Spain's Opposition Unveils Hardline Election Manifesto as Feijóo Vows Tighter Borders and Slower Climate Goals

MADRID — Spain's main opposition People's Party (PP) unveiled its election manifesto on Tuesday, 10 November, promising to cut taxes, tighten borders, impose stricter conditions on development aid and slow climate timetables, 19 days before Spaniards vote in a snap general election on 29 November, Reuters reported.

The manifesto, presented by PP leader Alberto Núñez Feijóo at a party event in Madrid, is the clearest statement yet of what a conservative government led by the PP would do in office — and it marks a sharp break with the migration, climate and housing policies of Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez's Socialist government. Migration dominates the document: the PP promises to ban what it calls "mass and indiscriminate regularisation", set annual work-visa quotas tied to cooperation on returns, and deploy the Armed Forces to support border control when national security requires it. Opinion polls put the PP ahead of Sánchez's Socialists, but the party would probably need the support of the far-right Vox party to govern, according to Reuters.

On climate, the manifesto promises to halt what it calls "impossible" climate target timetables and withdraw obligations that "harm competitiveness, industry or employment" — while still describing decarbonisation as a "key objective" for Europe. On tax, it promises to cut VAT on basic food items for as long as "the current crisis of inflation and purchasing power persists" and to cut income tax for people on the minimum wage to zero.

Illustration: Spain's Congress of Deputies building in Madrid at dusk, lined with Spanish flags, as the country heads for a snap general election on 29 November 2026.

What Happened

Feijóo unveiled the PP's electoral programme at a party event in Madrid on Tuesday, 10 November, accompanied by Alma Ezcurra, the party's deputy secretary for sectoral coordination, who coordinated the document, according to the Spanish newspaper Demócrata. The programme is built around four pillars, according to SpainNews, and includes a pledge to build one million homes and to reform the judiciary.

"Illegal immigration cannot be the normal way into Spain, nor a means of exerting pressure to undermine our territorial integrity," Feijóo told party members, according to Euractiv's Madrid correspondent, writing for Rapporteur. The line captures the manifesto's central argument: that Spain's migration policy should be brought into line with European Union policies and with harder-line governments in Europe such as Denmark's.

The immigration section is the most detailed part of the document. Beyond the ban on mass regularisations, the PP vows to reform Spain's immigration law to prevent future ones and to require foreign residents to adhere to a "commitment to integration", including mandatory Spanish language requirements, according to Rapporteur. At EU level, the party plans to fully implement the bloc's new, tougher return rules, and the manifesto says that "if a country fails to cooperate on readmissions, we will make visas, development cooperation and Spain's position in European trade policy conditional upon such cooperation". The PP further vows "to promote agreements to establish return centres in third countries", a move recently backed by other EU countries but fiercely opposed by Sánchez's Socialists, who cite human rights concerns.

Feijóo also called for a reinforced presence of security forces at Spain's key entry points used by irregular migrants, with the Armed Forces able to assist border security forces "when national security so requires, with legal cover, clear rules and resources", according to Rapporteur.

The tax and spending pledges are aimed squarely at household budgets. Cutting VAT on basic food items and scrapping income tax for minimum-wage earners are the headline measures, alongside higher pay and more troops for the army and a promise to scrap three rules for each new regulation created, according to Reuters. The manifesto also proposes regulating the loss of nationality for naturalised citizens convicted of crimes against life, sexual freedom, national security, the integrity of the State or the international community.

On foreign policy, the manifesto promises to resume dialogue with Britain on the EU–Gibraltar deal, which the party notes was not endorsed by Spain's Congress; to "recover the transatlantic link" with the United States and work towards a "balanced and strong relationship" avoiding trade wars; and, on Ukraine, to maintain "political, economic, military and humanitarian support" and sanctions on Russia, "for as long as its aggression lasts". The programme also pledges that no autonomous community will leave the common financing system or receive a special arrangement like the one agreed for Catalonia between Sánchez's government and the Catalan Republican Left (ERC), according to Demócrata, and proposes restoring Spanish as the common working language in the Congress of Deputies.

Illustration: A border fence along a Spanish coastline at sunrise, with a patrol boat at sea, evoking the tougher border controls promised in the PP manifesto.

Background

The snap election was called by Sánchez on Monday, 5 October, after Congress rejected two emergency housing decrees put forward by his minority government, according to Al Jazeera and Reuters. The decrees would have suspended evictions of vulnerable tenants until 2030, capped rent rises at 2 per cent and tightened the rules on short-term lets, according to the magazine Economic Affairs. The PP, Vox and the Catalan nationalist party Junts all voted them down.

