Pedro Sánchez has reached an agreement with Podemos—the party still led from behind the scenes by Pablo Iglesias, which supported his investiture with four seats—to regularize immigrants who can prove their residency in Spain prior to the end of 2025 and who do not have a criminal record.
For five years, Congress had been processing a Popular Legislative Initiative (ILP) backed by over 700,000 signatures to proceed with a regularization. However, Sánchez has chosen to bypass the debate in Congress and proceed via a Royal Decree from the Council of Ministers. Furthermore, he has allowed the announcement of the measure to be handled by Podemos, one of his investiture partners that has become increasingly critical during this legislative term.
In this way, Sánchez manages to divert attention from the railway chaos that caused two derailments and 46 deaths last week, improve his relationship with an unruly partner, and provide “fuel” to the far-right Vox so they can pressure the PP (Popular Party) in the upcoming elections. The first of these will be on February 8th in the Autonomous Community of Aragon. According to the Vox leader, Sánchez wants to “promote a pull factor by decree, in order to accelerate the invasion.”
According to a study by Funcas, the number of undocumented immigrants grew by 700% between 2017 and 2025—the period during which Sánchez has been in government—rising from 107,000 to 840,000; however, according to Funcas, the relaxation of the so-called “residency through integration” (procedimiento de arraigo) procedure could have reduced that final figure.
