From June 2026, Spain will close the fast track (via exprés) that entitled Venezuelans to recieve special privileges above other asylum claims on humanitarian grounds after the Government stated that the system was on the verge of collapse. As reported in El País on April 1st, Spain has permitted to enter and regularise over 240,000 people from Venezuela in the six years of the program. Venezuelans now make up 700,000 of the population in Spain also.
This news comes on the back of the government´s planned intention to legalise 500,000 undocumented/illegal immigrants Spain plans to give 500,000 undocumented migrants legal status but also that the EU will return any Venezuelans back to Spain who are given Spanish legal documents, with Magnus Brunner stating in El Mundo the EU “will not give a blank cheque”.
MiM Analyis- Historical Political Positions Return
Well even if it was only for a day, Spanish politics witnessed the rather unusual position of self-acclaimed left wingers stating it was perfectly reasonable for a government to decide who enters and country and some were positively gleeful, encouraging Venezuelans to go back home under Donald Trump´s new appointed President.
Espero que en 2027 todos los venezolanos de derechas estéis de vuelta en vuestra amada patria ahora que Trump os ha liberado. https://t.co/n3KdHYfc8m
— Mario (@PiedrafitaMario) April 1, 2026
Meanwhile , some on the right were quick to dump their opposition to mass immigration mainly on the grounds that Venezuelans in Spain were the least likely immigrant group to vote for PSOE and therefore all the concerns about housing and public services could be dismissed for political point scoring.
For people who call themselves left wing, the reaction of Venzuelans will force them to confront obvious political realities that, once openly declared, can no longer be cowardly brushly away by screeching xenophobia for the millionth time.
Hola, @sanchezcastejon.
Aunque nos cierres la puerta, cientos de miles ya estamos aquí. Muchos 🇻🇪 ya votan y otros muy pronto podrán hacerlo.
Y cuando se convoquen las elecciones generales, sea este año o sea en 2027, los venezolanos sabemos exactamente lo que vamos a hacer. https://t.co/Ebd3bwYJmL
— Andrés Villavicencio (@AndVilla1) April 1, 2026
Take the above for example, here we have a Venzuelan voice gleefully pointing out that 100,000´s are already in Spain and when they can vote they will turn that power against the state to vote as an ethnic bloc , radically altering the poltics of the host country. This is the politics of thuggery.
It´s also exactly what conservative or old leftists said would happen, namely large scale immigration is not compatible with maintaining the political norms and you end up importing someone else´s politics. If there is no limit on the demands of immigrants, there is no Spain and no Spanish welfare state, you can´t call yourself left wing and cheerlead for this when the immigrants themselves are openly declaring their intentions. That is to say nothing of the pressure on housing (buried to the right on the El País front page Venezuelan headline was news of another massive increase in rental and housing prices).
Vox´s dilemma – Patriots or Libertarians?
It´s not just the left in Spain that have to confront reality, this kind of situation also forces Vox to decide between the libertarian desire of cheap immigrants and higher rental yields due to compeition for housing or to actually be a natavist party that prioritises Spanish people above and beyond all others. This contradiction from our interview with Vox Spokesmen José Antonio Fuster is laid bare again.
There is zero polling evidence to suggest Vox voters (who unlike Reform in the UK are increasingly young and having to compete with immigrants for housing and work) are in favour of more immigrants regardless if they be bad or ´good´ in the eyes of Vox or the business community. So Vox will now be forced to show their hand. They either publically support the restrictions or they get ready to betray their voters to the people who have always liked more immigrants: Landlords and Businesses.
Radical Departure or Return to Reality?
Which leads us to the final point, namely, that for those whose politics is not imported wholesale from a 1960´s American liberalism but is rooted in their own history, their is nothing ´shocking` about this irony at all. Historically, left wing parties opposed immigration for the same reason that right wingers supported it: It meant cheaper labour and higher competition for housing.
We haven´t actually seen a change in that position, merely left wing parties removed from the control of working class people (who still oppose immigration) into the hands of an affluent property owning class who benefited from it. So if nothing else, the recent announcement by Sanchez of closing the Venzuelan express route gave us all a chance to see a return to a political reality that is often derided but undeniable. Mass immigration was, is and will always be, a right wing position.
The featured image is by Wilfredor via Wikimedia Commons (Public Domain).
The full interview with José Antonio Fuster can be heard below. Photo property of Vox.