This Wednesday, the PP reached an agreement with its former government partner, Vox, to reissue the coalition in Aragon with three ministries under its charge. Both forces have agreed on a 13-section document, with a special focus on immigration, as they already did in Extremadura, with the popular ones responding to a good part of the demands and arguments of the extreme right on this point. The new Executive intends, among other objectives, to return unaccompanied migrant minors to their countries of origin, give priority to nationals in access to social housing and limit other benefits and social aid for irregulars. Both formations have agreed to give the ultras three ministries, one with the rank of vice presidency: one for Deregulation, Social Services and Family; another for Agriculture, Livestock and Food, and a third for Environment and Tourism (which includes the management of Inaga, the Aragonese Institute of Environmental Management), in addition to a senator with an autonomous designation. In exchange, those from Vox commit to approving the four annual Budgets throughout the legislature. These are some of the measures included in the pact.
Immigration. The Popular Party assumes the most extreme demands of Vox in terms of the fight against immigration, the great flag of Abascal’s formation, as it already did in Extremadura. And with measures ranging from the return of unaccompanied immigrant minors to the elimination of financial aid for NGOs that assist foreigners, the commitment not to provide more places in reception centers or the prohibition of the use of the burqa and niqab in public spaces. As is also reflected in Extremadura. As a starting point, the new Executive will “oppose by all legal, juridical and political means any mechanism for the distribution of illegal immigrants (sic), both adults and minors.” Nor will they allocate a single euro to facilitate your entry or reception in Extremadura. But the pact does not stop there, and also incorporates the commitment to work “actively to return unaccompanied minors to their countries of origin” through “agreements with the countries of origin, which facilitate and expedite the repatriations and effective returns of minors with their parents.”
occupation. The text, within the “Security” section, points to the “firm application of express eviction” and the development of autonomous mechanisms to support the “victims” of squatted homes, without further specifying what they consist of. Those convicted of squatting will not be able to benefit from access to purchasing or renting social housing. The same heading includes demanding that those responsible for keeping the “crime statistics linked to mass and illegal immigration” publish them periodically.
Health and social aid. The agreement contemplates, as in Extremadura, “the exclusion of access to benefits and structural social services for those who are in an irregular situation, limiting their access exclusively to cases of vital urgency.” This implies, as Aragonese PP sources explain, that Extremadura’s income complementary to the state’s minimum vital income could be affected. The popular people of Aragon rule out that universal healthcare is affected, but the text of the agreement is ambiguous. A “Benefit Fraud and Register and Effective Residence Verification Service” is also created to further control the registration of immigrants.
Taxes. The agreement partially replicates what was agreed in Extremadura, and applies an annual and progressive decrease of 0.25% in personal income tax for those who declare less than 52,500 euros until reaching 1% at the end of the term, and also contemplates deductions for filers with children with disabilities. The signatories include this last measure within a section of “support for birth and conciliation”, with increasing tax reductions per child (1,000 euros for the first, 1,500 for the second and 2,500 for the third and subsequent children). 25% of expenses in support classes may also be deducted.
Depopulation. PP and Vox require the total deduction of personal income tax for birth or adoption in rural areas. It also reduces the Wealth Tax for the purchase of a home by young people as long as it is in a municipality of less than 10,000 inhabitants and far from the provincial capitals. The agreement includes abolishing, in 2027, an environmental tax on the emission of pollutants. The pact includes aid for “business operations” in Teruel, subsidizing the installation of video surveillance cameras, and the entry into force of a regional highway plan worth 135 million euros.
Dwelling. The agreement reiterates the principle of “national priority, appropriate to current legislation” for access to protected housing and social rental, with the same terms that were signed in Extremadura: 10 years of registration in Aragon for the purchase and 5 for the rental. The pact contemplates the construction of 4,000 public housing units in four years and is more vague on other measures to increase supply, among which it mentions “speeding up urban transformation processes.” It also includes discounts, already throughout 2027, on the Documented Legal Acts tax for young people and large families who buy a home.
Education. The educational concert regime will be progressively implemented in the Baccalaureate stage. In addition, the history of terrorism in Spain will be included in the study plans and, in similar terms to those in Extremadura, the Program for Teaching the Arabic Language and Moroccan Culture will be eliminated immediately “in the Primary and Secondary Education centers of the region.”
Catalan. The agreement includes a section titled “freedom from indoctrination and imposition” which then specifies “freeing Aragon from the imposition of Catalan” (a language spoken in Aragonese municipalities that border Catalonia and which is considered, along with Aragonese, “the community’s own original and historical language” in the Aragon Language Law of 2009) and the suppression of the Aragonese Institute of Catalan. Vaguely, there is also mention of reforming “rules that respond to ideological approaches”, but it refers to a review of the subsequent legal system to determine what they are.
