In Spain there is an ongoing clash between the government of Pedro Sánchez and the opposition Partido Popular (PP) over the reception of migrants, especially as regards unaccompanied minors. The country is facing a sharp increase in flows which reached its peak this summer in the Canary Islands.
The different positions on the reception of migrants
To better manage the situation, since July there has been talk in Spain of amending article 35 of the current immigration law by establishing a mandatory distribution of unaccompanied minors in all 17 Spanish autonomous communities, distribution which for now is only on a voluntary. The change is supported by Prime Minister Sanchez’s Spanish Socialist Workers Party (PSOE), their government allies in Sumar and the Coalition Canaria.
In Madrid yesterday (Thursday 5 December) members of the central executive met with representatives of the local administrations in question (including those of the enclaves of Ceuta and Melilla) and of the People’s Party (centre-right) to try to find an agreement. The meeting was called to try to unblock the main object of the dispute: the law that would make the redistribution between regions of the management of migrant minors mandatory, now mainly concentrated in the Canary Islands, where the regional government claims to be now at the limit of its capacity to welcome in these cases. But the meeting ended without any progress.
The role of Vox
This prolonged stalemate is influenced by political balances that go beyond the specific issue. In particular, the threat of the ultra-conservatives of Vox not to provide their necessary support for the budget laws in the regions in the hands of the PP in the event of its migration agreement with Madrid weighs heavily: a position which, evidently, at least for now is influencing the PP (despite official denials) to the point of leading its central leadership to not respond to the appeals of its own local administrators who, from the territories most directly affected by the landings, are loudly calling for urgent solutions on this topic in agreement with the State.
The right-wing radicals of Vox, absolutely against the government’s proposal, even threaten their allies in the People’s Party to break the agreements in place should they “continue to promote the policies of the PSOE”. “We want the PP to guarantee that illegal immigration will not continue to be redistributed,” Vox leader Santiago Abascal said in a YouTube interview this morning.
“The PP does not accept blackmail of any kind”, was the response of the popular leader Alberto Núñez Feijóo, who however has already rejected the idea of making substantial changes to the law and urged the executive to carry out an overall reform of the current Spain’s “lax migration policy”. Another essential element in maintaining the precarious stability of Sánchez’s government is the parliamentary support of former Catalan president Carles Puigdemont’s right-wing separatist JxCat party, but it too rejected the government’s proposal.
The situation in the Canary Islands
The Canary Islands have seen the fastest increase in sea arrivals in the European Union this year, bucking the trend in the central Mediterranean where landings are falling sharply. As of November 15, they had received a total of 39,713 people, 23 percent more than in the same period last year, according to the Spanish Interior Ministry.
The island that has become the new Lampedusa of Europe
According to official data, there are currently over 5,400 minors in these islands, mostly coming from West Africa, divided into 86 centers, a number that exceeds the reception capacity by 300 percent. The regional government estimates that it has so far spent 160 million euros on food, accommodation, education, health and legal assistance for minors.
