Spain’s Socialist government has spoken out against the PP and Vox’s plans to give ‘national priority’ to Spaniards over foreigners in terms of access to public services, warning it will create “first and second-class citizens”.
Spain’s Socialist government has reacted to the Spanish right wing’s pact to give priority to Spanish citizens over foreigners, including European Union citizens, in areas such as social benefits, social housing and certain public services.
Pedro Sánchez’s PSOE party will present measures and potential legislation across Spain which favours “citizen equality”, in a bid to fight against the principle of “national priority” agreed upon recently by the PP and Vox in Extremadura and Aragón to form coalition governments in the two regions.
The Spanish Socialist Party considers the pact by the right-wing bloc “unfair and illegal” as well as “inhumane.”
On the other, Vox and the PP claim that it’s Spaniards “who are being discriminated against” and that foreigners are favoured for state aid over nationals.
READ MORE: What is the Spanish right’s ‘national priority’ policy for Spaniards?
In a statement published over the weekend, the Socialist Party unveiled early plans to launch legislation and awareness campaigns at a local, regional, national and EU level to “to defend the principle of citizen equality that PP and Vox intend to break with the concept of national priority”.
Immigration is a particularly heated topic in Spain at present due to the Spanish government’s decision to offer residency and the right to work to more than 500,000 undocumented migrants already living in the country.
READ ALSO: The myths surrounding Spain’s mass regularisation of migrants
The Socialists said that the pact signed by Alberto Núñez Feijóo’s and Santiago Abascal’s parties “aims to fracture society, dividing it into first and second-class citizens”.
They also warned that it establishes “place of origin” as a requirement for accessing public services, rather than need or right to access these .
Vox’s definition of who qualifies as Spanish runs rather along ethnic and blood lines rather than legal naturalisation ones, a matter which has caused some disagreement with the PP.
Pedro Sánchez’s party described the pact as being based “on hatred and exclusion” and said that it could “damage social harmony,” adding that its true purpose is “the dismantling of public services and the deinstitutionalisation that radical parties thrive on.”
The PSOE’s statement goes on to argue that the measure is “illegal” because it “violates the principle of equality” among all citizens established by Article 14 of the Constitution and “contradicts” the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union.
“Every time a similar measure has been attempted, the courts have blocked it,” they stressed.
The PSOE concluded its statement by arguing that after the “exclusion” of migrants promoted by Vox and PP could come the exclusion of “other population groups,” such as LGBTQ+ people, women, or “those who have the least,” as well as “speakers of co-official languages, or simply anyone who doesn’t think like the right wing.”
