Spain's immigration regularization conference stalled as PP walks out

The governing coalition convened the XIV Sectorial Conference on Immigration to assess the extraordinary regularization process that attracted 1.174 million applications. Minister Elma Saiz presided over the meeting in Madrid, where officials reported that 608,000 requests have been processed and about 12,000 applicants have received temporary residence and work permits. The agenda also included the rollout of the 2026‑2030 Integration and Citizenship Plan, funded with more than €500 million for its first year.

Regional leaders from the People’s Party (PP) staged a walk‑out, preventing the quorum needed to start the session. The PP accused the government of “institutional disloyalty,” claiming the mass regularization – the largest in Spain’s history, involving over 1.5 million pending cases – was decided without transparent impact studies, access to documentation, or coordination with the autonomous communities that would bear the service costs. Their boycott highlighted a deepening rift over migration policy between the central government and the PP‑led regions.