Pope Leo is in Spain, where immigration is today the dividing line between left and right. The country’s president is a communist. It is an interesting time for Pope Leo to go to Spain. He is wrapping up a weeklong Apostolic Journey to the country (June 6–12, 2026). He previously visited Madrid and Barcelona and traveled to the Canary Islands.
Pope Leo XIV has already expressed his opposition to border policies and appears to prefer open borders. That puts him in opposition to Vox. Vox is the Spanish populist party, and it is surging in popularity. The older conservative People’s Party has recently signed on to Vox’s idea of prioritizing Spanish citizens for government services and benefits. That policy is known as “prioridad nacional.”
The Policy
The policy aims to give Spanish citizens preferential treatment when accessing public subsidies, social housing, and government welfare benefits.
The regional implementation clause has been embedded in governing pacts across several self-governing regions, including Aragón, Castilla y León, and Extremadura. For example, in Aragón, access to subsidized housing and social rentals is contingent on a 10-year residency requirement for buying and a 5-year residency requirement for renting.
While Vox explicitly states that the policy is designed to put “Spaniards first,” the PP has attempted to legally frame the criteria around having “real, lasting, and verifiable ties to the territory” (known as “arraigo”), rather than nationality alone.
The adoption of these ideas has sparked significant controversy in Madrid. Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez’s left-wing government has heavily criticized the PP’s compromises with Vox, characterizing the prioridad nacional agenda as “institutionalized xenophobia”.
Opinion: the Hardcore Leftist Pope
The integration of what communists call anti-immigration policies is being heavily monitored as a key barometer of how populism, which they call far-right, has penetrated mainstream Spanish politics ahead of future general elections.
The country’s Bolshevik prime minister, Pedro Sanchez, on the other hand, is pursuing the Spanish equivalent of Joe Biden’s immigration policy. Spain has been flooded with immigrants, both legal and illegal, and Sanchez is working to legalize half a million who arrived unlawfully.
It is not a good idea for a pope to appear to side with communists and open borders. He knows that. Siding with the globalist leftists is going to seriously harm and transform the Catholic Church. He knows that, too.
He Echoed the Hardcore Leftist Globalists
Addressing the Cortes Generales, the national legislature, on Monday, Pope Leo called for “safe and legal pathways, a respectful welcome and real opportunities for integration” for migrants and refugees.
Even when invoking “the right to remain in one’s own land,” the Pope framed the issue as “working to ensure that no one has to leave their home due to lack of peace, security, or decent living conditions, including economic inequalities and the effects of the climate crisis.”
“Economic inequalities” and “climate crisis” are the dishonest calling cards of the hardcore left globalists. They are the means by which they can wage their war on the United States Constitution and Americanism. I’m surprised he left out DEI.
The media is rightly and joyfully assuming that he is rebuking the VOX Party. He is using his power to help the hardcore left.
He obviously also opposes President Trump. The cardinals, who were 80% Pope Francis’s choice, picked an American who would rebuke Trump for his agenda.
The New York Post called the Pope naïve and “dangerously political.” I agree it’s “dangerously political,” but Leo is not naïve and knows exactly what he is doing and why.
The Pope is only a man, not God. He is so far-left that traditional Catholics look extreme to him. That’s not naïvété; it’s ideology.
