The Government has reached an agreement with Podemos to regularize 500,000 people living here without papers. This concerns half a million people who until now lived outside the law, without basic rights and with enormous difficulties in exercising a dignified life. And I want to be very clear from the outset: I am in complete agreement with this measure, because regularization is not a favor, nor generosity, nor a political nod. Regularization is human dignity, it is recognizing that these people exist, that they work, that they contribute, and that they deserve full rights and obligations. Legalizing them means giving them a residence and work permit, integrating them into the formal economy, making them contribute, consume, and also allowing them to access basic public services and social protection. This is not only fair from a human perspective, but it is also positive for the country's economy.
This initiative does not come out of nowhere; it stems from a popular legislative initiative driven by society, with the support of more than a thousand organizations, including the Catholic Church, and was approved a year and a half ago in Congress with the support of all parties, except one: Vox. However, during its processing, we saw something revealing. The Popular Party, which initially supported the ILP, this Popular Legislative Initiative, changed its position and ended up shelving the initiative for fear of Vox's reaction. Now, when the Government retakes it together with Podemos, the PP opposes it again, arguing the already familiar mantra of the pull effect.
And this is where we must remember the real history, not the version some want to sell us now. Because there was a time when the Popular Party itself not only did not worry about the pull effect, but promoted massive regularization of immigrants during the governments of José María Aznar. Between 1996 and 2001, the PP promoted several extraordinary regularizations that benefited more than half a million people in irregular situations. In other words, the Popular Party itself regularized hundreds of thousands of immigrants without anyone at the time linking it to the pull effect, nor was there the fear campaign that is now sought to be imposed. Those policies took place under Popular Party governments and it was not argued then that regularization was a problem.
What we have now seen is how that argument, the "pull effect," has become a narrative taken directly from the far-right and used as a pretext to block fair and sensible integration solutions. This shift in the Popular Party's stance on immigration is not anecdotal. It is political. It is the consequence of ceding to the far-right's discourse, of buying into their argumentative framework, of normalizing their narratives of fear, exclusion, and confrontation. The real risk is that, if this following continues, the far-right will end up imposing its racist and xenophobic policies, which not only attack undocumented people but also erode fundamental human rights for everyone.
And that is no exaggeration. Even today, we see clear examples in other countries, such as recently in the United States, where anti-immigration rhetoric is being associated with policies that criminalize and exclude. Regularizing these 500,000 people is not only a measure of social justice, but also a practical and responsible decision. It not only grants them rights they already deserve, but also incorporates their work and lives into the formal economic circuit, with their contributions, access to basic services, and stability. Managing immigration is not a problem to be feared, but a reality to be faced with responsibility and humanity, and regularizing those who already live among us is a step in the right direction. We cannot allow the fear and prejudices of a few to decide the lives of hundreds of thousands of people. That is what is at stake today.