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 immigration, Vox 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 radicalized discourse on this matter. "commit crimes," "seek 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 does not know his party will reach the Moncloa Palace. Despite its forcefulness, Abascal's message qualifies what MP Rocío de Meer insinuated 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 second-in-command.

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 demonstrated that it has no qualms about imposing its position 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.