Sánchez defends regular migration as key for growth, sparks backlash from opposition

Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez described regular migration as a necessity for economic growth in Spain and the EU during an official visit to Mauritania on Wednesday (28 August), drawing criticism from Alberto Núñez Feijóo, leader of the main opposition Partido Popular.

As part of his official trip to Africa, which will also take him to Gambia and Senegal this week, Sánchez met with Mauritanian President Mohamed Ould Ghazouani in Nouakchott, where talks focused on migrants trying to reach Europe from Mauritania.

Many migrants transit through Spain before moving on to other EU countries, including France, Germany and Scandinavia.

While regular migration is necessary to generate “wealth, development and prosperity” in Spain and the rest of the EU, it also “implies certain problems," the prime minister said in a press conference on Wednesday (28 August).

Until not so long ago, Spain was also a country of migrants, the prime minister added, adding that both the PP and the far-right VOX party, the third force in the Spanish parliament, should show more empathy and solidarity.

Former Spanish migrants "aspired to a better life, like those who are now taking serious risks and embarking on a dangerous adventure," Sánchez said, referring to those who risk their lives on the perilous crossing in precarious boats from the West African coast to the Canary Islands.

PP accuses Sánchez of encouraging the ‘pull effect’

In response, Núñez Feijóo criticised Sánchez for allegedly encouraging a "pull effect" by signing circular migration agreements with African countries, which, according to the PP, would only encourage more irregular migrants to come to Spain.

“It is irresponsible to encourage a pull effect in the worst irregular migration crisis (suffered by Spain),” the centre-right opposition leader said on X.

The PP leader also accused Sánchez of "promoting Spain as a destination" instead of going to Africa to "fight the (migration) mafia".

According to official figures, irregular migrant arrivals from Africa reached record levels in Spain in the first two weeks of August, with increases of 126% in the Canary Islands and 143% in the Spanish enclave of Ceuta.

A large number of these irregular migrants come from Mauritania and the Sahel region, where the current escalation of violence is displacing thousands of people and posing major security challenges for the EU.

Spanish Foreign Minister José Manuel Albares (PSOE) was quick to react, accusing Núñez Feijóo of “openly embracing the xenophobic theses of the extreme right” and of joining VOX “in an alarming discourse” that attempts to divide Spanish society.

Housing Minister Isabel Rodríguez and the PSOE also came to Sanchez's defence after claiming on Wednesday that Núñez Feijóo was “irresponsible” for exploiting the hot topic of migration to “seek a social revolt in positions that go beyond the far right."

[Edited by Martina Monti/Daniel Eck]