Vox has managed to drag the PP into its ultra-discourse on immigration in the Extremadura government pact, but it wants more and, for now, has forced the PP to show its true colors in Congress. The principle of “national priority” incorporated into the pact to invest María Guardiola, according to which Spaniards have pre-eminence over immigrants in access to aid and public services, will be debated in the plenary session of the Lower House this week at the initiative of the far-right. The initiative of Santiago Abascal’s party reaches the hemicycle just after Genoa tried to downplay the scope of the measure in its explanations of the Extremadura agreement, specifying that the fine print of the pact speaks of “roots” in the territory even if “national priority” is generically alluded to.
The motion that Vox has introduced on the agenda of the Congress plenary session must be debated and voted on this Wednesday. The text enshrines “national priority” as the spirit that must underpin the welfare state in Spain. The far-right thus forces Alberto Núñez Feijóo’s party to pronounce on the matter and give it momentum beyond regional pacts. The PP adopts the term as its own and defends it in another document drafted to retouch the far-right’s motion, with the aim of reaching an agreement that, among other things, prevents the partners from speaking separately in Congress in a session held in parallel to María Guardiola’s investiture speech, this Tuesday, in the Extremadura Assembly in Mérida.
Hours before the text is discussed in the hemicycle, the popular group has disseminated the amendment with which they intend to modify the motion, while maintaining “national priority” in the same terms as the Extremadura agreement. “Promote access to all public aid, subsidies, and benefits inspired by the principle of national priority, which ensures the preferential allocation of public resources to those who maintain a real, lasting, and verifiable connection to the territory,” states the amendment proposed by the PP. This is the formulation used in Extremadura and which, according to the popular party, does not discriminate against immigrants because by speaking of roots, it also affects other Spaniards who have arrived in Extremadura from outside. But, in any case, they adopt Vox’s dialectic with the concept of ”national priority”.
Another modification introduced by the PP is the following: ”Exclusion from access to structural social benefits and services for those in an irregular situation, limiting their access exclusively to cases of vital urgency.” This section also appears as such in the Extremadura text. According to the PP’s explanation, this does not specifically refer to healthcare, but with this wording, they leave the field open for all kinds of interpretations. In fact, the national leadership of the Popular Party already recognized weeks ago to this newspaper that Feijóo intends to return to the model in which undocumented immigrants are only assisted through emergencies, without being allowed access to family doctors or specialists, something that “further strains a healthcare system that is already at its limit,” they argue in the PP leader’s inner circle.
That is to say, the PP does reject universal public and free healthcare for foreigners in an irregular situation, which was restored by Pedro Sánchez’s government by royal decree just a few days ago. “We must attend to those who need it, but not generate rights for people who are irregular in our country,” sources from Genoa point out. “One thing is attention in an urgency or emergency for a citizen who is in Spain, and another thing is to grant a right to a person who is irregularly in our country,” Feijóo stated in an interview with Servimedia published during Holy Week. “An irregular situation cannot generate rights; an urgency or emergency is a different matter, but to grant a right as to any person who is contributing and providing… Where is the justice and equality for citizens under the required conditions?” Feijóo added.
The parliamentary spokesperson for the PP, Ester Muñoz, explained in the corridors of Congress why they have presented an amendment. “We have presented an amendment because we want it to reflect the spirit of that pact we reached in Extremadura,” the parliamentarian indicated. “Vox’s text does not literally lead to the Extremadura proposal, and we wanted to clearly reflect the agreement we reached (…) When we talk about national priority, we are talking about roots, something that, by the way, most of the municipalities in this country already do in many of the aid and benefits they offer. And it is logical and normal that you prioritize people who have roots in the territory,” Muñoz added.
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