The commons have attacked this Monday against the leader of the PSC and the opposition, Salvador Illa, on account of immigration. In an interview in El Nacional in which he pointed out that “we cannot say that everyone comes here,” and he was committed to “regulating, welcoming and integrating” immigration that arrives in Europe. For Catalunya en Comú, these are “very unfortunate” words, which place it “closer to Junts than to Pedro Sánchez.”
At a press conference, the spokesperson for the commons, Joan Mena, regretted the statements of the opposition leader in Catalonia, who in the aforementioned interview pointed out that immigration “is a debate that should not be avoided”, and summarized the position of his party in one sentence: “Welcoming what is different and integrating it into your society, not only does it not put your identity at risk, but it reinforces it. Catalonia is largely that. The history of Catalonia is that.” But he also pointed out that “Europe is a magnet” for immigration, so “we have to be able to regulate” because “we cannot say that everyone comes here, it cannot be; regulate it and welcome it, and integrate it,” he insisted.
Illa’s refusal to “let everyone come” has been enough for Mena to attack the socialist leader, accusing him of “getting closer to the position of Junts than to that of Pedro Sánchez” and of “considering that there may be migrants first and second class”, something that for the common people “is close to the extreme right”.
Mena has demanded that the socialists not make “lists of good and bad migrants” and that they “stop copying positions closer to Durán i Lleida”, who in his time as a deputy in Congress considered that “not everyone fits here.” ” and considered that “immigration is a problem because there is more than there should be.”
At a press conference from the PSC headquarters, spokesperson Elia Tortolero came out in defense of Illa, pointing out that “those who “limit themselves to the headline” of the interview and “we don’t read it all” are “doing something wrong” because it “doesn’t say” which really reflects the phrase that heads it. According to Tortolero, the official position of the PSC on this matter is based on the fact that “welcoming those who are different, integrating them, does not put our identity at risk but rather reinforces it.” According to the leader, “Catalonia has been an example and we always defend it.”
The debate on immigration in Catalonia is very much alive after Junts negotiated with the PSOE the “full” transfer of immigration powers in exchange for giving their votes for the approval of the first anti-crisis decrees of the Sánchez Government. The post-convergents championed this issue after half a dozen mayors of their party in Maresme demanded the expulsion of repeat immigrants, and they maintain an electoral competition with the extreme right-wing pro-independence party -Aliança Catalana-, which has championed this issue in towns such as Ripoll.
For its part, the PSC had taken advantage of these events to criticize Junts and reproach them for mixing immigration and multiple recidivism. In fact, Illa had disgraced “the Catalan right” by allowing “the agenda” to be “set” by “the Catalan extreme right on such a sensitive and delicate issue.”
Mena has also referred to the upcoming approval in Congress of the Amnesty law, which he has expressed certainty will go forward without modifications after passing through the parliamentary commission. According to the spokesperson, the rule will come out by an absolute majority, leaving PP and Vox alone again, and with “the same logic as in the committee vote.” In his opinion, it will be a law that will enjoy “maximum legal certainty.”
