IMMIGRATION Pablo Casado Partido Popular, PP - Responsible immigration policies. Immigration should be legal, orderly and linked to work contracts and the wish to integrate and respect the customs of the nation. - Statute of temporary protection for Venezuelans, granting them temporary residency, freedom of movement and work permits. - Special plan to combat illegal immigration. - Support the work of social services in the care given to refugees who have fled dictatorships, wars or religious persecution. - Integration of legal migrants and advance policies which guarantee that second generations feel like full Spanish citizens. - Enable the recruitment of migrants in their own country. Pedro Sánchez Partido Socialista Obrero Español, PSOE - Access to Spanish citizenship by residency must be seen as a result of a process of integration of foreigners in Spain. - Prioritise countries in America and Africa for closer co-operation - Put in place a "state pact for safe, orderly and regular immigration". - Promote the common European asylum and immigration policy. - Promote full integration and equal opportunities for so-called second generations, paying special attention to education. - Reinforce a fair border policy. Pablo Iglesias Unidas Podemos - Establish legal and safe entry routes into Spain and guarantee the civil rights of migrants. - Make the process of family reunification, humanitarian visas and new visa programmes more flexible, such as job searches. - Reinforce the Maritime Rescue Service, which will remain as a public and civil service and whose sole function will be the safeguarding of life at sea. - Shut detention centres for foreigners (CIE). - Build a country without racism. - Promote a new asylum law that includes those who have to flee their homes because of environmental issues. - Guarantee that unaccompanied foreign minors receive treatment according to the Convention on the Rights of the Child. Albert Rivera Ciudadanos - Set up a "points-based" immigration system to attract the best foreign talent. - Pursue mafia organisations that profit at the expense of the lives and safety of migrants. - Protect the officers of the state security forces that monitor our borders. - Increase resources for the state security forces dealing with irregular migration, reinforcing effective and non-aggressive action. Santiago Abascal Vox - Deport illegal migrants to their countries of origin. - Deport migrants who are legally in Spanish territory but who have committed minor offences or serious crimes. - Strengthen our borders. Build an insurmountable wall in Ceuta and Melilla (Spanish cities on the African continent bordering Morocco). - End the attraction: any migrant who enters Spain illegally will not be allowed to legalise their situation, ever. - Eliminate the "arraigo" process that allows illegal migrants to stay in Spain under exceptional circumstances. - Raise the levels of language ability, tax contributions and integration as requirements for citizenship. ECONOMY Pablo Casado Partido Popular, PP - Approve a reduced fee for self-employed workers whose income does not exceed the minimum wage. - Encourage active aging and the voluntary extension of working life beyond the statutory retirement age. - Make the process of setting up companies easier. - Establish mechanisms that penalise unjustified temporary contracts. - Autonomous communities where PP is in power will reduce income tax for people under 35 and families with at least one child. - Eliminate inheritance tax for transactions between parents and children, and their descendants. - Pensions must maintain their purchasing power. Pedro Sánchez Partido Socialista Obrero Español, PSOE - Create ways of boosting co-responsibility and work-life balance. - Strengthen the progressivity of the tax system, increasing the contribution of large companies and taxpayers with higher incomes and larger assets. - Gradually increase the minimum wage. - Simplify and reorder the offer of employment contracts to three types: indefinite, temporary and training. - Modify the system for self-employed workers so that they can contribute according to their real income. Pablo Iglesias Unidas Podemos - 34-hour working week. - Work towards internet connection as a basic right, with free access. - Reach a minimum wage of €1,200 (US $1,350). - Strengthen anti-trust laws. - Penalise companies that make excessive use of temporary contracts. - Fight against tax havens. - Special unemployment protection for young people. - Restore rights for those in most vulnerable jobs, especially in sectors dominated by women. Albert Rivera Ciudadanos - Guaranteed salary supplement to help workers in poverty and fight the abuse of the temporary contracts. - Self-employed workers whose real incomes are below the minimum annual salary will not pay contributions. - Promote a favourable legal framework for innovative companies in their initial stages. - Guarantee that suppliers are paid within a maximum of 30 days in public contracts or 60 days in other cases. - Eliminate temporary contracts: all contracts will be indefinite. - No-one will ever have to renounce an inheritance because they cannot pay inheritance tax. Santiago Abascal Vox -10% reduction of company contributions for new permanent contracts for Spanish workers. - Strong support for large families and the birth rate in general. - Support for self-employed workers. Zero contributions if income does not reach the minimum wage. 100% reduction in contributions if a self-employed worker is out of work. - Support for the unemployed aged over 50 and for the long-term unemployed. - Drastic reduction of income tax. - Elimination of property tax and inheritance tax. EQUALITY Pablo Casado Partido Popular, PP - Local offices for Assistance for Pregnant Women so that no woman stops being a mother because of her economic, social or family circumstances. - Improve social protection and support for pregnant young women and young families, temporarily adapting, if necessary, their schooling, so that motherhood does not pose an obstacle. - Reform the penal code to extend the option of permanent remand to cases of murder in which some gender violence is suspected. - Training in equality and the fight against gender violence to be given to all professionals who might come across the issue in their career. - Plan to close the wage gap in Spain. - Encourage more women into the labour market to reach levels similar to the European average. Pedro Sánchez Partido Socialista Obrero Español, PSOE - End surrogacy (which is currently illegal in Spain). - Reform of the criminal code to ensure that the lack of explicit consent of the victim is key in sexual crimes. If a woman does not say yes, it means no. - Prohibit segregated education in schools supported by public funds. - In schools, promote the prevention of gender violence and respect for sexual diversity. - Reform gender identity law, eliminating the need for medical diagnoses and making it easier for under 16s to change name and sex records. - Allow non-transferable parental leave for both parents. - Implement urgent measures to ensure equal treatment and employment opportunities for women and men. Pablo