(Bloomberg) -- An alliance in several Spanish regions between the country’s main conservative party and a far-right group collapsed after a stand-off about the treatment of undocumented underage immigrants.
Vox, the country’s largest far-right party, has decided to withdraw from five regional government coalitions in what’s a “tremendous mistake,” Alberto Feijoo, leader of the center-right People’s Party, said at a news conference on Friday. The PP “thanks Vox for services rendered,” Feijoo said.
The fight between the two parties centers around the relocation to facilities across the country’s 17 regions of underage migrants who have entered the country illegally. While the program is overseen by the central government of Socialist Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez, the children and teenagers are put under care of the regional governments.
Spain is facing an unprecedented “immigrant invasion,” Santiago Abascal, the head of Vox, said on Thursday as he justified why his party is against accepting the minors.
Feijoo on Friday said “immigration is out of control” in Spain, but that accepting the young immigrants is part of the responsibility of parties that are in governments. Sanchez’s administration has been widely supportive of immigration.
Vox was a minority partner in five regional governments and a non-government ally in a sixth.
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