A.A. | “Becoming legal in Spain: five months… An appointment with the dermatologist: 16 months.” Spanish social media was flooded with messages of this kind upon learning how the Government approved—via Royal Decree-Law, meaning without the need for Parliamentary approval—a regularization process that could benefit more than half a million undocumented immigrants (out of an estimated 840,000 currently in Spain). It will be enough to prove residency in Spain prior to 2026 and have no criminal record.
What is striking is that only two years ago, Congress voted to process a Popular Legislative Initiative, backed by over 700,000 signatures, to proceed with a mass regularization. Only the far-right party Vox voted against it. Given that precedent, and considering the Spanish society’s need for immigrants to move forward (Spain has 148 people over the age of 64 for every 100 young people under 16; it is an aging society in need of immigration), the Government could have drafted a consensus text with all the parties that had voted in favor and submitted it for Parliamentary approval. Instead, it chose a very different path: negotiating the regularization with Podemos (the far-left party which, in exchange, seems willing to accept the transfer of immigration powers to Catalonia—an essential requirement for Puigdemont to support the Government again) and allowing Podemos to announce the agreement, which was finalized hours later in the Council of Ministers.
Since the regularization will be carried out by decree, bypassing Parliament, the Government did not actually require any agreement. However, it sought to use the regularization as a bargaining chip to try and rebuild the majority that led to Pedro Sánchez’s investiture—a majority that has been completely broken for months. Thus, what could have garnered broad agreement and should have been done through consensus becomes a political weapon and a source of discord.
Furthermore, on the same day the Council of Ministers announced this regularization, another surprising episode took place in the Congress of Deputies: the Government suffered a new parliamentary defeat when the PP, Vox, and Junts rejected the so-called “omnibus” Royal Decree. In this decree, the Government had included disparately different measures, such as the revaluation of pensions, the freezing of Social Security quotas for the self-employed… and the extension of legal protection for “okupas” (squatters) (a measure implemented during the pandemic that its coalition partner, Sumar, demands be extended, despite having proven to shrink the rental market and exacerbate the massive housing problem).
Both the PP and Junts had warned that they would not approve a text in which retirees were being used as hostages to “sneak in” other measures that had nothing to do with pensions. However, the Government ignored the warning—exactly as it did last year. Meanwhile, media outlets aligned with “Sanchismo” praised the tactic used to “expose” the right wing, which, according to Sumar, “has taken €50 away from every pensioner today.”
In short, Pedro Sánchez reached the PSOE general secretariat by dividing the party—literally splitting it in two—and later reached the Government by splitting Spain in two. “Divide and conquer.” And since then, he hasn’t stopped playing the game of division. Consequently, following the last elections, in his first investiture speech—instead of stating, as is customary, that he would govern for everyone, both those who voted for him and those who didn’t—he announced he would build ‘a wall’ against the right (which holds more seats than he does) and the far-right. Furthermore, despite having promised to bring the fugitive Puigdemont to justice, he opted to grant him amnesty and place the investiture in his hands. Thus, a measure that could have served as a tool for reconciliation—the amnesty—became a partisan bargaining chip and a sower of discord.
The worst part of this Government is not the takeover and degradation of every institution, the disastrous management—with chaos on the railways, the power grid, the postal service…—nor the party and family corruption… The worst, without a doubt, is this insistence on dividing and sowing discord. Always pointing the finger at others as ‘the bad guys’ just to make himself look like the good one. Now that is unforgivable.
