Spain’s far-right Vox party led by Santiago Abascal – the third largest party in the Spanish Congress – sought to clarify comments made on Monday by its spokeswoman Rocío de Meer, saying that a ‘mass deportation process’ of migrants was necessary in order to ‘preserve’ Spanish ‘identity’.
‘What we have denounced from the beginning is that if in the 1990s the percentage of foreign population in our country was roughly 1% or 2%, today we are witnessing millions and millions of people who have come from the 1990s until now, encouraged by the two-party system,’ De Meer said at a press conference, blaming it on the current coalition government led by the PSOE socialists, and previous administrations led by the right-wing People’s Party (PP).
‘Our borders are open,’ De Meer said. ‘So, of the 47 million people living in this country, more or less over 7 million — considering second-generation immigrants — around 8 million people have come from different backgrounds in a very short period of time.’
She then went on to say that it was ‘extraordinarily difficult’ for these people to ‘adapt’ to what the Vox party considers to be Spanish ‘customs and traditions’.
‘We are seeing that our society is changing, that our streets often do not belong to Spaniards, that many squares do not belong to those who always belonged to them, that the tranquility of many towns, neighbourhoods, and squares has also changed and is no longer the same,’ she added.
‘Therefore,’ she said, ‘all these millions of people who have recently come to our country and who have not adapted to our customs and, in many cases, have also caused scenes of insecurity in our neighbourhoods and surrounding areas will have to return to their countries.’
‘It will be a complex process, but we have the right to survive as a people,’ concluded De Meer.
Her comments followed the inclusion in one of the far-right party’s manifestos last week that all previously undocumented migrants who now have residency in Spain should be deported (around 1 million), and the potential citizenship revocation of naturalised foreigners in Spain.
De Meer’s comments on Monday provoked headlines in El País and the online ElDiario.es that the Vox party ‘openly advocates deporting eight million immigrants and their children’.
She has since called these reports ‘false news’ and denied that she said that 8 million migrants would need to be expelled.
‘I didn’t say we had to expel 8 million people,’ she posted on X (see link below). ‘We have to expel as many as necessary so that not one more Spanish family has to mourn for not having done so.’
Vox leader Santiago Abascal posted on Tuesday morning on X (see link below):
‘Vox has not stated the number of those who must be deported. Simply because we don’t know. It’s all those who have come to commit crimes. All those who intend to impose an unfamiliar cultural belief. All those who mistreat or belittle the women. All those who have come to live off the efforts of others. And all the unaccompanied minors, because children should be with their families. We don’t know how many there are. When we come to power, we will know. And they will all leave. And the first to celebrate alongside the Spanish will be the legal immigrants, those who follow the rules and respect the country that welcomes them.’
On Tuesday, the spokesman for the Vox party in the Spanish Congress, Pepa Millán (main image), sought to justify her party’s recent xenophobic shift.
‘We must defend our right to remain as a people — we want to continue being Spain,’ she said.
She called for the ‘immediate expulsion of illegal migrants in Spain’, as well as for the deportation of legal immigrants ‘who have made crime their way of life’ or who, in the party’s view, ‘have clearly shown an inability to integrate’.
Millán avoided giving any concrete numbers or data.
A recent study by the Bank of Spain estimates that the country will need up to 25 million more immigrant workers by 2053 in order to combat ageing and maintain the ratio of workers to pensioners.
Though Morocco is the country of origin for most foreign residents in Spain (over 900,000), the majority are European (2.4 million), followed by those from the Americas (2.2 million) and Africans (1.2 million) in third place, according to INE data for 2024.
Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez wrote on X on Tuesday:
‘Today, Spain it is a land of welcome, and those who arrive contribute with their effort to building a better Spain. Let us not forget where we come from to understand who we are.’
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Están nerviosos. Ya están mintiendo y manipulando otra vez.
VOX no ha dicho el número de los que deben ser deportados. Simplemente porque no lo sabemos.
Son todos los que hayan venido a delinquir.
Todos los que pretendan imponer una religión extraña.
Todos los que maltraten o…
— Santiago Abascal 🇪🇸 (@Santi_ABASCAL) July 8, 2025
Vox plantea un “proceso” de deportación “masiva” de migrantes para preservar la “identidad española”
En su discurso, Rocío de Meer menciona también a los hijos de migrantes https://t.co/YsOBBlkHzE pic.twitter.com/rec5lmzIcd
— elDiario.es (@eldiarioes) July 7, 2025
¡MENTIRA!
Yo no he dicho que había que expulsar 8 millones.
Hay que expulsar los que haga falta para que ni una sola familia española más tenga que llorar el no haberlo hecho. pic.twitter.com/g5xV3TJqS8
— Rocío De Meer ن (@MeerRocio) July 8, 2025
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