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Anger mounts over Spain PM’s migration pledge to ‘xenophobic’ Catalan party

Pedro Sánchez's pledge to transfer regional responsibility for migration to Catalonia following demands from a separatist party accused of "xenophobia" has sparked a backlash, with even Spain's right wing slamming the move.

Published: 18 January 2024 09:54 CET

Anger mounts over Spain PM's migration pledge to 'xenophobic' Catalan party

(From Top-L) Junts per Catalunya's MPs Eduard Pujol, Josep Maria Cervera, Pilar Calvo, Marta Madrenas, Josep Maria Cruset and Miriam Nogueras. (Photo by JAVIER SORIANO / AFP)

Last week, during the first key parliamentary vote of the new legislature, Sánchez was forced to seek support from the hardline JxCat to pass three decrees, including a critical measure to help households cope with rising inflation.

In exchange for JxCat’s seven votes, Sánchez agreed to transfer responsibility for migration issues to the regional government of this wealthy northeastern area that borders France.

Spain’s 17 regions enjoy wide powers, notably over education and healthcare, but migration issues are normally handled by the central government.

JxCat has said the deal involved a “comprehensive” handover of powers on migration, but Sánchez said border management and illegal immigration would remain in the state’s hands with the new powers relating to jobs and social integration policies for immigrants.

Even though the details have yet to be laid out in a text that must be approved by parliament, the matter has provoked an angry reaction from the police, Spain’s right-wing opposition and even radical left members of Sánchez’s Socialist-led coalition.

Spain’s largest police union, Jupol, accused Sánchez of using the police, who are responsible for handling issues regarding migration and foreign nationals, “to yield to pressure from the Catalan separatists”.

And right-wing opposition leader and Popular Party head Alberto Núñez Feijóo on Monday lambasted Sánchez for “transferring migration policy” to “a party that Sánchez himself” has branded “xenophobic”.

Feijóo was referencing remarks by Sánchez in February 2021 when he accused certain candidates who were running for JxCat in the regional elections, of using the language of “hatred and xenophobia” akin to that of the far-right.

One of the candidates, who ended up stepping down, had spoken about “cleaning out the Spaniards” from Catalonia.

In May 2018, Sánchez called then Catalan leader Quim Torra the Jean-Marie “Le Pen of Spanish politics” in reference to the founder of France’s far-right National Front, now the National Rally, for his “racist and xenophobic statements” about the superiority of Catalans over other Spaniards.

More recently, left-wing elements have been angered by JxCat’s leaders for saying Catalonia should have the power to ban immigrants with a criminal record who reoffend.

JxCat was crucial in getting Sánchez re-elected for a new term in November following an inconclusive July election, but it means the premier, who heads a minority government, needs its support — and that of various other regional parties — to move legislation through parliament.

In exchange for their seven ‘yes’ votes in November, Sánchez agreed to push through a controversial amnesty law for those wanted by the justice system in connection with the failed 2017 Catalan independence bid.

That pledge infuriated Spain’s right-wing opposition but also angered some of Sánchez’s Socialists.

And this latest deal over migration competencies has also been criticised by Sumar, the radical left-wing platform that is part of Sánchez’s ruling coalition.

This agreement feeds “xenophobic statements which should stay outside of the public debate,” said Sumar spokesman and Cultura Minister Ernest Urtasun said on Monday.

Immigration has been a hot potato in Catalonia since May 2023 when Silvia Orriols — candidate for the hardline separatist anti-immigration Alianza Catalana — was elected mayor of the northern town of Ripoll.

In asking for greater control over migration, JxCat “is trying to stop Alianza Catalana and Orriols from stealing its votes,” the region’s interior ministry Juan Ignasi Elena told a local radio station.

The region is currently run by the more moderate separatist ERC party.

He said the remarks about banning immigrants with a criminal record who reoffend grew out of JxCat’s “associating” immigration with delinquency.

Sánchez hit back on Sunday.

“I absolutely cannot agree with anyone who identifies or equates migration with delinquency,” Sánchez told El País daily in an interview, stressing that his government had “a humanist migration policy”.

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Why regional elections in Catalonia matter to Spain's future

Sunday May 12th will see regional elections in Catalonia at a time when political uncertainty and unpredictability reigns not only in the northern region but across the country. As such, the results could, and likely will, have political ramifications at the national level, perhaps even on the stability of the government itself.

If you follow Spanish politics, you’ll have probably noticed that there’s been quite a lot going on recently. And even if you aren’t a semi-obsessive politico, Spanish politics has been so melodramatic, so unpredictable and (at times) so ridiculous, that in recent months it’s been hard to ignore.

In short: Socialist (PSOE) Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez made a pact with Catalan separatist parties to stay in power after last summer’s general election. Part of this was an amnesty law that granted a legal amnesty to people involved in the failed 2017 referendum independence bid, but it caused outrage across many parts of the country and led to weeks of protests, some of which were violent.

Though Sánchez faced a lot of public ire, Carles Puigdemont, the former President of Catalonia who is a fugitive from Spanish law, takes the brunt of the hatred, particularly from the Spanish right and far-right. Puigdemont is running again in the regional election on May 12th, and has already stated that he will leave politics if he isn’t re-elected.

More recently, Sánchez shocked the country by publishing a highly personal letter on Twitter/X, reportedly released without the advice of his advisors or cabinet colleagues, stating that he was taking five days out to consider his future following repeated attacks against his wife over alleged influence peddling. This came right before the Catalan campaign kicked off and essentially brought politics to a standstill and left the country in limbo.