Iglesias Unidas Podemos - Guarantee immediate housing alternatives for women and their children who suffer domestic violence. - Introduce feminism classes. - Equal and non-transferable paternity and maternity leave. - Offer help with assisted reproduction and facilitate access to the latest contraceptive methods, emergency contraception and voluntary terminations for all women. - Legal protection of trans people and the right to self-determination of gender identity and expression. - Establish equality in local authorities. - Launch a plan to fight domestic violence, with an annual allocation of €600m ($675m). Albert Rivera Ciudadanos - End male-preference in the royal line of succession. - Protect marriage between LGTBI people and include the right to non-discrimination based on sexual orientation. - Approve a surrogacy law so that women who cannot conceive and LGTBI families can fulfill their dream of forming a family. - Expand maternity and paternity leave to up to 16 weeks for each parent. - Combat intolerance and hate speech, including on social networks. - Promote a greater presence of women in visible positions of responsibility, guaranteeing an equality balance in public office. Santiago Abascal Vox - Protection of life from conception to natural death. - Elimination of quotas (by sex or for any other reason) in electoral lists. - Repeal gender violence law and any rule that discriminates against a person's sex. Instead, enact a law of intra-family violence that protects the elderly, men, women and children alike. Suppression of subsidised "radical feminist" organisations, effective prosecution of false allegations. - Extension of maternity leave to 180 days that would be extended to one year in the case of children with disabilities.<doc-sep>According to Vox, Spain’s new hard-Right force, today’s general elections are about the survival of Spain as a national entity. Most European observers, however, will be looking to see how strongly Spain’s forces of moderation can survive the first real assault of Right-wing, anti-immigration and slightly Eurosceptical populism the country has experienced. With no elections due this year in any of Europe’s biggest nations, all eyes are today on Spain as a bellwether for next month’s European Parliament poll, in which populist movements are expected to make a bigger impact than ever. Spain, despite its political fragmentation that has brought about this, its third election in less than four years, has been making solid economic progress in the past half-decade, while also putting order in its public finances. With unemployment still close to 15 per cent, the economy might have been expected to feature prominently in the campaign. But instead Spaniards have been beaten around the head with the strategic importance of the country’s first general election since the Catalan regional government’s unconstitutional referendum and declaration of independence in 2017. Despite the fact that his Socialist party (PSOE) minority government fell because Catalan pro-independence parties withdrew their confidence and supply support, the incumbent Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez has been accused of betraying Spain for trying to launch a negotiation process with Catalonia’s leaders.<doc-sep>
Spain heads to the polls for the third time in four years, with the ruling socialist party expected to win the most votes but fall short of a majority and the far-right Vox party poised to achieve a national breakthrough. The general election was called by the prime minister, Pedro Sánchez, in February after Catalan separatists joined rightwing parties in rejecting his 2019 budget. Sánchez’s Spanish Socialist Workers’ party (PSOE) has governed Spain since last June, when it used a no-confidence vote to oust the corruption-ridden conservative People’s party (PP) from office. But his minority government has struggled to advance its legislative agenda as it holds only 84 of the 350 seats in the congress of deputies. Sánchez’s opponents accuse him of being weak and too beholden to the Catalan independence parties that supported his successful no-confidence motion. They argue that he should take a far tougher line on the independence issue, which has dominated Spanish politics since the regional government’s secession attempt in autumn 2017. The territorial crisis has also fuelled the emergence of Vox, which, until last year, was a fringe party without the support to win seats in congress. That changed last December when the far-right party, led by Santiago Abascal, exceeded expectations, picking up 12 seats in the Andalucían regional election. Vox then demonstrated its abilities as kingmaker by agreeing to support an Andalucían regional government between the PP and the centre-right Citizens party, which ended decades of PSOE control in the southern Spanish region. Speaking Sunday shortly after casting his ballot, Sánchez said he wanted the ballot to yield a parliamentary majority that can undertake social and political reforms in the country. The prime minister said he wanted the lower house to support “a stable government that with calmness, serenity and resolution looks to the future and achieves the progress that our country needs in social justice, national harmony and political cleansing.” Citizens’ Albert Rivera said that a high turnout was needed Sunday to “usher in a new era.” Pablo Casado, who recently took over leadership of the conservative PP and has steered it to the right in an effort to stop the draining of votes to Vox, called the ballot the country’s “most decisive” in recent years. Vox’s uncompromising stance on Catalonia, which includes proposals to ban pro-independence parties, has helped it build momentum, as have its attacks on feminism and what it describes as political correctness. The party has succeeded in shaping the political agenda and fragmenting the conservative vote by dragging both the PP and Citizens further to the right in a bid to stop voters deserting them for Abascal’s grouping. If the polls are correct, Vox could secure about 11% of the vote on Sunday, making it the first far-right grouping to win more than a single seat in congress since Spain returned to democracy after the death of General Franco in 1975. Sánchez has warned that the party could then try to repeat its Andalucían strategy to build a three-party rightwing coalition government with the PP and Citizens. “No one thought that Trump would be president in the US, nor Bolsonaro in Brazil,” Sánchez tweeted on Friday. “And people reckoned Brexit wouldn’t happen either. A vote for the PSOE is the difference between a Spain that looks towards the future and a Spain that slides back 40 years. No one should stay home on Sunday!” Although the PSOE is forecast to increase its seat count in the election, it is not expected to secure anything like the 176 needed for a majority. It could turn once again to Podemos for support, but the anti-austerity party has been weakened by internal rivalries and is not the electoral force it was three years ago. The socialist could also seek to make a deal with Citizens – although the centre-right party’s leader has firmly ruled out such a pact.