Junts steps on the accelerator to achieve the delegation of immigration powers to Catalonia. Carles Puigdemont’s party has taken advantage of the first week of parliamentary activity in the Congress, still in an extraordinary period, to register a new bill that changes the preamble of the law, rejected almost a year ago by Podemos for considering it “racist.” The measure, one of the commitments made by the Government with the pro-independence party for Pedro Sánchez’s investiture at the start of the legislature, failed in the lower house last September, with votes against also from PP, Vox, UPN, and some Sumar deputies, who distanced themselves from the group’s majority stance. Months later, the Executive closed a pact with Ione Belarra’s party for the extraordinary regularization of immigrants in exchange for their willingness to renegotiate the text.
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The debate resumes just as the Government faces a humanitarian crisis in Ceuta after about 80,000 people swam in on July 30, and whose management has plunged the autonomous city into a state of collapse. The Executive approved in the first Council of Ministers of the term the declaration of a situation of special interest for national security and assumed unified command.
For Junts, the 1,174,978 people who have ended up applying for this regularization “have exceeded all expectations.” Therefore, the party demands that “Catalonia must have control of immigration.” “We cannot wait another minute,” it has emphasized. The deputy has argued that having these powers would allow Catalonia “to do what we cannot do so far, what the rest of the European countries do. Make decisions based on our real capacity and the interests of Catalans.” Among the measures cited are establishing Catalan as a “language of cohesion,” “controlling borders,” or “issuing expulsion orders.”
Nogueras has accused the Government of moving “in the opposite direction” to the rest of the European countries. According to her, the European Union is committed to strengthening border control and applying “more effective” return policies, while, in her view, the Spanish Executive “has imposed a massive regularization without votes that has exceeded all expectations.”
Junts’ migration discourse has hardened coinciding with the rise of Aliança Catalana in the polls. Almost 30% of the seats in the Parliament would correspond to a far-right party — whether Aliança Catalana or Vox — if regional elections were held today. This is one of the conclusions of this year’s first barometer from the Centre d’Estudis d’Opinió (CEO) of the Generalitat.
According to the same study, Aliança Catalana would consolidate as the third force and relegate Junts per Catalunya to fourth place, with a loss of almost half of its representation. In this context, Junts’ spokesperson took advantage of her intervention in Congress this Wednesday to claim her party’s opposition to certain migration policies.
“We have stopped irresponsible policies such as the distribution of minors from the Canary Islands,” Nogueras said, who also defended that “Catalonia does not have infinite reception capacity.” With this message, largely directed at Aliança Catalana, the spokesperson claimed Junts’ role as the only Catalan party that, in her words, “puts solutions on the table.”
The weight of immigration among Aliança Catalana voters may explain, at least in part, Junts’ strategy. According to another study presented by the Institut de Ciències Polítiques i Socials (ICPS), for Aliança voters immigration weighs more than independence. Hence Junts has not let go of its demand for the transfer of immigration powers to Catalonia.
Regarding parliamentary support for its initiative, Junts sources say they have not spoken with Podemos but maintain that they have modified the preamble of the bill that caused the party’s rejection. Therefore, they consider that the party led by Ione Belarra “would have no reason to vote against.”
In the preamble of the original bill, one of the issues that bothered Podemos the most was the reference to the need to “avoid possible effects” of immigration “that may pose a risk to coexistence and social cohesion,” as well as the idea of “protecting the cohesion of the host society, its language, and its culture.” The text concluded by stating that Junts identified migrations “as a problem” and linked them “with delinquency.”
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