The historical influence of the Church on the PP runs with the regularization of migrants | Spain

In April 2024, Archbishop Luis Argüello, then secretary of the Spanish Episcopal Conference (CEE), raised the phone to contact the spokesman for the PP parliamentary group, Miguel Tellado. Until that time, the party had not been warning for weeks that it would not support the taking into consideration in the Congress of Deputies of the Popular Legislative Initiative (ILP) on the regularization of more than half a million immigrants. The initiative, promoted in 2021 and in which The Church had played a determining rolehe arrived at the lower house with the support of 906 organizations and more than 612,000 signatures. After overcoming so many procedures, Argüello would fight until the end so that this initiative did not die without going through Congress.

After the talk, the PP voted in favor of taking into consideration of regularization, although it has always insisted that the pressures of the EEC and other ecclesial entities had nothing to do with that sudden change of mind. A year later, the ILP – which are proposals for legislative change promoted by at least 500,000 citizens – arrives at Congress after months paralyzed by a reform of the Foreigner Regulation that continues without resolving the situation of thousands of migrants, and does so with the support of the Socialists, who until a month ago were reluctant to their approval. Despite the acceleration of the PSOE to carry out the measure, partly to amend the errors of the new regulation, the ILP is again on the tightrope: Junts and the party of Alberto Núñez Feijóo have announced that they will vote not.

Given the perspective that the initiative does not go ahead, the bishops seek to influence the PP again, but the situation is different. The Feijóo party has recorded its position, closer to the anti -immigration discourse of the ultra -right than to the regulatory of the Church. In fact, this issue will cover “an important part” of the debates of the National Congress of the Party of this July. The line, according to this Monday’s statements of the PP leader, is clear: « We need labor, yes, that does not mean that hundreds of thousands of people irregularly enter our country. » This reference on « labor » leaves the call of attention last year of the Bank of Spain, which warned that 24 million immigrants will be needed to maintain the relationship between workers and pensioners.

The speech of the Church has been closely linked to that of the Popular Party in recent decades, especially in terms of legislative reforms such as divorce, abortion, equal marriage, the subject of religion and even the property of real estate in favor of the Church. Although the government of José María Aznar executed three mass regulations (in total, 524,621 people benefited between 1996 and 2001, the PP has moved away in the last years of the most Catholic integrator ideology, despite the constant pressures and public allusions of the bishops.

In fact, Argüello, now president of the bishops, Sent last March A letter to the spokesmen of the parliamentary groups of the PSOE and the PP to offer to intermediate between both formations to reach an agreement and promote regularization. A first approach that has not received a response from the popular, as confirmed to El País the director of the CEE Migration Department, Fernando Redondo. Asked about the invitation of Spanish prelates, the PP has refused to answer this newspaper. The PSOE, as this newspaper advanced yesterday, He has accepted the offer of bishops and has proposed a meeting on June 10 at Congress.

Redondo laments from the political confrontation: « Everything is politicized. It is very sorry. It is not distinguished, you do not want to distinguish between political discourse and the common good. » The episcopal director of migrations describes how the Church « has always been pushing to get the ILP forward » and insists on the importance of political parties setting aside their differences to solve the situation of « thousands of people. » The Spanish Church has 137 Immigrant Aid Centers, where it serves 142,937 people, according to the data of the last annual report of the EEC. « It is a matter of regular justice to these people, » Redondo, who affects « the hypocrisy » of today’s society, where the data suggests that we need migrants, but then they do not want to welcome them with the dignity they deserve. « 

Despite the lack of official response to bishops, ecclesial entities have not stopped meeting with several deputies to transfer their concerns about the reality with which they work every day. Xabier Parra, director of the Capuchino Service for Development and Solidarity (SERCADE, belonging to the Ecclesial Network Platform) and one of the people who were involved from the first moment in the ILP, recounts that organizations have given the groups of the congress “the profiles of the people who suffer a situation of greater vulnerability” and have maintained meetings with the deputies to notify the reform of the reform of the reform of the reform of the reform of the reform foreigner

The director of the SERCade recalls that « it is not the role of the Church that the parties reach an agreement with each other » and insists that it is necessary to demolish the perception that the Popular Party « always obeys the bishops. » Parra emphasizes that, since 2021, ecclesial associations have had « deeper » meetings with parties deputies located at the opposite end of the PP, whose position is closer to the essence of the ILP. In fact, the conversations between the entities that promote the ILP and the PP deputies during the last weeks are being « very cold. »

The position of the PP in the face of migration, they say other entities involved, has led the government itself to claim them in recent days that the bishops press to the PP to refrain in the vote. Jorge Serrano, coordinator of the ILP of the party for a more fair world, explains it: « They are constantly telling us: ‘Hey, to see if you manage that the Church influences the position of the Popular Party. »

But why do the matches take so long to directly contact the EEC? Serrano argues that both the Socialists and the PP know that « the Church has a lot of influence », but they do not recognize it. « He does not want it to see that the Episcopal Conference has influenced the Popular Party. And much less on the PSOE. Another thing is that, if it is done from behind, » he says.

Serrano remembers the episode of Argüello’s call to Tellado that « saved » the ILP a year ago. « When the PP finally went from a very clear rejection to end up approving it in two days, they called us to tell us that their change of opinion was not because of the pressures of the Church. They will never recognize it, » says the coordinator, who insists that the role of the EEC remains « key to dragging again towards the abstention of the Popular Party. » However, that influence has lost strength after colliding with the wall raised by the PP to stop the regularization of immigrants.