How Vox pushed ‘Spaniards first’ politics into Spain’s regional elections
Ahead of Sunday’s election in Andalusia, the far-right party is using regional coalition deals to push anti-immigration politics further into the mainstream
Voters in Spain’s southern region of Andalusia head to the polls on Sunday in a closely watched election that could shape the future relationship between the country’s mainstream right and the far right.
Andalusia, Spain’s most populous region and until 2022 a Socialist Party stronghold, is currently governed by the conservative Partido Popular (PP) under regional president Juanma Moreno. But with the far-right Vox party continuing to gain influence across Spain, the election is also being watched as a test of how far anti-immigration politics have moved into the mainstream.
In April, Vox struck governing deals with the PP in Extremadura and Aragón after local elections left the conservatives short of a majority in both regions. In exchange for supporting PP administrations, Vox secured commitments to a controversial “national priority” agenda that would prioritise people with a “real, lasting and verifiable connection” to a region when accessing some benefits and social housing.
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Vox leader Santiago Abascal has repeatedly framed the policy as about “putting Spaniards first in their own country”. Critics, including Spain’s prime minister Pedro Sánchez, have condemned the idea as discriminatory and warned it risks creating “first and second-class citizens”.
After collapsing coalition governments in five regions in 2024 over disagreements on migration policy, Vox has increasingly found itself back in the position of kingmaker in Spanish regional politics. Ahead of Sunday’s vote, Vox has signalled it would demand similar “national priority” measures if Moreno’s PP requires its support to remain in power in Andalusia.
In both Extremadura and Aragón, the coalition agreements promote access to “public aid, subsidies and benefits” based on “a real, lasting and verifiable connection to the territory”. Social security contributions and years of registered residency in the region are among the factors listed.
The agreements propose a minimum threshold of five years of registered residency to be eligible to rent social housing and 10 years to purchase such a property. They also call for greater weighting to be given to “economic, social, family, employment and educational ties” to each region.
But while Vox has presented the measures as a form of national preference, the PP has sought to soften the rhetoric, arguing the policies are about local connection rather than nationality itself.
Even as the parties compete to define the concept, Alejandro Peña, president of Extremadura’s Migrant Workers Association, said the political message being sent was unmistakable.
“It says those who truly deserve rights are Spaniards while ignoring the fact that the migrant community also contributes to society through labour, taxes and culture,” he said.
Peña noted that the rhetoric was not new, pointing to previous calls by Vox for the mass deportation of undocumented migrants.
The agreements also state that amendments to existing legislation, including Spain’s national immigration law, would be proposed if it obstructs implementation of the measures.
Referring to next year’s general election, Vox’s spokesperson said the party would “change all the necessary laws” to make national priority a reality across Spain.
Mauricio Valiente, the director general of CEAR, the Spanish Commission for Refugee Aid, described the proposals as “more rhetoric than a serious proposal”.
“What you can’t do is discriminate against foreigners with residency in Spain compared to Spanish citizens in this way,” he said, arguing that such measures would likely require significant changes to immigration legislation and could also raise constitutional issues.
Valiente argued the language around national priority was primarily political signalling designed to mobilise voters around anti-immigration sentiment.
“When you mobilise your electorate with that discourse, then you somehow have to introduce measures to appease that radicalisation,” he said. “Ultimately, what it generates is greater polarisation, xenophobia, division and distrust.”
He also noted that strict local connection rules could affect Spanish citizens moving between regions.
Agustín Ruiz Robledo, professor of constitutional law at the University of Granada, said Aragón and Extremadura were not alone in tightening local connection requirements for social housing. Similar measures have recently been introduced in the Canary Islands and the Basque Country, though not under the banner of “national priority”.
Requirements based on local connection were not necessarily unconstitutional in themselves, he said. The more contentious question was whether the measures would ultimately discriminate on the basis of nationality.
“When Vox talks about ‘national priority’, what they mean is that social assistance should give preference to Spaniards,” he said. “Implementing this would mean the immigration law would need to be amended. That’s where we enter very delicate territory.”
Still, Ruiz Robledo stressed that the coalition texts remained politically ambiguous declarations rather than detailed legislation.
“When they draft the law, we’ll see whether it is constitutional,” he said.
Steven Forti, professor of contemporary history at the Autonomous University of Barcelona and an expert on the far right, said Vox’s approach closely resembled the French far right’s longstanding préférence nationale doctrine.
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“Since at least the 1980s, Jean-Marie Le Pen’s National Rally had already put forward this idea prioritising native citizens over foreign citizens,” he said. “On this issue, Vox is practically following the recipe that Le Pen already laid out.”
Forti argued the broader aim was to normalise what he described as a “heteronationalist” worldview.
“Their main objective is to shift the Overton window and make acceptable ideas that a few years ago were not acceptable in public debate,” he said.
Although the practical implementation of the measures remained vague, Forti warned that political normalisation often happened incrementally.
“Changes happen in small steps,” he said. “Then there’s a normalisation of reduced rights, or of rights being seen not as a right, but almost as a prize.”
Commenting on the growing alliances between PP and Vox, Forti said the trend reflected a broader crisis across Europe’s mainstream right.
“The underlying issue here is one that doesn’t just concern PP, but practically all parties on the European right: the inability to deal with the far right without crossing democratic red lines.”
