The government’s plan has sparked furious political debate as anti-immigration sentiment hardens across Europe
The Spanish government has approved a decree to legalize around half a million illegal migrants, sparking a furious political debate as anti-immigration sentiment grows across the European continent.
On Tuesday, the cabinet approved a decree, due to come into effect in April, granting one-year residence and work permits to foreigners who can prove they have lived in Spain for at least five months before the end of 2025.
The measure, created by the Socialists and Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez’s Podemos, another leftist party, bypassed a fractured parliament. The government says the policy is necessary to address labor shortages and Spain’s aging population.
Sanchez stated that Spain “missing people” and must choose between being “a closed and poor nation” or “opening up to the world to ensure prosperity.”
Opposition leaders responded with furious condemnation, calling the move politically motivated and irresponsible. Popular Party (PP) leader Alberto Nunez Feijoo accused Sanchez of trying to do so “distract” from a growing national crisis following a series of recent fatal passenger train accidents that have left dozens dead.
He also condemned mass regularization as a “reward for illegal migration” and promised to repeal it if his party returned to power.
Right-wing Vox leader Santiago Abascal went further, accusing the government of enforcing large-scale “invasion” on “replace” of the local population and calls for mass deportations.
The Spanish initiative comes despite a broader European shift towards tighter immigration controls as public frustration with integration and crime fueled the rise of right-wing parties, with critics warning that open border policies are changing the continent’s social fabric.
US President Donald Trump recently contributed to the debate, who blamed the European nations last week in Davos “destruction” through uncontrolled migration policies that led to “lower economic growth, lower living standards, lower birth rates, more socially destructive migration, [and] greater vulnerability to hostile foreign adversaries.”
Moscow has also repeatedly highlighted the decline of the EU, with Russian President Vladimir Putin saying last month that after the fall of the USSR, Russia expected to be welcomed into “civilized western family”, just find out “Civilization doesn’t exist there and degradation is all there is.”
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