PP and Vox, the pact to not sleep
MadridThe PP and Vox have taken four months to reach an agreement in Extremadura that seems like a pact of circumstances, signed because time was running out, but which contains enough conflictive points to think they will have many problems putting it into practice. Immigration and healthcare will be the most controversial aspects, because the mentality with which these two chapters are treated is clearly restrictive of rights. The campaigns that have been launched previously to prepare the ground will not satisfy the expectations of the signatory parties. Spanish society, by a large majority, does not share the idea that immigrants are a group of criminals responsible for the saturation of public healthcare, while receiving unjustified subsidies.
What is needed is to make an effort to cover the needs in terms of public services, without depriving of attention the many thousands of people who have arrived from many countries to work and live with dignity among us. Seeing these days the first queues to obtain the regularization of their situation, I did not believe that those waiting patiently for their turn could be identified as a threat to stability and security. Quite the contrary, the experience of daily life – in my case in Madrid – corresponds with the observation that there are infinitely many people among us dedicated to honestly making their way in another country because in their own they had no opportunities and lived worse, sometimes much worse.
I don't have an idyllic view of immigration, it's clear that there must be regulation –in fact, it already exists–, and the problems that arise must be faced, but with an open mind, without prejudice. And if there is any predisposition, it should be due to the memory of the times when Spain was a country of emigrants. Apart from those who left for exile, after the Civil War, in the following years, many people looked for opportunities in various parts of Europe or Latin America that they could not find here. Now it is impossible to spend a whole day in the big Spanish cities without encountering foreign workers serving us in many different jobs.
The PP will not fare well after buying into Vox's xenophobic discourse. A governing party cannot now have a rejectionist mentality towards immigrants. They are many thousands and indispensable in many activities. The PP has used feelings of prevention and distrust –often launched from social networks that are destructive in this matter– to bring debates to the courts that it could not win in Parliament. This strategy has its logic when in opposition. But now it is supposed that the popular party must begin a new stage, in which the priority is to consolidate its expectations of winning the next general elections. And it is more than doubtful that they will achieve this by feeding fears and prejudices.
What we must avoid is the occurrence of phenomena of exclusion or self-marginalization like those that have occurred in other European countries. To say that immigration must be ordered does not equate to legislating on the restriction of rights. Regarding Catalonia, the image that has been fostered of it as a society in which it is difficult to integrate is very unfair. The debate on multiple reoffending, for example, has done a lot of harm in this regard. The Spanish Parliament – criminal legislation is the responsibility of the State – has acted late on this problem. Initiatives should have been taken years ago to curb the rise in thefts and property crimes, especially in Barcelona. Illegal occupation of housing must also be reacted to quickly. But let's think about how many immigrants have committed these types of crimes, or illegal acts in any case, and how many live crammed into tiny flats or paying an exaggerated rent for a room. Among young people, there are many people in these conditions, and not only foreigners, but Spaniards who are becoming independent from their parents or changing cities to look for work or obtain better jobs.
The pact between PP and Vox disregards this social reality to seek votes through another route, which is not the one corresponding to a moderate right. Feijóo needed the agreement to continue fueling expectations of governing Spain. But he has surely also thought – like Pedro Sánchez when he imagined himself in coalition with Pablo Iglesias – that there will be nights when he cannot sleep. The reactions that have occurred within the PP of Madrid and Andalusia are very significant in this regard. The president of the latter community, Juan Manuel Moreno Bonilla, has ‘welcomed’ the Extremadura agreement, but immediately added that he aspires to revalidate his absolute majority. He has not wasted half a minute making statements about Guardiola and the content of his understanding with the far-right.
Internal opposition
The Madrid president, Isabel Díaz Ayuso, on the other hand, has opted to send a series of very realistic warnings to her own party leadership. While Abascal said that “we have reached an agreement in which we are guaranteed that in Extremadura there will be national priority for Spaniards in access to social aid and in access to social housing”, the leader of the popular organization in Madrid stated that “no one can be left out of a system to which they have contributed, such as, for example, the healthcare system”. And this is said by a regional president who has refused to apply state regulations in her community, such as in housing matters or regarding abortion.
If PP and Vox want to move forward with their pact, they will find a barrier that the State Advocacy will erect against their plans. In any case, they must first try to change the current legislation, including, among other laws, the immigration law. And, on the other hand, the idea of expelling immigrants with police records – that is, without judicial records, which imply a final sentence – I don't think it can be free from appeals filed by Pedro Sánchez's government either. I imagine Abascal and Feijóo fighting to grab the steering wheel of their agreements, one to run and the other to brake, while the left sows their path with keys and thumbtacks.