A proposal by Spain’s Vox party to deport several million people of foreign origin has aligned it with radical far-right movements in other countries and triggered a fierce debate about immigration.
Rocío de Meer, Vox’s spokeswoman for demographic emergency and social policy, this week unveiled a “remigration” policy, which she said could mean up to eight million people, including children of immigrants, being deported, arguing that “it is very difficult for them to get used to our customs”.
“All those millions of people who have come in a very short period of time to our country and who have not adapted to our customs, and in many cases have been involved in dangerous incidents in our neighbourhoods and in our surroundings, will have to return to their countries,” she said.
The party later backtracked, saying it did not know how many migrants would need to be deported.
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The term “remigration” has been used by other far-right parties in Europe, such as the Freedom Party of Austria (FPÖ) and the Alternative for Germany (AfD). The US government has announced plans to create an “Office of Remigration”.
The concept has been linked to movements that support the “great replacement” conspiracy theory, which claims that white populations around the world are being deliberately replaced by people of other ethnicities from less developed nations.
Vox, the third-biggest party in Spain’s parliament, has campaigned often against immigration, focusing particularly on the threat it claims is posed by those who arrive from Muslim countries.
This proposal goes much further than its previous policies, which had included deploying the navy to stop migrants from arriving on Spanish shores.
De Meer also said that, by 2044, more than half of the Spanish population would be “of foreign origin”.
Her speech was prompted by the arrest of a man from Mali, who had been living in a refugee centre, in relation to the alleged rape of a young woman in the town of Alcalá de Henares, near Madrid. The incident caused disturbances in the town, with protesters clashing with police.
Socialist prime minister Pedro Sánchez responded to Vox’s proposal by pointing out that Spain used to be a country of emigration.
“Now it is a receptor country and those who arrive contribute with their work to building a better Spain,” he wrote on social media. “Let’s not forget where we are from when understanding who we are.”
Former socialist member of parliament Eduardo Madina said De Meer was voicing “a totalitarian and fascist” idea.
The government has staunchly defended immigration as a driver of the Spanish economy, which has been outperforming many of its neighbours with growth of 3.2 per cent last year and unemployment at a 17-year low.
The Bank of Spain reported last year that the country would need 24 million more migrants by 2053 to keep the welfare system on track.
The arrival of undocumented migrants, however, particularly those who make the dangerous crossing from north and west Africa to the Canary Islands, has become politically sensitive. Nearly 47,000 migrants reached Spain by that route last year, a record.
King Felipe VI raised the issue of immigration in his last Christmas message, saying it “can lead, without the right management, to tensions that erode social cohesion”.
The debate has taken place as Sánchez’s coalition government struggles amid damaging corruption allegations.
With uncertainty over how much longer the government can continue, Vox is seen as a likely junior coalition partner of the conservative People’s Party (PP) should an election take place. However, the PP’s leader, Alberto Núñez Feijóo, said this week his party planned to govern alone.
