PP, Junts and Vox reject the reform of the Immigration Law that would ensure the reception of unaccompanied migrant minors

Pure Occam’s razor. Beyond the different arguments, this Tuesday the rejection of the Popular Party, Vox and Junts to the reception of migrant minors by all the Autonomous Communities was evident in Congress. The three formations have voted against the admission to process of the reform of the Immigration Law proposed by PSOE, Sumar and Coalición Canaria and whose initiative came from the Canarian Government, a coalition between CC and the Popular Party.

The Popular Party has done what it had been warning about for a few days. Its excuse is the Government’s refusal to address funding for the reception, the immediate convening of a Conference of Presidents on immigration or the declaration of an educational emergency. Three aspects that, according to sources in the Government, are contemplated. The reform of the law itself includes in its explanatory statement that “the measures deemed necessary to establish sufficient funding will be included.” “There has always been funding on the table, also with voluntary transfers,” the Government points out.

These same sources point to The HuffPost that “the emergency plan is already underway.” And, regarding the Conference of Presidents, during the negotiations this Tuesday to try to push through the consideration of the law, the Government has informed the PP that they would agree to call it for the month of September. The problem, pointed out the Minister of Children and Youth, Sira Rego, is not in the conditions they set: “The measures they have proposed are already contemplated in one way or another, and those that remain to be clarified could be included in the parliamentary process.”

This is the same opinion that the President of the Canary Islands, Fernando Clavijo, has expressed these days. What was being voted on in Congress today was, he recalled, only the admission for processing. “From there,” Clavijo argued, “in the procedure or in the period in which this bill has to be approved, amendments and improvements can be presented.” This is what is causing the most astonishment both in the central and Canary Governments. This Tuesday only the consideration of the bill was being voted on, so that during the parliamentary debate the different proposals of the parliamentary groups could be discussed.

The Ministry of Children and Youth assures that they have tried until the last breath to obtain support from the Popular Party or Junts, even if it was through an abstention. On Monday afternoon, the Ministry itself called the PP to a meeting to try to convince them. However, sources from the party dismissed the meeting because it was not the minister who met with Ana Alós, deputy and vice-secretary of Equality, Reconciliation and Social Policy of the PP, but her Secretary of State and her Chief of Staff. “It is evident that the Government’s plans do not involve agreeing on immigration and foreign policy with the PP,” PP sources assured last night.

The snub that the Popular Party was facing clashes, however, with what Sira Rego said this morning from Congress, who said that she had been trying for days to meet with the PP spokesperson in Parliament, Miguel Tellado, without success. “I have tried to meet with Mr. Tellado on several occasions but he did not want to sit down with me,” lamented the person in charge of Children and Youth, who also made an appeal to the Popular spokesperson: “I am in Congress.” The one who did manage to speak with Tellado was the Minister of Territorial Policy, Ángel Víctor Torres, but not with much luck either. From the beginning of the conversations, the PP member denounced that the Government did not want to listen to his conditions, something that, once again, Torres denied. “The Popular Party has no excuses,” the minister resolved.

Another aspect that stupefied the parties proposing the reform on Tuesday was the attempt by the Popular Party and Junts to withdraw the vote in order, they argued, to continue negotiations. Something that government sources attribute to the fact that they do not want “the photo” with their vote against. After Vox broke the regional governments with the PP over the reception of migrants, this decision puts Feijóo’s party once again in the same position as the far right. “Solidarity, yes, but security too,” the PP leader said.

During her speech in the plenary session, PP deputy Ana Alós wanted to side with Coalición Canaria when she asked for the vote to be withdrawn. It is true that Cristina Valido, deputy of CC, asked to delay the reform if there was no agreement. “I cannot return to the Canary Islands saying that Congress has voted no,” she declared. But while the PP wanted to avoid making its refusal to support the proposal evident, in Coalición Canaria there was, in the background, the fear that the Government in the Islands could be destabilized by the coalition with the Popular Party.

The Popular Party of the Canary Islands, which at one time supported this proposal, is now trying to strike a balance to adapt to the position of the party in Madrid. Poli Suárez, Education Minister in the Islands and General Secretary of the party in the archipelago, made this Monday “a call for the importance of the rest of the Autonomous Communities taking in migrant minors.” He said this after recognizing that, given the overflow, they only had 2,188 migrant minors in school out of the almost 6,000 that the territory now houses. They are not the only ones. In Ceuta, this Tuesday its president, Alberto Gaitán, also from the PP, voted in favor of the reform during a plenary session in the city. According to Gaitán, Ceuta is another of the places where the situation is already “unsustainable” along with the Canary Islands. The “overconcern”, he said, “is 354% in the existing resources.”

Although almost all attention has been focused on the Popular Party’s blockade, the truth is that, from the beginning, Junts has also positioned itself against the reform. “We are opposed to continuing to saturate Catalonia,” said MP Miriam Nogueras this morning. Despite the fact that Minister Rego maintained that “a mechanism had already been proposed to evaluate the situation of the reception systems in each territory,” so that it would be “sustainable” while “guaranteeing the rights of children,” Puigdemont’s party has not moved from its “no” position. A year ago, the historic leader of Convergència, Jordi Pujol, dared to point out that Catalans are “threatened to end up as minorities” due to the low birth rate and “so much immigration.”

The decision of the PP and Junts, taking into account that Vox’s position is presumed to be immovable, not only represents a new setback for the Government but, above all, for the thousands of unaccompanied migrant minors who are still waiting in the Canary Islands or Ceuta, but also Melilla. “If the measure is rejected,” Government sources commented this afternoon, “the children will be left in a situation of legal uncertainty.”

The problem is greater because there are few alternatives. They exist, the Executive assures, but they would be “patches”. The option of presenting the reform through a decree, which for example was proposed by the spokesperson for Sumar, Íñigo Errejón, is not viable “since it requires validation and therefore agreement”. And if PP and Junts have rejected even taking it into consideration, there is nothing to suggest that they would favour this route.

“The PP has taken off its mask”

“The PP has decided to ignore 6,000 children and adolescents who are alone in the Canary Islands.” This is how the Minister of Childhood and Youth has regretted the position of Feijóo’s party after the vote was announced. “They have said no to sitting down to talk about reforming article 35 of the Immigration Law, they have chosen to look the other way in the face of an urgent and unsustainable situation,” she said, adding: “After weeks of profiling, the PP has taken off its mask: it does not need to govern with Vox to act like Vox.”

The PSOE has expressed a similar opinion. “The PP has once again demonstrated this Tuesday where it is: anchored to the ideas of the extreme right,” the party has said, concluding the same as Rego: “What good does it do them if Vox breaks with them if they continue to propose the same thing?”