Political chaos in Spain after far-right breaks regional coalitions over migrants

By Alyssa McMurtry

OVIEDO, Spain (AA) - The uneasy alliance between Spain’s right-wing factions split apart on Friday, after far-right Vox politicians began withdrawing from regional governments where it governs alongside the conservative Popular Party.

The schism came after the Popular Party agreed to accept and redistribute 400 unaccompanied migrants younger than 18 years old in the regions they govern.

The Canary Islands is currently hosting around 6,000 young migrants in special shelters. According to El Pais, even if it moved 3,000 to peninsular Spain, its facilities would still be 150% above capacity.

The regions where the Popular Party governed with Vox are set to receive just 120 of the young minors, but even that number was too high for the far-right group.

“Vox will never be an accomplice in fostering, facilitating or normalizing the immigrant invasion… Not 400, nor 1,000 – the ideal number of illegal immigrants is ZERO,” posted the party on X on Friday.

After Vox decided to split with the Popular Party, its politicians began resigning from their posts in regional coalition governments in Castile and Leon, Aragon and Murcia. The Popular Party leader of Valencia fired his Vox cabinet members before they could quit.

However, not all Vox politicians are falling in line.

In Extremadura, the sole Vox minister said he would stay in government, adding the party no longer represented his ideals. Another Vox minister in Castile and Leon also refused to step down over receiving a handful of young migrants.

While the Vox politicians are not threatening motions of censure to topple the governments, their split could complicate the governability of the regions.

Speaking at a press conference, the leader of the Popular Party Alberto Nunez Feijoo slammed Vox for “going too far” and “derailing” the will of voters.

He urged the party “not to get in the way” of governing, but also emphasized that Vox is not the Popular Party’s “enemy.”

“My commitment is to change the government of Spain, and I won’t move a millimeter from who I view as the party’s political adversary,” he said, referring to Spain’s progressive coalition government and Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez, adding that the political drama is a mere distraction from the investigation against Sanchez's wife.

Sanchez, on the other hand, speaking from the NATO conference in Washington, celebrated Vox’s departure from regional governments.

“I think today is a great day for Spain. I think that today, Spain is a better country,” he told reporters, urging the Popular Party to reverse some of the more extreme policies passed while governing with Vox.

Others from Spain’s coalition government said the drama emphasized the “cruel” and “racist” aspects of Spain’s far right.

Meanwhile, the independent leader of the Canary Islands, Fernando Clavijo, said he was “perplexed” by the debate around migrants.

“This is not a political or territorial issue, it’s humanitarian drama to which Europe and Spain must respond,” he said, urging the government to reform the migration law making it mandatory for other regions to host migrants in situations like this.

Clavijo called Spain’s far-right “petty” and “miserable” for trying to score political points from “death, hunger and misery of children.”

“This is embarrassing. I don’t think we want to give this image of Spain,” he told journalists, adding that if he were in their situation he would also try to migrate to Spain to “give his family a better future.”