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POLITICS

What a Vox government could mean for foreigners in Spain

Polls suggest Spain's Popular Party will win the July 23rd general elections but will need far-right Vox to govern, a party that's proposed anti-immigration policies since its conception.

Published: 3 May 2022 09:16 CEST
Updated: 19 June 2023 09:04 CEST
What a Vox government could mean for foreigners in Spain
Spanish far-right Vox party president Santiago Abascal has said the cause of Ukrainian refugees arriving in Spain is more justified than the "invasion of young people" of Muslim origin that "attack" the borders of Europe. Photo by PIERRE-PHILIPPE MARCOU / AFP

With just over a month for Spain’s snap elections to take place, several polls have concluded that Spain’s longstanding right-wing Partido Popular will need far-right Vox to achieve an absolute majority with which to oust Pedro Sánchez and govern in Spain. 

PP head and likely new Prime Minister Alberto Nuñez Feijóo has so far distanced himself from the prospect of reaching a deal with Vox leader Santiago Abascal, but the evidence from local and regional elections in late May suggests that partnering up with the ultra-nationalist party is indeed on the table. 

PP-Vox coalitions have been agreed in 10 major Spanish cities including Toledo and Burgos, as well as in the coastal Valencia region. 

Vox is now Spain’s third main political party and its popularity has been on the up since it first entered regional government in Spain in 2022 in the country’s Castilla y León region. 

Vox’s stance is populist, ultraconservative, ultranationalist, and crucially for many of readers, openly anti-immigration. 

Their position as potential junior coalition partner may not mean they get to implement all the legislation they’ve campaigned for over the past decade, but as seen with far-left Unidas Podemos’s Only Yes means Yes and transgender laws, being in government allows for greater political influence.

We’ve reviewed Vox’s policy ideas on immigration to try and get a better idea of what a PP-Vox government might look like, and how it could affect foreigners. 

Illegal deportation of all illegal immigrants

According to Vox’s own policy agenda on its official website, the number one priority in its immigration agenda is the deportation of all illegal immigrants.

While experience would suggest that Vox has a particular sociological and racial profile in mind for the type of immigrant lined up for deportation, one has to wonder if it would also include Brits staying illegally on the costas post-Brexit.

Perhaps leader Santiago Abascal’s comments in the Spanish Parliament in 2022 on how “anyone can tell the difference” between Ukrainians arriving in Spain following Russia’s invasion and, in his words, “young military-aged men of Muslim origin who have launched themselves against European borders in an attempt to destabilise and colonise it.”  

Deportation of legal migrants with criminal records

Similarly, Vox proposes the deportation of legal migrants who have committed crimes in Spain and regularly cites statistics about the proportion of crimes committed by immigrants, although there is no data available on the breakdown between legal and illegal immigrants with regards to crime. 

Militarised borders

Vox leader Santiago Abascal can always be relied on to hit on a handful of key talking points wherever he goes, whatever he’s talking about, and whatever the topic. One of those is the migrant situation in Spain’s north African territories, Ceuta and Melilla. In one of Abascal’s many pieces of populist rhetoric alluding to former President Trump, Vox has said it would militarise Spanish borders in north Africa. Build a wall? Maybe. 

In reality Spain’s borders are already heavily militarised with the help of EU funding, and under the Sanchez PSOE government Spain is already facing challenges in human rights courts, but this process would be turbo-charged if Vox ever got anywhere near La Moncloa. 

Blatant anti-immigrant propaganda 

Vox have regularly used unashamedly (and often false) anti-immigrant propaganda during election campaigns. In Madrid a poster depicting a young, dark-skinned, hooded male was put up in metro stations, claiming that an immigrant minor would cost taxpayers a large sum of money each month, and comparing that with a grandmother who would only receive a measly pension.  

Expect the blatant anti-immigrant propaganda to continue if Vox gets a seat in government at the national level. 

Toughen citizenship laws

Vox would also push to increase the required period of residency to gain citizenship from ten to fifteen years, banning nationality applications from those with criminal records either in Spain or their country of origin and requiring people to give up their other nationalities. 

Overall, Vox’s aim is to ensure the ius sanguinis (“right of blood”) is always greater than the ius solis (“right of land”), so that lineage prevails over the place of birth when obtaining nationality. This has widely been understood as a discriminatory measure against north African migrants, but does come as part of broader efforts to prioritise Latin Americans with Spanish heritage. 

READ MORE: Far-right Vox aims to toughen Spanish citizenship laws

Demonstrators wave Spanish flags during a nationwide protest called by Spanish far-right Vox party against price hikes, in Málaga on March 19, 2022. (Photo by JORGE GUERRERO / AFP)
 

Prioritising Spaniards for benefits 

In a classic piece of nativist rhetoric, Vox would prioritise Spaniards and “national priority” when accessing social housing, rental subsidies and various other types of social welfare. Despite being largely economically liberal, and against state intervention and welfarism, Abascal made his “national priority” policy speech – in Ceuta, of course – clear that any welfare that does exist will be given to Spaniards first, and foreigners (legal or illegal) second. 

Getting rid of the ‘arraigo’ process 

There exists a process in Spain that allows for some undocumented immigrants to claim residency after living in Spain for a certain period if they can prove familial or employment links to Spain, demonstrate extraordinary circumstances, or, after three years, prove they have lived in Spain continuously. The arraigo is for non-EU citizens wishing to formalise their status in Spain. In it’s 2018 electoral programme, Vox included among its policies scrapping the arraigo option for undocumented migrants as well as other fast-track options for obtaining nationality. 

Make language and culture exam harder

Vox has also promised to raise the required standard to pass the Spanish language and cultural and history exams in the process of getting nationality.

