Spanish centre-right at odds with government over migrant crisis in the Canaries

Spain’s Partido Popular broke off negotiations with the government over the migration crisis in the Canary Islands, accusing the left-wing executive of not accepting help from the European Union.

On Saturday, the Partido Popular (PP/EPP) suspended official negotiations with the ruling Socialist Party (PSOE/S&D) on measures to alleviate the effects of the crisis, accusing the progressive executive of not wanting to accept help from the EU and the European Commission.

“The executive of (Prime Minister Pedro) Sánchez cannot refuse European support to solve a problem not only of the Canary Islands and not only of Spain,” the PP’s parliamentary spokesperson Miguel Tellado commented on X.

“He (Sánchez) refused to ask for help from Frontex, and now he refuses Europe's outstretched hand,” he added, as reported by Spanish public broadcaster RTVE.

Tellado was due to meet Territorial Policy Minister Ángel Víctor Torres (PSOE) on Monday to discuss the issue, but the centre-right formation cancelled the meeting

PP cited, among other things, the recent - and controversial - statements by Frontex executive director Hans Leijtens, who urged Madrid to officially request the agency's help.

PP also cited a recent letter dated 25 September from European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen to Dolors Montserrat, vice-president of the EPP group, in which the party says von der Leyen implied that the Spanish government had given up asking for immediate help in the crisis, Canarias 7 reported.

In the letter, the head of the EU executive also spoke of the willingness of EU member states to receive migrant minors arriving in the Canary Islands and stressed that "the Commission is ready to continue supporting Spain in its efforts to manage this difficult situation".

On Saturday, however, Tellado described as "unacceptable" the government's alleged rejection of European aid "for purely political reasons because of its obsession with torpedoing the Canary Islands government - a centre-right coalition of the PP and other regional forces led by Colición Canaria- and its attempt to blame only the municipalities (regions) governed by the PP."

The centre-right formation recently urged Sánchez's government to declare a “state of migratory emergency” in the country, and PP leader Alberto Núñez Feijóo recently called on Madrid to accept EU aid to alleviate the problem.

Recent official figures show that irregular migrant arrivals from Africa reached record levels in Spain in the first two weeks of August, with increases of 126% in the Canary Islands and 143% in the Spanish enclave of Ceuta.

PP spreading ‘fake news’?

One of the most urgent challenges facing local authorities is the saturation of all reception centres for migrant minors, who arrive in the region on precarious boats, mainly from West African countries, via the dangerous Atlantic route.

But beyond the worrying humanitarian situation, the migration crisis has become a political battleground between the progressive executive on the one hand and the PP, together with the far-right VOX party, the third force in parliament, and the far-right SALF party on the other.

But the harsh words from the right were refuted by the left-wing government.

Torres said all the accusations were “false” and pointed out that the government “has been working together with the European Commission and the European Union on the migration phenomenon for many years.”

Meanwhile, sources from the Spanish Interior Ministry recalled that the Commission had allocated €117.5 million from 2020 to date to address the problem in the Canary Islands and other amounts received in the 2021-2027 multiannual financial framework to mitigate the problem.

During a visit to the Canary Islands at the end of September, European Commission Vice-President Margaritis Schinas pledged that Brussels would soon provide an additional €14 million to ease migratory pressures in the region.

“I ask Partido Popular to reflect and rectify because it has made a serious mistake (by breaking bilateral negotiations). Therefore, it should once again return to the path of the institutions and the search for solutions and not be permanently involved in noise and bickering”, Torres wrote on X on Sunday.

(Fernando Heller | EuroEFE.Euractiv.es)