The central government will approve the transfer of powers regarding immigration to the Government of the Generalitat through an organic law, through article 150.2 of the Constitution. This is a political agreement that must now be finalized, so that PSOE and Junts will have to agree on the drafting of the new law, as stated this Thursday by the general secretary of Junts, Jordi Turull. “We will have to agree on the small print,” he admitted.
Turull considers that in the delegation of these powers “there are capital issues, in matters such as flows, language or labor matters.” “As a country and nation we have a lot at stake on this issue. It is not easy, but we assume responsibilities. It is a capital issue,” he insisted. “When we talk about management we also talk about immigration permits,” he pointed out, although he has not clarified whether the Mossos d’Esquadra will have powers in that area instead of the National Police Corps. “Yesterday there was only a political decision that had never been made before,” he clarified.
Furthermore, the post-convergent leader has stated that “whether or not multiple repeat offenders are expelled must be able to be decided from Catalonia.” “No mayor is happy to have people who reoffend 200 times,” he added in relation to the complaints of some Maresme City Councils led by his party, which have been criticized by other parties such as Esquerra Republicana. Republicans consider that asking for the expulsion of repeat migrants is approaching the postulates of the extreme right.
In any case, the leader of JxCat has pointed out that we will have to see how this can be done and that it is better to study why there is multiple recidivism, in general. “Starting the debate there is starting the house with the roof,” he added in an interview on Catalunya Ràdio.
The party’s spokesperson in Madrid, Miriam Nogueras, in turn, in RAC1 has also referred to the issue of immigration and has assured that the delegation of powers “will be in matters of documentation or residence permits.” “Catalonia has to be able to decide migratory flows,” she stated. “It is important that language is an element of integration for people who come to our country,” she added.
Likewise, Nogueras, a soccer fan, believes that JxCat has given “a goal pass” to the Catalan Executive with its agreement closed yesterday on the horn with the PSOE. “A goal ball has been passed to the Generalitat of Catalonia and we hope that the Generalitat scores that goal,” she stated.
At Junts they celebrated this whole matter yesterday in a special way for various reasons. For the Turull formation, it is an issue that worries in electoral terms, due to the emergence of the mayor of Ripoll, Sílvia Orriols, but above all in its vision of the country, due to the fear that cohesion will be put at stake and that it will be associated the independence movement to an essentialist and ethnicist movement. The post-convergents defend that Catalan nationalism is integrative and that Orriols’ postulates are not.
On the other hand, JxCat considers that with the delegation of powers through article 150.2 of the Constitution, a path that has been closed for several years is opened and that can be explored in other negotiations.
It is worth remembering that the issue of powers regarding immigration was part of the negotiation of the Statute and was included in the draft, but the Constitutional Court made it clear that there are powers that are exclusive to the State and cut that point, since in the Charter Magna specifies in article 149 that “the State has exclusive jurisdiction” over nationality, immigration, emigration, foreigners and the right to asylum. It remains to be seen what the new organic law now agreed upon says and if the High Court will have something to say about it in light of the foreseeable appeal by the PP, already announced.