Vox, with the complicity of the PP, has brought to the Plenary Session of the Jaén City Council (where the PSOE governs in coalition with the provincialists of Jaén Merece Más) the “national priority” in the granting of aid and social benefits, to the detriment of the migrant population, just as both parties have imposed to seal their government agreement in Extremadura. The two groups have voted against a socialist motion to strengthen community social services, and, previously, they have passed another motion presented by the far-right group for the elaboration of an ordinance on coexistence and citizen security. The mayor of Jaén, the socialist Julio Millán, has accused them of spreading “xenophobia” by justifying the request with a series of alleged criminal acts that did not occur.
Read more John Korir gifts a course record to the Boston Marathon, which celebrates its 130th edition
Vox’s amendment to the motion presented by the PSOE establishes that in the granting of social aid financed with funds from the Junta de Andalucía, “a priority criterion will be established in favor of people who prove their birth in Andalusia or any other region of Spain, or continuous and legal residence for a minimum period of five years, taking into account, where appropriate, especially their degree of roots and contribution to the system.”
“The social services system is universal, you are making a xenophobic discourse,” emphasized the Councilor for Social Affairs, Ángeles Díaz, to reproach Vox, as well as the PP, for voting against the proposal to strengthen community social services.
The complicity of PP and Vox in the Jaén Plenary Session has also been evident in the motion presented by the far-right group for the elaboration of a municipal ordinance for coexistence and citizen security. In the text of the motion, they alluded to the “lamentable and crude reality” of citizen insecurity, but introducing hoaxes about alleged criminal acts that have not occurred, such as the attempted kidnapping of a minor by a Maghrebi individual or “fights between drunk foreign citizens.”
Furthermore, the far-right party has taken the opportunity to criticize the migrant regularization process, assuring that “the main origin” of crime “has national causes, due to the nonexistent border control, dereliction of governmental duties in the application of immigration regulations, or pull factor policies.”
Vox has justified the motion, which has been supported by the PP, by the request that would have reached them from the neighborhood movement, especially among the Centro Association of the capital, which has defended it in the Plenary Session. Finally, the motion has gone ahead thanks to the abstention of the two groups of the municipal government, PSOE and Jaén Merece Más.
The mayor, Julio Millán, has reasoned that his group’s abstention had to do with “respect for the neighborhood movement,” although he has not hesitated to describe the motion presented by Vox and supported by the PP as “racist and xenophobic.”
In the Plenary Session, a certain distancing between the two government partners has become evident, probably due to the electoral pre-campaign taking place in Andalusia. A scenario that has prevented the socialist mayor from being able to pass his proposition in favor of peace and international law. The proposal has not been approved due to the abstention of Jaén Merece Más, which has demanded, unsuccessfully, to condition the rejection of all armed conflicts on the approval of specific aid to alleviate the escalation of price increases in the province of Jaén.
Read more The Barcelona summit: what was said and what wasn’t