The housing crisis had burst into the centre of Spanish politics weeks earlier. A tent camp in Madrid, set up in September after the eviction of 87-year-old pensioner Maricarmen Abascal from her lifelong home, spearheaded more than a month of protests over housing, according to the news agency AKHBAR. Sánchez's government presented the two decrees in response, but its minority coalition depends on support from several smaller parties — and on this occasion that support was not there.

Announcing the election from his official residence at La Moncloa, Sánchez acknowledged that his government had made mistakes and fallen short of some of its objectives, identifying housing, inequality and the quality of public services as the main challenges facing Spain. The vote on 29 November brings the election forward by almost nine months: without the early election, the next general election would not have been due until 22 August 2027 at the latest, and the parliamentary term, which began after the July 2023 elections, is being cut short after three years.

The official campaign period begins at midnight on 13 November and ends on 27 November, with 28 November set aside as a day of reflection, according to Evangelical Focus. Feijóo has chosen "El cambio necesario" — "The change that is necessary" — as the campaign's central slogan, and will formally launch the campaign on Thursday, 12 November, at an event in Badalona, near Barcelona, according to Demócrata. The polls give the PP a clear but not commanding lead: an average of 15 polling institutes compiled by Demócrata on 10 November put the PP on 31.5 per cent, while Politico's poll of polls, cited by Economic Affairs the same day, put the PP on about 32 per cent, the Spanish Socialist Workers' Party (PSOE) on 26 per cent and Vox on 19 per cent. On those numbers, a PP-led coalition with Vox is the most likely outcome of the election, according to Al Jazeera.

The PP's manifesto lands in a campaign already shaped by migration. In the past week, more than 6,000 irregular migrants arrived in the Canary Islands from West Africa, according to Euractiv's Madrid correspondent, pushing migration back to the heart of the political debate. The correspondent also reported that in July more than 80,000 irregular migrants crossed the border from Morocco into Ceuta, a Spanish exclave in North Africa, triggering what she described as an unprecedented political crisis in Spain and Europe. Feijóo has taken aim at Sánchez's migration policies, including a mass migrant regularisation set to provide papers to more than a million undocumented migrants living in Spain, which has angered other European countries, according to the same report.

Readers of this blog may recall that this publication covered the state of the race on 9 November, in post #1018, which reported that Spain's right was leading the polls ahead of the 29 November election. That article was about polling, not policy. This article covers a new event: the PP's manifesto itself, unveiled on 10 November, which sets out in detail what Feijóo would actually do in government.

Why It Matters

The manifesto matters because it shows how far Spain's mainstream right has moved on migration — and how far a future PP government might move Spain away from the European mainstream on climate. The PP is not a fringe party: it is Spain's main opposition, it leads the polls, and it is the most likely party to form the next government. Its programme is therefore the closest thing to a preview of Spain's next government that voters will get before 29 November.

The migration pledges are the most consequential. Banning mass regularisations, tying work visas to readmission cooperation and promoting return centres in third countries would align Spain with the EU's tougher turn on migration, but would reverse a policy direction Sánchez has defended as a matter of principle. Making visas, development aid and trade positions conditional on cooperation with returns would also give Spain a new lever in its relations with West African states, from which many of the migrants arriving in the Canary Islands set out.

The climate pledge is subtler but significant. The PP does not reject decarbonisation — it calls it a "key objective" for Europe — but it promises to halt timetables it describes as "impossible" and to withdraw obligations that harm competitiveness, industry or employment. For a country that has positioned itself as a European leader on renewable energy, that would be a change of direction with consequences for EU climate negotiations, where Spain has often pushed for faster action.

The manifesto also matters for the politics of the campaign itself. Sánchez called the snap election as a gamble, hoping that the housing protests would give his Socialists a rare boost, according to Reuters. The PP's answer is to fight the election on different ground: migration, taxes and the cost of living, with a promise of one million new homes that goes to the root of the housing problem — supply — rather than the rent controls and eviction moratoria Sánchez proposed. Which of those two diagnoses voters accept may decide the election. The manifesto's explicit commitment to maintain support for Ukraine and sanctions on Russia "for as long as its aggression lasts" is, in that context, a signal of continuity that European allies will welcome.

Illustration: A ballot box on a wooden table in a Spanish city square, with new homes under construction behind it, as voters prepare to decide the country's direction on 29 November.

What Happens Next

The formal campaign begins at midnight on Friday, 13 November, when Feijóo launches the PP's campaign in Badalona under the slogan "The change that is necessary". The Socialists, meanwhile, will have to defend a record that includes the housing crisis, the migration pressures in the Canary Islands and Ceuta, and a minority government that could not get its own housing decrees through Congress.

