The Courts of Castilla-La Mancha have rejected this Thursday the initiative of Vox debated in the Plenary Session, at the request of this group, with which it intended that the regional Executive apply a national priority criterion in access to all public aid, subsidies, and benefits. The proposal has been discarded with the votes against from PP and PSOE.
Vox demanded that the regional Government establish that in Castilla-La Mancha access to any public aid, subsidy, or benefit be governed by the principle of national priority, guaranteeing the preferential allocation of resources "to those who maintain a real, lasting, and verifiable root in the territory" and vetoing access to benefits and social services for those in irregular situations, except in cases of vital urgency.
The PP has also seen its own resolution proposal rejected, in which it urged the regional Executive 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 root".
According to the Popular Group's defense, this model, compatible with current regulations, should include a reinforced minimum period of roots, registration, and connection with the territory, as well as the connection of access to aid with the contribution trajectory, permanence, and contribution to the system.
The alternative proposed by the PSOE in this same debate has also not gone forward due to a technical tie between socialists and 'populars'. Thus, the socialist proposal has also fallen.
In its text, the PSOE rejected the agreements that the Popular Party and Vox are reaching in different 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 and depopulation in Castilla-La Mancha
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".
She has insisted 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, highlighting that population growth for three consecutive years and the accumulated migratory balance between 2021 and 2024 in the region stand at 15,423 people. Of every 100 people who arrive in Castilla-La Mancha, 23 choose to settle in sparsely populated areas, a figure she has described as "very significant."
"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 for our citizens. That is the question and the answer of the Government of Castilla-La Mancha," the minister has maintained.
She has emphasized that the regional Executive's policy "is based on values, on data, on the responsibility that governing for everyone implies" and has asked Vox to take a "different course" and not fuel "only the debate of hatred."
Likewise, she has urged the party to "look at history" and remember "Castilians and Mancha natives emigrated to Germany with a cardboard suitcase" or "those who sent money to their families from anywhere in Europe."
Vox denounces the impact of immigration
The president of the Vox Parliamentary Group, David Moreno, has described Castilla-La Mancha as one of the communities "most hit" by "mass immigration," where, in his opinion, "social peace is disturbed."
He has given as an example that in several provinces of the region, more than 20 percent of recipients 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. He has pointed out that those are "their figures, the figures of their management, of Emiliano García-Page's management regarding the minimum vital income in Castilla-La Mancha."
"Immigration in Spain detracts more resources than it contributes. That is scientifically proven and supported by innumerable studies," Moreno has defended.
He has claimed "that public spending in Castilla-La Mancha be audited and that the impact of illegal immigration on public healthcare be known" and has questioned the minister about "why the Socialist Party does not want the real accounts and the impact of immigration in our region to be known".
He has warned that, if they come to the regional government, 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 asks for priority for those who contribute and settle
The spokesperson for the Popular Group, Carolina Agudo, has explained that, in her initiative, the PP demands "the massive regulation proposed by Pedro Sánchez be repealed", and that "there be national priority according to settlement and current legislation".
She agrees with Vox that "public resources are not unlimited", but has pointed out that the 'popular' party 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", although she has specified that the PP does not ask "where" each person "comes from".
In this regard, she has championed "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 accuses Vox of racism
On behalf of the Socialist Group, Pablo Camacho has maintained that what Vox is proposing "is a hoax", lamenting that they are not "original even in being racist". "History reminds us that societies have stumbled on the same stone many times, including the stone of racism".
He has reproached Vox for using "Spaniards, pensioners, workers, young people, humble families and the rural world" as the backdrop for their speeches.
In his speech, he criticized that the right-wing party boasts "of being Christians", a stance that, as he said, "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 nationalist as a moral example. Jesus chose precisely a foreigner, a despised immigrant, to teach a lesson to those who thought themselves better than him," Camacho explained.