Spain’s Far-Right Vox Seizes on Ceuta Migrant Crisis to Push 'National Priority' Agenda

Spain’s far-right party Vox is using the ongoing migrant crisis in Ceuta to push its hardline agenda, demanding the deportation of unaccompanied minors and rejecting a €25 million government aid package. The party has also refused to attend a key meeting on child welfare, escalating its political offensive. The crisis began after thousands of people, including many children, crossed into the Spanish enclave of Ceuta from Morocco. Vox leaders have used the situation to spread messages about "hunting immigrants" and have described the minors as "indigent and unintegratable." Vox has announced it will boycott a technical meeting scheduled for Thursday regarding the care of migrant children. This meeting is meant to prepare for a larger conference where the government plans to approve €25 million in emergency funding. While Vox, which governs in three regions, will not attend, the conservative People's Party (PP) has confirmed it will be present to "listen." The party’s leader, Santiago Abascal, has made false claims that Spanish citizens are being neglected in hospitals because the government gives "absolute priority to the invading force." He has also suggested that migrant children receive better food than Spanish soldiers, arguing that the government is "rewarding invasion and punishing resistance." A Vox member of the European Parliament, Hermann Tertsch, has gone further, claiming there is "probably less danger of war in Morocco than in Spain." He argues that migrant children should be returned to their families, painting a picture of a Spain where "many Spaniards are suffering unheard-of deprivations" while the government promotes "the invasion of more indigent people." Vox has also spread misleading calculations, dividing the €25 million aid package by the number of unaccompanied minors to claim each receives €25,000, and questioning how many poor Spanish children could benefit from that money. The party has additionally launched a campaign to use a constitutional article to investigate Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez for "treason." However, this move has little chance of success, as it requires the support of a quarter of Congress and an absolute majority vote, which Vox does not have. Meanwhile, the government is working on a plan to house the remaining minors. If a child has family in Morocco, they will be returned. Otherwise, they will be placed in NGO facilities or the care system of other regions. Vox has stated it will legally challenge any individual case that does not end with a return to Morocco. This political battle comes as Spain’s state prosecutor has opened an investigation into a decision by Vox’s coalition partner in Aragon to cut a weekly allowance for migrant minors. Separately, the prosecutor’s office is also reviewing a complaint against a Vox politician who said on television that immigrants "have to be hunted down one by one."