The fact that Spain is swimming against the tide on European immigration issues became more evident than ever on Friday, when several EU leaders led by the prime ministers of Denmark and Italy — Mette Frederiksen and Giorgia Meloni — strongly criticized the Spanish government’s decision earlier this year to grant legal status to potentially hundreds of thousands of undocumented migrants.
One of the toughest statements came from Frederiksen, who despite being one of the few social-democratic leaders in Europe, has opposing views to Spain’s socialist leader Pedro Sánchez when it comes to immigration. The Danish prime minister accused Sánchez of doing “almost the exact opposite” of what other EU member states are doing on this matter, and asked the European Commission, the union’s executive arm, to scrutinize Spain’s position.
“I have asked the European Commission to examine what happens when a country does almost the exact opposite of what the rest of us are doing,” she said. “I believe this runs counter to the migration policy supported by a large majority in Europe today.”
Frederiksen’s statements came after the by now traditional “migration breakfast” bringing together 18 member states as well as the European Commission, with a view to further restrict common immigration policies, among other things by accelerating the creation of third-country deportation centers.
The Czech Republic’s prime minister, Andrej Babis, was also openly critical of Spain’s policy. “We see what is happening in Spain, how some politicians are capable of population replacement just to stay in their jobs and in government,” he said as he walked into the summit. And the Austrian chancellor, Christian Stocker, said it was a “bad sign” for Europe.
According to diplomatic sources, several participants declared their intention to revisit the final conclusions of the document that will emerge from the summit in order to underscore their rejection of Spain’s plan to legalize undocumented migrants, which they see as having a “pull effect.”
Many see evidence of this in the crisis experienced in Ceuta, a Spanish exclave city in northern Africa whose borders were stormed by around 80,000 people in just two days in late July. The city has yet to recover from the effects of the sudden influx, and thousands of migrants remain in makeshift camps and reception centers.
Migration flows are down
EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen noted in a letter before the summit that Europe’s policies are already achieving “substantial results,” including a 55% drop in illegal border crossings in the last two years, down to their lowest level since 2021.
One source said ahead of the summit that even though the facts do not support the popular idea of uncontrolled immigration in Europe, “some countries are looking for a more emotional debate because they need it for domestic reasons,” citing a series of general elections coming up — beginning with Spain, which has called a snap election on November 29, to be followed by elections in France, Finland and others next year.
Diplomatic sources said that the initiative to introduce amendments to the final conclusions — which must be adopted by consensus, which means Spain could block that section of it — was led by Denmark, Italy and Poland. The changes would involve underscoring that illegal immigration is something of concern to EU citizens, and that more work needs to be done to “reduce” the pull effect and any policies that might incentivize immigration to Europe.
Those countries also want to explore ways to “encourage cooperation” among member states “when they enact national policies that affect others,” alluding once again to Spain’s plan to legalize migrants, which they feel could impact their own countries.
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