Before the campaign even starts, Spain faces a nationwide general strike over the housing crisis, called by the tenants' union Sindicato de Inquilinas and backed by the CCOO and UGT unions, and scheduled for Wednesday, 11 November, according to SpainNews. The strike is a reminder that housing — the issue that triggered the snap election — remains unresolved, and that both sides will be judged on it.

Polls will be watched closely in the coming days for any movement after the manifesto's unveiling. The PP's lead is consistent but not large, and with Vox on about 19 per cent the arithmetic of any coalition will depend on small shifts in the final two weeks. If the PP's lead holds, the question will become the terms of a deal with Vox — and whether Feijóo can form a government without conceding ground on the issues where the two parties differ.

If the PP wins, the manifesto's pledges will be tested quickly: the ban on mass regularisations, the work-visa quotas, the VAT cut on basic foods and the zero income tax rate for minimum-wage earners are all measures a new government could move on in its first weeks. The promise of one million homes, by contrast, is a long-term project that would take years to deliver — and would be judged against a housing shortage that the PP itself has put at the centre of the campaign. Spaniards vote on Sunday, 29 November, and the result will decide whether the country turns towards the harder-line migration and slower climate path the PP set out on 10 November — or sticks with the direction Sánchez has pursued for the past three years.

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FAQ

What did Spain's People's Party promise in its election manifesto?

Unveiled on 10 November 2026 by leader Alberto Núñez Feijóo, the PP manifesto promises to ban "mass and indiscriminate regularisation" of migrants, set annual work-visa quotas limited to countries that cooperate on returns, deploy the Armed Forces to support border control when national security requires it, ban Islamic face veils in public spaces, cut VAT on basic food items, cut income tax for minimum-wage earners to zero, halt "impossible" climate target timetables, and build one million homes, according to Reuters and SpainNews.

When is Spain's general election and why was it called early?

Spaniards vote on Sunday, 29 November 2026. Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez called the snap election on 5 October after Congress rejected two emergency housing decrees — which would have suspended evictions of vulnerable tenants until 2030 and capped rent rises at 2 per cent — with the PP, Vox and the Catalan nationalist party Junts all voting against them. Without the early election, the next vote would not have been due until 22 August 2027 at the latest.

Who is leading in the polls ahead of the Spanish election?

The PP leads in the polls. An average of 15 polling institutes compiled by Demócrata on 10 November put the PP on 31.5 per cent, while Politico's poll of polls, cited by Economic Affairs the same day, put the PP on about 32 per cent, the Socialists (PSOE) on 26 per cent and Vox on 19 per cent. On those numbers the PP would probably need an alliance with the far-right Vox party to govern, according to Reuters and Al Jazeera. This blog covered the polling picture separately in post #1018 on 9 November; this article covers the manifesto unveiled on 10 November.

What would the PP change on migration?

The manifesto promises a major overhaul: a ban on mass regularisations, a reform of immigration law to prevent future ones, a "commitment to integration" for foreign residents including mandatory Spanish language requirements, full implementation of the EU's tougher return rules, and making visas, development aid and trade positions conditional on a country's cooperation with readmissions. It also vows to promote return centres in third countries and to reinforce security forces at key entry points. Feijóo said: "Illegal immigration cannot be the normal way into Spain, nor a means of exerting pressure to undermine our territorial integrity."

What happens next in the Spanish election campaign?

The formal campaign begins at midnight on 13 November and ends on 27 November, with 28 November as a day of reflection before the vote on 29 November. Feijóo launches the PP campaign on 12 November in Badalona under the slogan "El cambio necesario" ("The change that is necessary"), and a nationwide general strike over the housing crisis is scheduled for 11 November. If the PP wins, its manifesto pledges — the migration overhaul, the tax cuts and the one-million-homes promise — will be tested in its first weeks and months in office.

Sources

• Reuters — "Spain's election contender PP pledges tighter borders, slower climate goals", 10 November 2026.
• Euractiv (via Rapporteur) — "Spanish opposition vows to join EU's migration hardline", by Inés Fernández-Pontes, 10 November 2026.
• Al Jazeera — "Spain's Sanchez announces snap election amid pressure over housing crisis", 5 October 2026.
• SpainNews — "Spain prepares for 29 November general elections", 10 November 2026.
• Demócrata — reporting on the PP electoral programme, the "El cambio necesario" campaign launch and polling averages, 10 November 2026.
• Economic Affairs — "Spain's snap election: a PP–Vox majority would loosen the state's grip, except at the border", 10 November 2026.