Vox's proposal for mass deportation of immigrants is putting pressure on the PP.

MadridAs soon as The PP has closed a congress in which it has toughened its discourse on immigrationVox has raised the stakes. The far-right party has proposed the mass deportation of immigrants, thus putting even more pressure on the Popular Party (PP), with a radicalization of its discourse on this matter. Santiago Abascal's approach involves expelling immigrants in an irregular situation from Spain, and it doesn't stop there. It also wants to expel those who legally reside in the state but "have come to commit crimes," "attempt to impose a strange religion," "mistreat or despise women," "have come to live off the efforts of others," and "all" unaccompanied immigrant minors because "they should be with their parents." The Vox leader said this in a message to X in which he states that he doesn't know "how many there are," but that "they will all leave" if his party reaches the Moncloa Palace. Despite its forcefulness, Abascal's message qualifies what MP Rocío de Meer suggested this Monday: that the more than 7 million people of foreign origin in the state, those who "have not adapted," should be deported.

Vox's proposal comes amid controversy over the fact that Alberto Núñez Feijóo's party has ruled out governing in coalition with the far right., which has drawn criticism from the far-right party. They attribute Abascal's proposal for maximum immigration limits to the PP's desire to attract attention after this weekend was marked by optimism at the PP congress and dismay at the PSOE federal committee. Both the new PP secretary general, Miguel Tellado, and the new spokesperson in Congress, Ester Muñoz, publicly rejected him on Tuesday. "We do not agree with either mass regularizations or mass deportations. Our position is very clear," Muñoz emphasized from the lower house press room. Hours earlier, on Onda Cero, Tellado emphasized that the PP "does not share Vox's positions in this regard." "There is immigration legislation in our country, and what must be done is to apply it," said the PP's number two. The president of the Community of Madrid, Isabel Díaz Ayuso, also sided with him: "It's populism."

Vox admits that the current legal framework does not allow for its "re-emigration" proposal, but its spokesperson in Congress, Pepa Millán, has stressed that "the law can be changed." The far-right party also warns that Feijóo will not be able to count on its support—not even in parliament, as the Popular Party leader intends if he does not achieve an absolute majority, which no poll has granted him—if he does not agree to implement this approach. Vox reminds the PP that in the autonomous communities where they governed together until a year ago They had no problem breaking up precisely because of the immigration issue.The anti-immigration rhetoric is one of the pillars of the far right's argument, which has already shown that it doesn't flinch and is capable of imposing its framework on the Popular Party. as has happened in the Valencian Country with the budget pact.

The Spanish government has taken the opportunity to soak bread and attack a PP that for weeks has been going all out against the PSOE over the Santos Cerdán case. "The dangerous thing is that the PP is willing to normalize and whitewash this xenophobic delirium in order to govern," warned the spokesperson for Pedro Sánchez's executive, Pilar Alegría, in the press conference following the cabinet meeting. Alegría stressed that no one believes that the PP is going to govern with the far right, a party that "has no place in the pluralistic Spain that we are." Sánchez himself has published a message on X in which he claims that Spain is "a land of welcome and whoever arrives contributes with their efforts to building a better country." Words that were in line with what the spokesperson for the Government, Silvia Paneque, also said in a press conference after the cabinet meeting: "It is a deception and a provocation, it has the absolute rejection of the Government. It is immoral."

The dance of numbers

How many people does Vox want to expel? Some media outlets have estimated the number of people who would be involved in this mass deportation at seven or eight million, due to the fact that the far-right party's MP, Rocío de Meer, explained at a press conference on Monday that this was an approximate estimate of "people who have come from different origins in a short period of time." "All those millions of people who have come very recently and have not adapted will have to return to their countries," said De Meer. Vox countered on Tuesday that it was a "lie" that they are quantifying the number of deportations at eight million because it is impossible to calculate how many people meet the requirements they want to apply. Aside from the difficulty of quantifying how many illegal immigrants there are, among those who have papers, but "have committed crimes or have not adapted," a "surgical" procedure would be required.

"We know that it is a complex process [...], whoever is here will have to demonstrate a true desire to integrate through a procedure that must guarantee that this person is worthy of nationality or residency," said Millán, who insisted that "all necessary repatriations" will be made to guarantee the "far right has linked immigration with insecurity.

Immigration in the PP's ideology

In the case of the People's Party (PP), the ideology approved at this weekend's congress attacks "migration disorganization" and advocates for "regulating the entry of people, prioritizing the arrival of those culturally close, who meet needs in the labor market and yearn to be part of our system of values." Without mentioning repatriations, it does focus on the same thing as Vox: "Zero tolerance for those who commit crimes, especially repeat offenders, and for those who do not want to integrate and respect our culture, particularly the role of women in society." In their political statement, the People's Party (PP) speaks of eliminating the possibility for undocumented immigrants to receive non-contributory economic benefits and of making long-term residency conditional "on knowledge of the Spanish language and culture."