BREAKING: tripled the required residence time
In breaking news, the following story has emerged from the international scene.
The principle that PP and Vox have now baptized as “national priority” in their pacts in Extremadura and Aragón can hardly be presented as something new. That same criterion has been incorporated into the norms of communities of all political colors for years. But it’s not called that. It is called “continuous and effective residence in the previous 24 months” in Catalan law, “three years of registration” in the Basque Country or “twelve years of residence” in the Canary Islands. The background, in any case, is the same; What changes is the name and the party that signs it. And that’s where Patxi López comes in, becoming one of the harshest voices these days against the agreement between the parties of Alberto Núñez Feijóo and Santiago Abascal. He has come to describe it as “the most retrograde, most inhuman and most against equality in this country that has been known in decades.” What López does not remember is that he himself, when he was Lehendakari between 2009 and 2012, promoted a tightening of the rules very similar to the one he questions today. He was the first to raise the bar for roots to access social aid from the Basque Government intended for vulnerable people. In 2011, with him at the head of the Basque Government, the regional Parliament approved a reform of the Income Guarantee Income (RGI) that restricted the access conditions. The registration requirement went from one year to three for the majority of applicants. That is, the minimum required residence time was tripled. The reform went ahead with the votes of socialists and popular people. The PNV abstained, but since then, with the nationalists back in power, that criterion has remained intact legislature after legislature. This income is a universal benefit: both Spaniards and foreigners residing in the Basque Country without sufficient income can collect it. And in practice, a requirement of three years of registration is much more difficult to meet for those who have arrived later in the territory and chain moves or temporary contracts. In fact, organizations such as SOS Racismo have been warning for years that this type of Residency thresholds disproportionately impact the migrant population. Foreigners represent around 10% of the Basque population, but they are 34% of the recipients of the Income Guarantee Income. That is to say, they resort to this social assistance much more than Spaniards in proportional terms. Basque income is, furthermore, the highest insertion benefit in all of Spain at present: up to 840.68 euros per month for a single person. And despite those three years of registration required – the highest bar in the entire country – the Basque Government did not relax its control. Quite the opposite. In 2023, the PNV Executive, in coalition with the PSOE, launched a specific campaign to check whether the beneficiaries of that income really lived where they were registered. The Ertzaintza began knocking on the doors of the recipients to check. Different social platforms such as Berri-Otxoak collected in just three months more than a dozen complaints from people who reported police visits without a court order and under the threat of suspending their help if they did not let the agents pass. The Government itself acknowledged that between 2023 and 2025 it carried out 2,397 home inspections, with irregularities detected in 52.6% of the cases. Of the benefits withdrawn, 54.9% corresponded to Spanish citizens and 45.1% to foreigners. Catalonia, Asturias, Valencia… Virtually all of Spain applies some type of residency requirement to access integration income. The Basque case is, along with the Balearic Islands, the most restrictive. The Balearic Islands, governed by the PP with external support from Vox, also requires 36 months of residence to collect their guaranteed social income. Catalonia – with both pro-independence and PSC governments – sets the bar at 24 months, the same as Navarra and Asturias, where the executives of PSN-Geroa Bai and the PSOE demand two years of effective residence. Andalusia and the Community of Madrid, both in the hands of the PP, lower that requirement to twelve months for their own minimum income. In the Valencian Community, the PP and Vox agreed in March 2026 to increase the minimum registration time required to be able to collect this social aid from 12 to 15 months. The agreements of Extremadura and Aragón do not yet specify the exact deadlines for this type of income. They talk about “establishing a reinforced minimum period of roots, registration and connection with the territory.” Canary Islands, 12 years The pacts of Extremadura and Aragon also call for tightening access to protected housing. There they do specify ten years of registration to buy protected housing and five to access rent. What happens in the rest of the map? The toughest measure of roots for access to housing was not signed by Vox, but by the Canarian Coalition last March. A month ago, the Government of Fernando Clavijo approved a decree that requires 12 years of continuous residence on the islands – 15 if discontinuous – to access public housing, in addition to five years of municipal roots. In the Community of Madrid, Isabel Díaz Ayuso presented at the end of January a draft of a protected housing regulation that required 10 years of registration for both purchase and rental. After protests from those affected on the waiting list, the Housing Minister reduced the rental requirement to five years, but maintained the ten years for the purchase. At the other extreme is Navarra. For years, the Foral Community gave extra points in access to protected housing to anyone who had been registered there for more than eight years. But in 2016, the Government of the nationalist Uxue Barkos, with the support of the PSOE, eliminated this criterion, considering it “unfair and discriminatory.”
The Bigger Picture:
This report highlights significant developments in the international landscape that could reshape diplomatic relations in the coming weeks.
This is part of a broader trend that has been reshaping the geopolitical landscape in recent months.
We encourage our readers to follow this developing story for the latest information.
Source: This article was originally published in another language by El Español – Home and has been translated and adapted for our global English-speaking audience. Read the original article here.