To get the help of Vox to form coalition governments in Extremadura and Castilla y León, the regional administrations led recently by the PP. adopted an ultranationalist group national priority or the “national priority” policy, which gives Spanish citizens preferential access to government benefits and services.
Although polls show Spain’s Catholics are moving to the right of the ideological spectrum, the pope’s stance on migrant suffering puts him closer politically to the left-leaning Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez’s administration.
His coalition government, consisting of the left-wing Socialist party and the left-wing Sumar group, is currently in the process of give legal status for half a million unauthorized immigrants.
Today he is set to travel to the Canary Islands on Thursday, where he and Sánchez are set to take part in an event to remember the lives of African migrants who have perished while trying to sail to the Spanish islands. Thousands of migrants leave West African countries every year to make the journey the danger of crossing the Atlanticand more than 3,000 migrants died trying to reach Spanish shores last year, according to the NGO Caminando Fronteras.
During his speech, the pope asked parliamentarians to work “to ensure that no one has to leave his home due to a lack of peace, security or good living conditions, including economic inequality and the effects of the climate crisis.”
He has also talked about the ongoing war between the United States and Israel in Iran. As Sánchez, one of the most vocal critics of the operation, Leo has done to be called the conflict “is not a just war.”
The Pope added that peace is a “moral imperative,” warning that “arms are once again presented as an almost inevitable response to the fragility of the international situation.”
“True security,” he added, “is based on justice, patient negotiation, respect for international law, and a policy that can prioritize people’s lives over interests that profit from war.”
