Located in the Merindad de Tudela, in Navarras lands, Valtierra It is a municipality of just 2,500 neighbors that does not usually monopolize large headlines. Not anymore. His name and that of his mayor, Manuel Resa (UPN) has been starring chronicles for several days in the National Press And even It has sneaked in it Prime Time television by the hand of ‘Public mirror’. The reason has little to do with the agroganader sector of the town or its heritage. What has placed it under the media focus is its political controversy in favor of birth and especially the differences between the ‘lifelong’ families of the people and those formed by immigrant workers.
And that, with Torre Pacheco even in memoryhas raised Polvareda.
Why’s that? To understand you have to go back a few months ago, to Octoberwhen the town hall of Valtierra published the foundations of a ‘call for the granting of birth aids’. The idea, as clarifies The documentdigitally signed by Manuel Resa, it was “to support and encourage” the birth of the people, contributing to the region being sustainable at a social and economic level. So far unusual. To achieve this, the Consistory offered aid of up to 3,000 euros to families that had children throughout 2025.
Going down to detail. The controversy arises in The fifth point of the document, where the “requirements” that the beneficiaries must meet. In addition to giving birth to a baby between January and December 2025, being a neighbor of the town and being up to date with municipal taxes, the Consistory asks that people who request the aid meet a demand: at least one of the parents of the creature must have registered several decades in the municipality. And the document makes it clear that the newborn is expected to also maintain that same status.
“At least one of the parents must be registered in Valtierra uninterrupted during the 20 years immediately prior to the date of registration of the request for birth help. In addition the neonates must be registered with the parent who requests the aid at the time of the registration immediately after birth, as well as remaining registered for 20 years uninterrupted in the locality of the locality of Valtierra “.
And the controversy jumped. Beyond the effort to set the population in the town, that requirement has another much more controversial reading: it leaves out all those immigrant parents who carry in Valtierra less than two decades. This was understood by a group of women, who made it possible for the matter to reach the service against racism and xenophobia. The result? The past spring The regional government moved to sign and asked the Council of Navarra to value whether the clause was “compatibility with the legal system and principle of equality.”
Before the government gave some advice to the town hall of Valtierra, but they allegedly fell into a broken bag. “The answer was to ignore any type of recommendation and stay in the literal of the approved bases, so we are obliged to raise this case to the Council to rule, from the conviction that there is an obvious discriminatory treatment in an important part of the population e Valtierra,” Explain The Minister of Migration Policies.
Point and end? Not at all. Far from relaxing, the controversy has continued to fan. And he has basically done for two reasons. The first is that in mid -June the Council of Navarra published Your opinionan extensive report that is resolved with a conclusion as succinct as blunt, especially if we remember that the report has an advisory character and is not a sentence: its experts express “serious doubts” that Valtierra’s requirements conform to the legal system.
“The Menas those”. The second reason that the controversy has fueled are the statements of the mayor himself, who have served to throw further firewood. During one interview With the SER RESA chain he insisted that he has no intention of changing the call and that the important thing is to support people with roots.
“What we have to sponsor and where we have to put money is for people with roots of our land because we are receiving many immigrants who cost us a pasture,” he argues in statements collected by The country. “For example, those that cost 4,950 euros per month, more than 50,000 euros a year. Some young mans of those we have there.” The mayor has also censored that there are people with “all rights, but no obligation.”
A key percentage: 60%. Your statements have unleashed The political debate Beyond Valtierra and have even taken the PNV to disallow the mayorof his own training, for Vox rejoicing, which has “congratulated him.” “We congratulate this speech”, He came to celebrate His regional spokesman Emilio Jiménez. The truth is that resa’s words have generated a stir for another reason: Valtierra, a town that did not reach last year 2,500 inhabitantshas a considerable demographic dependence on immigration, especially of African origin.
It is recognized by the Government of Navarra, who recalls that in 2023 Valtierra registered only 23 births and in 14 of them the mother was of foreign origin. That is, they meant about 60% of the total birth. The avant -garde Precise In addition, near the fifth of its population (19%) come from abroad and are mostly emigrants from North Africa to work in the field. In other Navarre locations, such as miracle or tudela that percentage is even higher. In opinion De Begoña Alfaro, Minister of Migration Policies, measures such as Valtierra create “first and second citizens.”
Images | AEK Korrika (Flickr) and Kyle Nieber (Unspash)
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