Spanish Congress Rejects Pedro Sánchez’s Mass Amnesty Plans
The absolute majority of Spanish MPs on Wednesday approved a motion urging the government of Socialist Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez to “immediately abandon” its plan to grant amnesty to half a million illegal migrants in the country.
Sánchez announced in late January that, as part of an alliance with the domestic far left, his government would grant legal residence permits to 500,000 members of the illegal alliance, provided they meet a list of lax requirements. The Spanish prime minister intends to grant the mass amnesty through a royal decree, which exempts him from parliamentary approval for its implementation, despite the opposition of a majority of Spaniards to Sánchez’s plans.
The Spanish newspaper El País reports that lawmakers from the center-right People’s Party (PP), the anti-mass immigration party Vox, the Catalan political party Junts and the conservative Navarrese People’s Union (UNP) formed a majority that successfully approved a PP-led motion calling on the government to immediately end its plans for a mass amnesty.
The motion received 176 votes for the four united parties, compared to 172 votes for Spain’s left-wing parties, the Basque Nationalist Party and the Canarian Coalition.
The People’s Party said in a statement:
A majority in the Congress of Deputies rejected the government’s plan to massively regularize immigrants. As a result, the People’s Party parliamentary group obtained the support of the plenary for its motion urging the executive branch to immediately abandon the extraordinary regularization of immigrants, on the grounds that it does not meet the necessary requirements and goes against European principles and the objectives set out in the European Pact on Migration and Asylum.
The second point of the PP motion calls on the government to effectively enforce return orders, review migration agreements with third countries and ensure the expulsion of foreign nationals who have committed serious crimes or are repeat offenders.
The four parties have warned that, according to independent estimates, Sánchez’s amnesty plans for illegal migrants could benefit between one and 1.2 million people, and not just half a million as the Spanish government claims, if those eligible for family reunification benefits are taken into account.
During the debate on the motion, Spanish MP Sofía Acedo reportedly accused the government of seeking to legalize the status of “thousands of criminals”, on the grounds that Sánchez’s amnesty plans include a provision allowing people who are unable to obtain a criminal record to submit an affidavit.
Vox MP Ignacio Gil Lázaro, for his part, reiterated his calls to extend the minimum number of years required to qualify for long-term residence in Spain, to revoke citizenship and to expel those who commit serious crimes or “attempt to impose Islamism”. He reportedly justified his calls by saying they gave more “strength and realism” to the motion’s proposals.
Sánchez is expected to sign the royal decree of mass amnesty in the coming weeks. PP lawmakers insisted that the plan does not respond to “an urgent need that would justify accelerated processing” via decree, as such procedures “undermine regulatory guarantees, limit debate and prevent the participation of other relevant government agencies.”
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