Right-wing at odds over migrant child plan in Spain

Faced with increased overcrowding at migrant camps on the Canary Islands, the government has reached agreement with the regions on what to do with some of the unaccompanied minors, that is the children without parents or guardians, who arrive on the boats from Africa.

The government of the Canary Islands has been demanding that the other regions of Spain take their fair share of these children as its own institutions cannot cope, it says.

At a meeting held in Santa Cruz, Tenerife, on Wednesday, between representatives of the different regional governments, a deal was done for some 400 minors to go to the mainland. This still leaves 3,000 others on the Canaries to be looked after.

But the negotiations have put serious pressure on the regions where the centre-right Partido Popular (PP) - which supports the transfer of the children - shares government with hard-right Vox - which does not support the policy.

Santiago Abascal, leader of Vox, was talking openly about ending those deals with the PP as the PP contemplated having to govern alone in minority in the five regions that include Valencia, Castilla y León, Murcia, Extremadura and Aragón.

Referring to Alberto Núñez Feijóo, leader of the PP, Abascal said on Thursday, "Feijóo is the one who has decided to break the regional governments by preventing regional leaders from voting against the distribution of the minors". He added that the PP leader had "tried to prevent the [shared-government] pacts with Vox and has not stopped until they became impossible".

"Nobody voted for us to accept the migration policy of [PM] Pedro Sánchez," he said, in reference to Vox's anti-immigration policies which go against the government's.

The Popular Party, however, defended itself from Vox's attacks and said agreeing to take unaccompanied children was the right thing to do. It insisted that it would not renounce the "principle of solidarity", while waiting to see if Vox would follow through on its ultimatum to abandon power-sharing in the five regions affected.

National government wants to change the law to make it compulsory for regions to accept unaccompanied minors.