{"id":8283,"date":"2026-04-22T16:09:12","date_gmt":"2026-04-22T16:09:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/8283\/"},"modified":"2026-04-22T16:09:12","modified_gmt":"2026-04-22T16:09:12","slug":"at-far-right-event-frances-bardella-targets-spain-over-migrant-amnesty","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/8283\/","title":{"rendered":"At Far-Right Event, France&#8217;s Bardella Targets Spain Over Migrant Amnesty"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>By Sergio Goncalves and Miguel Pereira<\/p>\n<p>PORTO, Portugal, April \u206022 (Reuters) &#8211; \u2060France&#8217;s far-right National Rally would \u2060reintroduce border controls and seek to limit Europe\u2019s free\u2011movement zone to \u200bEU nationals if it came to power, its leader said on Wednesday, accusing Spain of becoming \u200ca gateway for migration into \u200cEurope.<\/p>\n<p>At an event organised by Patriots for Europe &#8211; the EU Parliament&#8217;s third-largest grouping &#8211; in \u2060Porto, Jordan \u2060Bardella said Spain&#8217;s upcoming mass regularisation of migrants had &#8220;considerable consequences for the \u200blarger balance of Spanish society, but also for neighbouring countries&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p>Last week, Madrid launched the fast\u2011track scheme to grant legal residence to undocumented migrants who can prove having entered the country before end-2025 \u200band spent five uninterrupted months living in Spain, a move it says could integrate \u2060up to \u2060500,000 workers and boost \u2060the economy.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Spain \u200bunder (Prime Minister Pedro) Sanchez is in the process of becoming the entry point for migratory \u200bsubversion in Europe,&#8221; he \u2060told reporters in Portugal&#8217;s second-largest city.<\/p>\n<p>Sanchez, a Socialist, has repeatedly rejected such criticism from the domestic opposition, saying the measure simply aimed to recognise the rights of people who were already living in the country. He also cited the precedent of similar schemes implemented by \u2060prior Spanish governments of the conservative People&#8217;s Party.<\/p>\n<p>Bardella said that if his party won \u2060next year&#8217;s presidential election, it would enforce border controls and push for the freedom of movement granted under the Schengen agreement to be reserved exclusively for nationals of EU member states.<\/p>\n<p>Aside from Bardella and host Andre Ventura, who leads the far-right Portuguese opposition party Chega, the Patriots event brought together MEPs and policy experts for a two\u2011day debate on energy sovereignty, territory and the broader future of Europe.<\/p>\n<p>Ventura claimed the residence permits obtained by migrants in Spain were a \u2060ploy by Sanchez to reap votes in future elections and said it put all of Europe at risk.<\/p>\n<p>However, under Spanish electoral law, only Spanish citizens are eligible to vote in general elections. Migrants who obtain residency do not automatically \u200breceive citizenship and therefore cannot vote.<\/p>\n<p>(Reporting by Sergio Goncalves and Miguel Pereira; \u200bEditing by David Latona and William Maclean)<\/p>\n<p>Copyright 2026 Thomson Reuters.<\/p>\n<p>Photos You Should See \u2013 April 2026<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/april-21-pyss-x01.jpg\" alt=\"SHREVEPORT, LOUISIANA - APRIL 20: Children huddle to pray during a memorial gathering on April 20, 2026 in Shreveport, Louisiana. Eight children were killed and two women were wounded during a domestic violence incident in the early morning hours of April 19th, according to local authorities. (Photo by Brandon Bell\/Getty Images)\" class=\"Image__PictureImage-sc-412cjc-1 bBgODV Image-sc-412cjc-2 SlideshowEmbed__Picture-fkpjfn-0 kQDDcT bUlaJL\"\/><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"By Sergio Goncalves and Miguel Pereira PORTO, Portugal, April \u206022 (Reuters) &#8211; \u2060France&#8217;s far-right National Rally would \u2060reintroduce&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":8284,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[188,73,430,5,1240,3321,186,230,90],"class_list":{"0":"post-8283","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-france","8":"tag-collections-world","9":"tag-europe","10":"tag-european-union","11":"tag-france","12":"tag-portugal","13":"tag-presidential-elections","14":"tag-reuters","15":"tag-spain","16":"tag-world-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8283","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8283"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8283\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8284"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8283"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8283"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8283"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}