be "consistent" and "not give even half a milligram of air" to the Spanish government if it wants to provide "true opposition." According to the far-right party, the granting of nationality to Sahrawis is comparable to the amnesty law and "opens the door to electoral fraud." The Popular Party abstained in the vote last week in Congress, where it went ahead.

In this endless race toward the radicalization of immigration positions, Vox is also pressuring the PP with several initiatives presented in this week's plenary session, coinciding with the crisis in Ceuta. One of them proposes reforming the national defense law to include the fight against illegal immigration among the missions of the Spanish army.