Can Spain's open immigration stance survive 2026 and the far right?

In 2025 anti-immigration sentiment forced its way further into mainstream politics and far-right parties grew in influence across Europe. 

The year ended with around 37 European nations led by the UK, Denmark, and Italy pushing for reforms to the European Convention of Human Rights (ECHR) that would allow countries to streamline deportations.

Spain, meanwhile, has taken a different approach to migration, as the administration led by Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez stuck steadfastly to its position that immigrants are good for the country.

In the Spanish parliament, Sanchez said: "We defend our conviction that immigration is not only a matter of humanity, which is reason enough in itself, but that it is also necessary for the prosperity of our economy and the sustainability of our welfare state."

The numbers appear to agree.

Spain grew by around 3 percent of GDP last year, twice the European average, and Sanchez has doubled down on policies like giving legal papers to nearly a million undocumented migrants over three years.

Migrants make up 25-50 percent of the workforce in crucial sectors like construction and tourism.

CGTN spoke to Emilio Ramirez-Matos, a lawyer, immigration expert, and partner at Ramirez Crespo Law Firm.

"Spain is Europe's gateway to Africa and to Latin American countries, so we have a long history of migration and emigration and for me, we have a strong system of integration and regulation," he said. 

"Migration is good, migration enriches and migration helps make the country work, Europe doesn't need to harden policies, but to bring order to them."

Spain's demographic dilemma

Like the rest of Europe, an ageing population means Spain needs immigrants.

The Bank of Spain estimates around 25 million immigrants will be needed by 2050 to maintain social security (Health and education for example) and pension systems.

But the rising tide of anti-migrant sentiment and far-right rhetoric is increasingly visible here too. 

Just days before Christmas 400 migrants were removed from a squat in Badalona, a working-class area of Barcelona, leaving many - mostly African migrants from Senegal and Gambia - homeless, sparking a heated debate, protests and counter-protests.

Meanwhile, far-right party VOX won almost 17 percent of the vote in the 21 December elections in the Extremadura region, making them kingmakers as Sanchez's socialist party suffered dismal losses.

VOX now holds the balance of power in Extremadura, just as it did in Valencia, Aragón, Murcia, and Castilla y León after the 2023 regional elections.

A December speech from Santiago Abascal, the leader of VOX, blamed Sanchez for "condemning the Spanish to mass immigration," blaming everything from the housing crisis to crime to "collapsed public services" on the Prime Minister's immigration policies.

It's a similar line of attack employed across Europe by other far-right parties, and a successful tactic used by US President Donald Trump.

Across the Atlantic, US December 5 National Security Strategy papers made Washington's support for Europe's nationalist far-right parties explicit too, further strengthening leaders like, Georgia Meloni in Italy, Marine Le Pen and Jordan Bardella in France, and Santiago Abascal in Spain.

Trump on Europe

According to the US President, "Europe is going in some bad directions. It's very bad, very bad for the people. We don't want Europe to change so much."

Feeling threatened by rising far-right popularity, even the more moderate European leaders hardened their language on immigration in 2025. 

In May the Prime Minister Keir Starmer stated the UK risked becoming an "island of strangers," while French President Emmanuel Macron has overseen in a significant reduction in legal residence permits and new, stricter integration requirements.

German Chancellor Friedrich Merz said he expected many of the 1.3 million Syrians living in Germany to return voluntarily to help rebuild their country, and suggested deportations if not.

Europe faces an immigration dichotomy. It's an economic and demographic necessity, but a political liability.

ECHR evolution?

The threat from anti-immigration parties and the mainstreaming of far-right rhetoric has EU members scrambling to change the ECHR to allow easier deportations, particularly in criminal cases.

The argument is that the 75-year-old European convention on human rights is out of date and needs modernizing.

According to Irish Senator and former Deputy Taoiseach (Prime Minister) Michael McDowell, the international conventions dealing with refugee and asylum seeking which were enacted in the Second World War "are no longer capable of dealing effectively with mass economic migration posing as asylum seeking."

The 46 member states of the Council of Europe are expected to adopt a declaration in May 2026 in Moldova, marking a political agreement on the need for reform.

Back in Spain, with Sanchez and his PSOE socialist party corralled by corruption scandals and a minority coalition government looking increasingly shaky, 2026 could bring big political change and see Spain shift to the right on immigration too.