Feijóo now proposes to withdraw 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 pronounced this July by Alberto Núñez Feijóo in the framework of his end-of-term review as leader of the opposition. Amidst the controversy over the Spanish government's amnesty law, and immersed in a competition with Vox regarding the toughness of the discourse on immigration, the president of the PP was already proposing a tightening of the conditions to access Spanish nationality. Only two months later, and in the midst of a crisis in Ceuta, the 'populars' go one step further: they are now proposing to withdraw 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 a draft organic law 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. The rule 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 case of having been born outside the Spanish state are three: using the nationality renounced to acquire the Spanish one for three years; voluntarily entering "armed service" or holding a political office 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 tighten the requirements for acquiring a passport with a higher level language and constitutional values exam. All of this adds to the series of proposals launched without great detail in recent months by the conservatives, in an attempt to counter Vox's growth in the polls. Without going any further, Feijóo had also proposed in July expelling legal immigrants who commit crimes. "When the immigrant is undocumented, they will be expelled immediately; when the immigrant is legal, it will depend on the crime they commit," he said.