The Voxpolitician Rocío de Meer accused the government in an interview published on 7 November 2026 with 20minutos of calling itself “social” while millions of people in Spain were at risk of poverty. The party’s national spokesperson for demographic emergencies and social policy and its leading candidate in Almería made migration and healthcare central themes of her appearance, just weeks before the vote on 29 November 2026.
De Meer said that around 13 million people were at risk of poverty or social exclusion. This figure can be compared with the widely used AROPE rate , which measures the risk of poverty or exclusion. According to summary reports by RTVE reports Instituto Nacional de Estadística figures for 2024 and 2025 that are on a scale equivalent to just under 13 million people. However, this indicator describes a statistical threshold and is not the same as officially established poverty.
In substance, De Meer’s remarks echo long-standing Vox positions. She called for stricter controls at external borders, “remigration” and greater priority for Spanish nationals in public services, particularly healthcare. Spain cannot be “the hospital of the world”, she said. The politician justifies this on the grounds of pressure on the social security system. She has pursued similar lines of argument in parliamentary debates and public appearances documented in the records of the Congreso de los Diputados documented in.
The causal relationship between migration and trends in social indicators is disputed in research and among public authorities, and is assessed in nuanced terms. While Vox claims a direct strain, many analyses point out that employment integration, demographic effects and transfer payments can have countervailing effects. It is undisputed that healthcare waiting times and losses in purchasing power feature prominently in public debate; however, the data alone do not support a clear-cut political conclusion.
The interview is therefore a sharply worded contribution to the debate on social and migration policy ahead of 29 November 2026. What is clear is that the figures De Meer cites for the risk of poverty or exclusion are statistically plausible; the policies she calls for are party-political positions and are being put to the test in the election campaign.
Editor: Phillipe Schmidt-Araguin (Article created with AI assistance).