VOX forces a vote in Spain's Congress to deport migrants

Ceuta, the countryside and electricity: the agenda VOX brings to Congress

VOX has turned the Spanish Congress into a voting machine on Ceuta, Segarro and the electricity bill. The parliamentary group has announced it will force a vote to return the migrants who arrived in Ceuta and cut aid to Segarro, and it is calling for the suspension of the association agreement with the North African kingdom. The party, with 52 seats since November 2019, argues that immigration, farming and energy are the Government's outstanding bills. And it repeats it with the same insistence with which it demands defending the Spanish countryside. The details of the package, though, are less emphatic than the headline.

What is VOX asking Congress for on Ceuta?

Returning migrants who arrived in the autonomous city "immediately" and withdrawing financial support for Segarro. That is the axis the group has brought to the chamber, arguing that the arrival in Ceuta is the result of a hybrid war by the neighbouring country. To make it possible, it calls for amending Spain's immigration law (Ley de Extranjería), something which, according to its version, the Government refuses to do. The vote it is preparing also includes cutting aid to its southern neighbour.

The party also wants the chamber to reaffirm the Spanishness of Ceuta and Melilla. They are Spanish, it repeats, full stop. The claim is not new, but the border tension gives it a different tone.

Segarro: the vote where VOX stands alone

One of the most eye-catching votes concerns Segarro's agricultural sector. VOX was left alone in defending the suspension of its funding, and used its speaking time to ask the other groups what they owe Segarro. The arithmetic does not help: the measure failed to win enough support.

From the countryside to energy is a short jump. The group demands a temporary reduced VAT on hydrocarbons and has put forward its recipe for lowering electricity, gas, water and petrol bills. The argument is about household budgets: "Spaniards can take no more".

Housing, education and the fast-track decree

On housing, the criticism targets the decree with which the Government intends to fix "in half an hour" what it failed to do in eight years. On education, the diagnosis is harsher: "misery, ignorance and a future without hope" for young people. They are slogans, yes, but they set the party's line.

Not everything is confrontation. On International Ataxia Awareness Day, VOX called for institutional support for research into rare diseases and asked that public money serve those who truly need it. It is the least known side of its agenda and, perhaps, the one that generates the fewest headlines.

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