“I call a spade a spade,” boasted the Vox spokesperson in the Extremadura Assembly, Óscar Fernández Calle. If the candidate for the popular party, María Guardiola, had avoided mentioning the thorniest point of her agreement with the ultra party during her speech on Wednesday, her future vice president did not refrain from doing so this Thursday as many times as she wanted. “National priority, we call a spade a spade,” he emphatically stressed. “You can put the Spanish first,” he insisted.
Despite the apparent clarity of his speech, Fernández Calle has mixed the “discrimination of foreigners with respect to Spanish citizens – which is contrary to the Immigration Law and, therefore, illegal as long as the norm is not reformed -, with the requirement of roots to access certain aid from the Extremaduran Board, which could be legal if the principle of equality is not broken.
According to the Vox representative, he will guarantee: “That those who are part of this land have priority in access to opportunities that, unfortunately, are not available for everyone.” As an example, he explained that officially protected houses and aid to access housing “must be for those who have roots in Extremadura” and that “a system will be established that prioritizes those who have a real, lasting and verifiable connection” with the region, through the accreditation of “years of registration, with a work or family history.” “That is putting those here first; ours first,” he proclaimed. But this system cannot prevent a foreigner with years of legal residence in Extremadura from having priority over a Spaniard who has recently arrived in the region, contrary to what Fernández Calle has promised, who has guaranteed that “no one from outside will be ahead of a Spaniard.” Along the same lines, he has emphasized: “With the efforts of the Extremadurans and the Spaniards, it is not enough for everyone to eat. We choose the Spaniards first.”
In reality, Vox’s objective is to regulate the requirements for access to public aid in such a way that foreigners have a very difficult time complying with them, even if they are not expressly excluded, which will only be possible when PP and Vox have a majority in Congress to modify the law, sources from the ultra party admit. For this reason, despite the apparent contradiction, Fernández Calle has been elated and has declared that he feels “comfortable and satisfied” with the agreement reached with the PP in Extremadura. Although he has recognized that “it is not the goal, but the starting point,” the goal has already been set and accepted by the PP: the effective long-term application of the principle of national priority.