Gibraltar

With uncertainty looming over the rock in the drawn out Brexit deal negotiations, a Vox government would undoubtedly spark nationalist rhetoric and increase tensions on the border. Vox have regularly held rallies directly across the border in La Línea de la Concepción, even planted a Spanish flag there, and regularly spout nationalist rhetoric about Gibraltarians being pirates and parasites, and that the Rock is Spanish in order to rile up blood and soil nationalist sentiment.

A key point for Britons in both Spain and Gibraltar – if a Brexit deal regarding Gibraltar isn’t made before the next general election and Vox play a minority role in a national government, which is an unlikely but plausible outcome, it is likely negotiations will be have to be completely restarted and any progress made torn up. 

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POLITICS

Why separatist Bildu spells hope for Basque youth as Spanish region votes

"For us Basques, ETA's terrorism is in the past," says social worker Elena García, who says she's going to vote for the left-wing separatist EH Bildu in Sunday's election in Spain's Basque Country.

Published: 18 April 2024 09:21 CEST
Why separatist Bildu spells hope for Basque youth as Spanish region votes

As the wealthy northern region of 2.2 million residents heads into a tightly-contested vote for its regional parliament, polls suggest Bildu will win, inching ahead of the Basque Nationalist Party (PNV) that has ruled for decades.

A faction which partly emerged from the political wing of the now-defunct Basque armed separatist group ETA, Bildu “used to be associated with a nationalist party with a terrorist past but it’s moved away from that,” said Garcáa.

“Now it’s the party doing the most for social issues and defending Basque interests.”

Although she’s 40, her words reflect a stance common among young Basque voters for whom decades of dark separatist violence has little bearing on their electoral choices.

A coalition of several parties, most of which opposed violence, Bildu has worked to disassociate itself from ETA whose bloody struggle for an independent Basque homeland claimed 850 lives before it rejected violence in 2011.

And with a focus on housing, the environment and others issues, it has won a strong following among younger voters between 18 and 44, surveys show.

Although former ETA member Arnaldo Otegi, 65, remains its leader and most public face, Bildu recently named 40-year-old Pello Otxandiano as candidate for regional leader.

Over the years, observers say it has successfully highlighted problems facing Basque society that have increasingly taken centre stage as the political focus has shifted away from the violence of the ETA years.

“Before, the only party looking after Basque interests was the PNV, so everyone voted for them regardless of their political leanings,” said García.

“But with Bildu gaining strength, if you’re left-wing and more socially minded, you’ll vote for them.”

A man and a child look at an electoral poster of pro-independence political coalition “EH Bildu” campaign meeting in the Spanish Basque city of Sestao on April 10, 2024 ahead of April 21 regional elections. (Photo by ANDER GILLENEA / AFP)

‘Left-wing separatist alternative’

Experts say Bildu has steadily gained political traction through a strategy that has steered clear of terror-related issues while refocusing squarely on social change.

“Bildu has become increasingly popular with young people, benefitting from the end of the armed struggle,” said Pablo Simón, a political scientist at Madrid’s Carlos III University.

“That has allowed it to position itself as the pro-independence, left-wing alternative to the traditional PNV government with a substantial part of its agenda linked to social policies, wealth redistribution, environmentalism and the like.”

The aim was to “move away from terrorism-related issues to talk about other problems linked to the left and the right.”

Eva Silván, who heads public policy consultancy Silvan&Miracle, said it had also scaled back its separatist agenda.

“It started talking about issues that were more material than identity based, and reducing the pro-independence agenda to focus on concrete social and public policies,” she told AFP.

And that has played well with a new generation of voters “who hadn’t experienced terrorism and didn’t link the separatist left with violence”.

For them, she said, Bildu “really taps into the concerns of young people and best addresses their problems”.

By 2019, Bildu was well on its way to becoming just another political actor with its five lawmakers in Spain’s national parliament recently becoming a key ally for the minority government of Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez.

For Basque youth, Bildu – a coalition grouping several peaceful separatist parties with former members of ETA’s political wing – spells hope in Spain election, AFP reports on April 18, 2024. (Photo by ANDER GILLENEA / AFP)

Focus on youth, poor

In a square in Bilbao, four friends in their 20s reel off a list of struggles they’re facing, from impossibly high rents to worsening job conditions and the rising cost of living.

One won’t vote because she doesn’t believe in the political system, two can’t vote because they’re undocumented immigrants and the fourth says there’s “no point”, drawing protest from her friends who say Bildu is the only option.

“It’s essential to vote because even if Bildu doesn’t win, they’ll have greater representation in the Basque parliament,” explained Moroccan Usama Abdeloihidin, 26, who works in the hotel sector.

“They’re more focused on the working class and the situation of young people. The PNV might look out for Basque interests but not if you’re from a poor or minority neighbourhood,” he said.

At a Bildu rally in nearby town of Sestao, a crowd of supporters are cheering, clapping and waving red, white and green Basque flags as three students watch from the sidelines.

“Many young people are forced to balance studies and work and this capitalist exploitation is raising political awareness, so many Basques are turning to the left, to Bildu,” said Oier Gómez Parada, a 19-year-old Basque philology student.

“Bildu is focusing on people and raising awareness about the difficult conditions we’re facing that other parties just don’t care about.”

In nearby Agurain, 23-year-old student activist Oier Inurrieta Garamendia told AFP he felt represented because Bildu “lets young people speak, and doesn’t just speak in our name”.

“Whatever happens on April 21st, we’ll have a result we can really celebrate,” he said while admitting that even if Bildu did win 30 of the Basque parliament’s 75 seats, up from 21, it stood no chance of ruling.

“When the other parties refuse to work with EH Bildu, they’re not just blocking the party, they’re blocking the needs and desires of a large part of Basque society.”

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