It is not easy to keep track of the Popular Party. Now that he has decided to stand up to Vox and denounce an alleged clamp between that party and the PSOE – there are great successes in politics that never go out of style – Alberto Núñez Feijóo presents a great program on immigration whose general principles the extreme right could sign without blinking. He even refers to Spain's “universal heritage,” a concept that would make Santiago Abascal horny in a matter of seconds. From there to Don Pelayo and the battle of Lepanto there are only 20 pages of a book by Elvira Roca Barea and a visit to the statue of Blas de Lezo in the Plaza Colón in Madrid.
As for the final objective, Abascal could not reject it either. What Feijóo presented on Tuesday in Barcelona was an eleven-page plan that aims to put as many obstacles as possible to immigration. No massive regularizations. Forcing foreigners to have a level of Spanish that some Spaniards would already like. Make family reunification difficult. Imposing a “constitutional demand” (sic) on those from outside that by definition is not demanded from those here because of freedom of expression and the fact that Spain does not have a militant Constitution that forces the assumption of certain values.
To sell all this, the leader of the PP went to Catalonia, believing that this is a favorable terrain right now for the rejection of immigration. The truth is that the xenophobic offer is quite crowded. Vox, Junts and Aliança compete for that audience and the PP believes it cannot be left behind. Catalan and Spanish nationalists have one of their points in common here. It seems like a paradox, but in reality it is not.
Feijóo touched several keys that Vox are tired of hitting. He had a phrase for those alarmed because they see many blacks on the street: “You cannot turn entire neighborhoods into unrecognizable places.” Are you thinking about those who have been invaded by tourist flats used by foreigners and who you do not consider a threat because they are tourists? Those who expel Spaniards and immigrants from the real estate market in those urban areas due to the escalation of housing prices?
No, it refers to poor immigrants. Not the tourists with money in their pockets nor the real estate companies and vulture funds, some of them foreign, that do business.
Where he did separate from Vox was with an idea that should be repeated more frequently in the media and in politics. “Do not commit crimes against an ethnic group, a religion or a group. Crime against specific people,” said Feijóo. The rest sounded like a perfect melody in Abascal's ears. Feijóo “is going to grow a beard,” he said with a joke to highlight that he has copied his ideas. The president of Vox he commented between laughs that he feels “very honored” because his opponent has said “literal phrases” that he has said before in speeches and rallies.
Feijóo demands that immigrants make an effort, but immediately establishes two categories. There are some first class immigrants who already speak Spanish because they come from Latin America. Then there are those who come from other countries where they do not have the infinite luck of being able to speak our language. For them, “the level of linguistic demand will be raised to B2.” This upper-intermediate level involves producing “clear and detailed texts on various topics and defending a point of view on general topics, marking the pros and cons of the different options.” And also “understand the main ideas of complex texts that deal with not only concrete but also abstract topics, even of a technical nature, as long as they are in their field of specialization.”
And this at a time when there are periodic controversies about the high number of spelling errors in exams or the decline in reading comprehension of many Spanish students, according to the PISA report. Immigrants, like Spaniards of origin, have the obligation to comply with the law. There are no excuses in that nor can you allege cultural differences with the countries from which they come.
The PP leader sets other conditions: “Being Spanish is not just living in Spain. It is sharing a common project, know a universal heritage and assume respectful coexistence.” The last is perfect, but you will surely find a thousand different opinions among Spaniards born in Madrid, Barcelona or Seville if you ask them what this “common project” consists of. The normal thing in a democracy.
In politics, grand political statements that attempt to be in two places at once rarely work, especially on controversial or sensitive issues. Alma Ezcurra, who participated in the event before Feijóo, stated that she rejects both “goodism” and “fanaticism”, as if they were two equivalent errors. She also said that one should not allow oneself to be carried away by fear or become enclosed in the boundaries of one's identity, and at the same time she was sympathetic to those who believe that “their neighborhood has changed” and that is why “they feel strange and insecure.”
There was no attempt to explain that Spain has changed since the 1980s, when the number of immigrants was small, that the Spanish economy has changed and Spaniards are no longer willing to take on certain jobs. That we can no longer live in yesterday's world, because it was also not as good as the reactionaries would have us believe.
Three of the four workers who died in the recent collapse of a building under construction in Madrid were immigrants. Jorge, Diallo and Moussa had come from Ecuador, Guinea and Mali. They lived in Spain, they struggled by having a hard job and paying taxes. With their limitations and facing all kinds of difficulties, they helped this country prosper and become greater. It is unknown what his level of knowledge was about the “universal heritage” of Spain.