In a significant development shaking Spain’s political landscape, the Vox party has announced a drastic tightening of its migration policy. While the PP recently adopted proposals at its congress to make it harder for irregular immigrants to access public services, Vox is now going a decisive step further. On Monday, Rocío de Meer, Vox’s spokeswoman for demographic emergency and social policy, openly called for the deportation of seven to eight million people of foreign origin. This includes not only newly arrived migrants but explicitly also the second generation, meaning individuals of foreign origin born in Spain.
The Trigger: A Rape Case and Vox’s Reaction
Monday’s press conference was initially scheduled to present the party’s proposals following the arrest of an alleged rapist from Mali, residing in a migrant reception center in Alcalá de Henares (Madrid). However, the measures presented went far beyond the issue of security, aiming at a profound change in Spain’s demographic composition. Vox argues that an alleged Spanish identity is threatened by the arrival of foreigners.
The “Great Replacement” Theory: Dangerous Rhetoric
Without explicitly naming the origin of the idea, the Vox spokeswoman used a traditional version of the “Great Replacement” theory. This conspiracy theory, coined more than a decade ago by the French far-right, claims that globalist elites are plotting to replace the white population with North Africans and Africans.
De Meer referred to studies by demographer Alejandro Macarrón, which predict that by 2044, Spain will have “more population of foreign origin than Spaniards.” For cities like Vitoria (2039) and Almería (2040), the deadlines are even shorter. However, what remained unexplained is the exact definition of “population of foreign origin,” especially given that some prominent Vox leaders, such as Ignacio Garriga or Javier Ortega Smith, themselves have at least one foreign parent.
“What Can Disappear is Your Nation”: Vox’s Apocalyptic Vision
After mocking “prophets of doom” who predict the end of the planet due to global warming, De Meer added in a serious tone: “What can disappear is your nation.” She described Spain as being in a “point of no return” and on the eve of an “unprecedented change” attributable to “demographic replacement,” which is “changing the configuration of society.” De Meer claimed that in the 1990s, the foreign population in Spain was 1 or 2%, while today there are “millions and millions of people” who have been “encouraged by bipartisanship.”
She further stated: “If, out of the 47 million inhabitants our country has, more or less seven or more than seven, because we must take into account the second generation, eight million people have come from different origins in a very short time, therefore it is extraordinarily difficult for them to adapt to our customs and habits.” In her opinion, this phenomenon has led to changes in Spanish society, “that the streets often do not belong to Spaniards, that the tranquility of many cities, neighborhoods and squares is no longer the same.”
“Remigration”: A Controversial Term from the German Far-Right
Given this situation, De Meer stated, there is “only one bad solution and one bad solution less, and therefore all these millions of people who have only recently come to our country and have not adapted to our customs and in many cases have played a role in scenes of insecurity in our neighborhoods and in our surroundings, because they will have to return to their countries.” The plan Vox intends to implement will be an “extraordinarily complex process of remigration [sic].” Although she implicitly acknowledged its traumatic nature, she added: “We are committed to this process because we believe there is something more important to preserve and we have the right to want to survive as a people.”
The term “remigration” has been adopted from the German far-right. At a secret meeting of neo-Nazis, ultranationalists, and businessmen in November 2023 in Potsdam, this term was coined to refer to the expulsion of millions of people, including German citizens, from Germany who, according to the conspirators, were not “sufficiently assimilated” into German culture. Although the dissemination of the plan caused a major scandal, the term was eventually adopted by the ultra-party Alternative for Germany (AfD).
The Reality of the Numbers: Spain’s Population
According to the latest INE data, Spain has a population of 49.1 million inhabitants, of whom 6.9 million (14.1% of the total) are foreigners. In its economic and housing program presented on June 29, Vox already advocates for “undoing all regularizations of immigrants carried out by the two-party system,” which means returning more than a million people to illegality, carrying out “mass deportations,” and “reviewing the concessions of nationality [in recent years] to see how many need to be withdrawn.”
