The Courts of Castilla-La Mancha have rejected this Thursday the initiative registered by Vox in the Plenary Session, in which it requested the regional Government to implement the national priority criterion in access to all public aid, subsidies, and benefits. The proposal did not pass, with the opposing vote of PP and PSOE.
In its text, Vox asked the regional Executive that in Castilla-La Mancha access to public aid, subsidies, and benefits be governed by the principle of national priority, so as to guarantee the preferential allocation of resources "to those who maintain a real, lasting, and verifiable connection to the territory" and to veto access to social benefits and services for people in an irregular administrative situation, limiting their coverage solely to vital emergency cases.
In parallel, the PP has also seen its own proposal rejected, in which it requested to urge the regional Government to "promote access to public subsidies and benefits inspired by the principle of national priority, which seeks the priority allocation of public resources to those who maintain a real, lasting, and verifiable connection."
According to the popular party, this model, compatible with current regulations, should include a reinforced minimum period of effective residence, registration, and connection to the territory, as well as the link between access to aid and contribution history, permanence, and contribution to the system.
The resolution proposal presented by the PSOE in this same debate has also not prospered, due to a technical tie in the vote between the socialist deputies and those of the PP.
In their initiative, the socialists expressed their rejection of the agreements that, as they denounce, the People's Party and Vox are reaching in different public administrations of Castilla-La Mancha, which foresee "applying national priority in access to public services, discriminating and excluding migrant persons, measures that are contrary to the legal order of Spain."
Immigration as part of the solution
The Minister of Social Welfare, Bárbara García, opened the round of speeches by recalling that 79 percent of the 919 municipalities in Castilla-La Mancha are located in sparsely populated areas or areas at risk of depopulation, emphasizing that "immigration is not a problem for depopulation, but rather part of the solution."
He remarked that "many of our towns have maintained population, economic activity, and services, precisely thanks to the arrival of migrants. Sectors such as agriculture, care, logistics, or hospitality depend heavily on foreign workers. Pointing them out as the problem is completely ridiculous."
García has provided demographic data, pointing out that the region has had three years of population growth and that the accumulated migratory balance between 2021 and 2024 amounts to 15,423 people. Of every 100 people who arrive in Castilla-La Mancha, 23 choose to settle in sparsely populated areas, a "very significant" figure, she emphasized.
"The question, therefore, is not whether we really want immigration or not. No, the question we should ask ourselves is whether we want to manage our territory well, whether we want to guarantee universal rights to our citizens. That is the question and the answer of the Government of Castilla-La Mancha," the counselor maintained.
She defended that the Junta's policy "is based on values, on data, on the responsibility that governing for everyone implies" and has called on Vox to take a "different course" and not fall "only into the debate of hatred."
Likewise, she has asked Vox to "look at history" when "Castilians and Mancha people emigrated to Germany, with a cardboard suitcase" or "those who sent money to their families from any point in Europe."
C-LM, "hit by massive immigration," according to Vox
The president of the Vox Parliamentary Group, David Moreno, has described Castilla-La Mancha as one of the communities "most hit" by "massive immigration," where, in his opinion, "social peace is disturbed."
He pointed out that in several provinces of the region more than 20 percent of the beneficiaries of the Minimum Vital Income are foreigners. In Toledo, out of 13,000 beneficiaries, 22% are foreigners; in Guadalajara, out of 3,000 beneficiaries, 28% are foreigners; or in Cuenca, out of 2,700 beneficiaries, 27% are foreigners. Those are his figures, the figures of his management, of Emiliano García-Page's management regarding the minimum vital income in Castilla-La Mancha.
Moreno has assured that "immigration in Spain detracts more resources than it contributes. That is scientifically demonstrated and supported by innumerable studies."
He has claimed that "public spending in Castilla-La Mancha should be audited and the impact of illegal immigration on public healthcare should be known" and has questioned the counselor about "why the Socialist Party does not want the real accounts and the impact of immigration in our region to be known".
He has announced that, if they come to the regional Executive, they will open "all the drawers to reveal the real cost of unaccompanied minors in the public accounts of Castilla-La Mancha, to know the real cost of illegal immigration in regional public healthcare, to know the real number of migrants benefiting from public housing".
"The people of Castilla-La Mancha have every right to know, to know the reality of the accounts. In Vox we will not stand idly by," he has stressed.
The PP defends the foreigner who contributes
The spokesperson for the Popular Parliamentary Group, Carolina Agudo, has explained that, in her motion for resolution, her party proposes "that the massive regulation proposed by Pedro Sánchez be repealed", and that "there be national priority according to roots and current legislation".
She agrees with Vox that "public resources are not unlimited", but has specified that the PP maintains that "those who work, those who contribute, those who pay taxes, those who have put down roots here", should "have priority in access to public services", clarifying that the Popular Party does not ask "where each person comes from".
In this regard, she has defended "foreigners who have come to work, to contribute and to build their life project". "Whoever comes to Spain to contribute to the Welfare State, welcome. Whoever comes to Spain to commit crimes, out of our territory. It's that clear and without any doubt," Agudo has stated.
The PSOE criticizes Vox's "racism"
On behalf of the Socialist Group, Pablo Camacho has argued that what Vox proposes "is a hoax", and has lamented that they are not "original even in being racist". "History reminds us that societies have often stumbled on the same stone, including the stone of racism".
He has accused Vox of using "Spaniards, pensioners, workers, young people, humble families and the rural world" as props in their speeches.
In the same way, he has reproached them for boasting "of being Christians", a stance that, according to him, "in practice clashes head-on with the true message of Jesus of Nazareth". "In the parable of the Good Samaritan, Jesus did not choose the powerful, nor the pure, nor the national as a moral example. Jesus precisely chose a foreigner, a despised immigrant, to teach a lesson to those who thought they were better than him," Camacho concluded.