Sánchez then disappeared from public life, shut himself away in his La Moncloa residence and considered his future, leaving the country in the midst of what felt like a telenovela – a soap opera. On Monday he announced he was staying on and attempted to use the decision as a pivot moment to reinvigorate his government, strengthen Spanish democracy, and to make a stand against what Sánchez describes as the far-right ‘mud machine’.

Others view things differently. While Sánchez supporters see the debacle as a brave affront to right-wing harassment and lawfare tactics used against him, critics have described it as farcical, manipulative, and opposition Partido Popular leader Alberto Núñez Feijóo said that Sánchez had “made a fool of himself” and embarrassed Spain on the global scene.

Many view the move as cynical electioneering, and Sánchez does indeed have a well deserved reputation as a somewhat machiavellian political maneuverer.

But how can Sánchez’s five day mini-sabbatical be electioneering if Spain had elections as recently as last summer? Here’s where the upcoming Catalan elections come in again.

Why regional elections in Catalonia matter to Spain’s future

In short: the results of the Catalan elections have the potential to disrupt the delicate power balance in Madrid.

Some context: in the Catalan regional government, pro-independence parties Esquerra Republicana de Catalunya (ERC), Junts per Catalunya (Puigdemont’s party) and the smaller Candidatura d’Unitat Popular (CUP) have an absolute majority. This allowed separatist parties, namely ERC and Junts, greater political leverage when negotiating the amnesty with Sánchez and the PSOE last year.

Though some, particularly in Junts, would like the amnesty (which is still yet to be approved in the Senate) to go further, the national government has more or less survived since the summer based on this uneasy truce. Depending on the results in Catalonia on May 12th, we may see just how fragile it really is.

Exiled Catalan separatist leader, MEP and founder of the Junts per Catalunya (Together for Catalonia) party Carles Puigdemont gives a speech during a meeting to present his list for the upcoming regional elections in Catalonia, in Elna, southwestern France. (Photo by Matthieu RONDEL / AFP)

What do the polls say? Most seem to have the PSC (the PSOE’s sister party in Catalonia) making big gains and becoming the biggest party in the Generalitat, with leader Salvador Illa becoming President. According to RTVE’s average of polls, the PSC is on course to win 39 seats, six more than in 2021. Junts is projected to be in second place with 32 seats and would thus overtake ERC, which would get 28, a loss of 5 seats, though some polls put ERC in second and Junts third.

However, no poll gives the PSC an absolute majority of 68 seats needed to govern alone. As such, the PSC, should it win, will require the votes of far-left Comuns-Sumar, but also a coalition arrangement with a pro-independence party, most likely ERC.

However, polling from El Nacional, a Catalan newspaper, estimates that undecided voters still make up a third (33.5 percent) of the Catalan electorate, so there will likely be some variation from polling data to the results on election day.

Interestingly, Sánchez’s five day reflection period seems to have actually boosted PSOE polling numbers overall on a national level. According to a flash poll taken following the letter, the PSOE vote intention surged.

But the move has not proven popular with politicians in Catalonia, particularly among the pro-independence parties Sánchez’s government relies on in Madrid. The current President of the Generalitat and ERC candidate Pere Aragonès accused Sánchez of exploiting the “empathy” of the Spanish public “for an exclusively political purpose”, describing the “five day comedy” as “yet another electoral manoeuvre.”

The ERC has even made a complaint to Spain’s electoral authority about Sánchez’s decision and subsequent interview on Spanish state TV, claiming it could have breached electoral rules by favouring the PSOE candidacy in the Catalan election.

Junts general secretary Jordi Turull, meanwhile, has accused Sánchez of “interfering in the Catalan election.”

Remember, these are the parties that prop up the Sánchez government at the national level.

Protesters hold up a banner reading “Pedro (Sánchez), traitor” and “Spain is not for sale” during an anti-amnesty protest in Madrid. (Photo by Pierre-Philippe MARCOU / AFP)

Potential scenarios

So, it’s safe to say that things are tense in Spanish politics. Sánchez has angered a lot of people with his period of reflection — not only his opponents but also those who prop up his government in Congress. Conversely, the move does seem to have increased PSOE support overall ahead of polling day, and the PSC seems to be on course to win in Catalonia.

With no party likely to win an absolute majority, the Catalan results on May 12th will require coalitions, which could in turn have a ripple effect on alliances in Madrid. This is principally because there is a possibility that ERC or Junts could be left out of the Generalitat, which could remove the incentive for one (or even both, in the unlikely event of a PSC absolute majority) pro-independence parties to keep Sánchez in the Moncloa, or at the very least to demand more from him.

The polls suggest the most likely outcome is the PSC winning the elections but needing the support of ERC. At the national level, this could lead to a split in the separatist movement and would leave Junts’ support in Congress up in the air. Junts could theoretically withdraw its support, topple the government, and trigger further general elections.

Another scenario touted by political pundits is that pro-independence parties could again win an absolute majority between them. This would heap further political pressure on Sánchez, who, after already spending a lot of political capital on the amnesty law, would likely be pressured for further concessions from the Generalitat, namely another referendum but also changes to the amnesty law. Separatist parties would point to their victory, against polling predictions, as a mandate for pushing the pro-independence movement further.

Of course, there’s also the (admittedly unlikely) possibility that Junts per Catalunya win an absolute majority and Puigdemont becomes President of the region, something that would set the scene for his return to Spain and send shockwaves through Spanish politics.

Perhaps there is no better indication of how important this election is than the fact that Sánchez’s first public appearance since his ‘will he, won’t he’ resignation stunt was at the Fería de Barcelona.

Whatever happens in Catalonia on May 12th, two things seem certain: firstly, that people from across the country will be tuning in for the results; and secondly, as the last few years have shown, predictions are essentially useless and anything can happen in Spanish politics.

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