Isabel Díaz Ayuso will do everything possible to prevent more than 500,000 immigrants living in Spain from being regularized. The Supreme Court has admitted an appeal filed by her Government to stop the royal decree, as announced in Sol. The president of Madrid considers it even a national security problem, a term usually used to describe the defense of a country against military or terrorist attacks.
Ayuso’s discourse is ambiguous. On the one hand, she defends Madrid of all Spanish accents in clear support of the Latin American community living here. Her popularity among the Venezuelan community is very high. However, she opposes this extraordinary measure by Pedro Sánchez that affects thousands of Latin Americans, as it is expected that two out of three people who want to regularize their situation in Spain will do so.
For now, Sol wants to suspend it. The General Legal Office of the Community of Madrid filed that appeal late last week, and it has now been admitted. This means that the document has been accepted after verifying that it meets the legal requirements, and is therefore under review. The announcement that this has been the case was made by the Minister of Presidency, Justice and Local Administration and Government spokesperson, Miguel Ángel García Martín, who revealed it during the press conference after the Government Council meeting.
Ayuso’s team opposes regularization because, always according to their view, it seriously affects the provision of public services in Madrid without articulating financing mechanisms and means of provision. Furthermore, it contravenes European regulations. Finally, they also believe it affects “national security.” There is no study to support this. In the past, massive regularizations were decreed during the governments of Aznar and José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero without causing any state problems.
Ayuso has hardened her discourse on migration as Vox, the far-right, has gained ground on her party. She does not want to experience a situation like that of Extremadura. She already governed in her first legislature with Ciudadanos, and that was a traumatic experience. There is fear that the PP could lose its absolute majority in a true stronghold for the right. The term national security also becomes diffuse in this context. The United States, for example, has argued that it was within its right to illegally detain Nicolás Maduro in Caracas, understanding that he posed a danger to its “national security.” It was also used to combat ISIS.
Ayuso moves on that tightrope, also considering the administrative procedures involved in the decree to be chaotic. More than 400 offices across Spain opened their doors on Monday to receive applications. Confusion due to lack of information on aspects such as appointment requests or office opening hours, as well as the prior collection of necessary documentation and some system crashes, marked that first day.
Ayuso’s advisors have circulated a Europa Press news item stating that the Ministry of Inclusion, Social Security and Migration will send interpretation criteria on vulnerability certificates, as it is unclear who should issue them. Ayuso is arming herself with reasons to attack the regularization on her own, an issue on which she has taken the initiative ahead of her party leader, Alberto Núñez Feijóo, and the rest of the regional presidents.
