Spanish Nationalists Furious: Socialist PM Sánchez Decrees Amnesty For 500K Illegals, Skirts Parliament https://t.co/PNPV2fMUUE
— zerohedge (@zerohedge) January 28, 2026
The extraordinary regularization, negotiated between Sánchez’s Socialist Party (PSOE) and the far-left Podemos, is due to be approved by the Council of Ministers on Tuesday. By using a royal decree, the government can impose the measure directly, despite the fact that an almost identical proposal has been stalled in parliament for more than a year due to a lack of majority support.
Under the agreement, illegal migrants who can prove they were in Spain before Dec. 31, 2025, and have remained in the country for at least five months will be eligible for provisional residence and work permits, provided they have no serious criminal record. The moment an application is filed, any deportation or return proceedings will be suspended. If approved, applicants will receive a one-year residence permit, eligible for renewal. Podemos estimates that more than half a million people will benefit.
Podemos figures have openly celebrated the move. As cited by El País, Irene Montero, former equality minister and now an MEP, described the amnesty as an “urgent measure of social justice” and said her party would ensure the process is “swift.”
She claimed the regularization was necessary to protect migrants from what she described as “racist violence” and framed the policy as the granting of rights to people allegedly denied them through “institutional racism.