The national spokesperson for the PP, Borja Sémper, said this Friday that they will not support the government's migration agreement with the Canary Islands because they find it "petty" and "inexplicable" that two autonomous communities can be left out of it, and insisted that the distribution of minors has to be "supportive". However, the Minister of Youth and Children, Sira Rego, has assured that no autonomous community will be excluded from the specific distribution of 4,500 migrant minors from the Canary Islands and Ceuta.
This was stated in an interview on RNE, when asked about whether the PP will support the solution that the central government and the Canary Islands Executive are working on for the redistribution of 4,500 unaccompanied foreign minors.
"I guarantee you: not like that," he remarked, before insisting that they find it "politically inexplicable" that two autonomous communities such as Catalonia and the Basque Country could be left out of that distribution, emphasizing that "solidarity cannot be asymmetrical".
Meanwhile, the minister has asked the PP and the rest of the groups for "a sense of perspective" to support the proposal based on territorial and socioeconomic criteria that have been operating since 2022 and that the Canary Islands considers to be "reasonable and sensible".
"These are criteria that affect all the territories of the country, all the autonomous communities; none are excluded," the minister said in statements on RNE collected by EFE.
After insisting that this agreement only aims to solve a "specific problem", Sémper has accused the government of politically using the distribution of minors "as a bargaining chip" to maintain its parliamentary stability with the support of Junts, ERC and PNV.
The popular spokesperson has stressed that it is "unacceptable", "immoral" and a "political error of the first level" that there are autonomous communities that can be exempted from the distribution of minors because, with this, he said, it will "confront communities and citizens".
On the other hand, the PP spokesperson has asked the PNV to decide if it wants to be a "subordinate" party of Pedro Sánchez or recover its political position, since he understands that "the marriage" with the President of the Government is not paying off.
The minister explained that "it is about sizing the reception system in a balanced way so that it is sustainable in terms of the management of a public service and in terms of the guarantee of rights".
"There are territories that have made a previous effort and it must be recognized," he added. "Catalonia has almost 4,600 places created (24%) compared to, for example, Madrid, which has 10%, about 1,900 places," Rego detailed, who has rejected the claim that Catalonia is not within the distribution system.
Meanwhile, the head of Youth has indicated that they are studying whether this specific distribution of minors is carried out through a decree law. "We are finishing studying it," said Rego, who pointed out that it will be decided "in a few days": "I don't think we will take too long now because the legal services are assessing it".
Sémper made this reflection a day after the president of the PNV, Andoni Ortuzar, resigned from the leadership of the PNV, thus giving the green light to the current spokesperson of the formation in Congress, Aitor Esteban, to preside over the party.
"What the Popular Party should do is sit down to work and stop blocking the work of others," he concluded. EFE
