Elon Musk has accused Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez of “high treason” over the Spanish Government’s mass regularisation of undocumented migrants, as the scheme opened to in-person applicants on Monday.
In a message posted on X, the social media platform he owns, Musk wrote: “Dirty Sánchez is guilty of high treason.” The insult – a crude reference to a sexual act – repeats a formulation the businessman has deployed against the Spanish leader on several previous occasions.
His intervention came in response to Sánchez’s remarks at the close of the Global Progressive Mobilisation summit in Barcelona on Saturday, where the Prime Minister defended his decision to offer legal residence and work permits to around half a million undocumented migrants.
Addressing what he called “the right and the right-wing” opponents of the plan, Sánchez said Spain was “a daughter of migration” and would “not be a mother of xenophobia”.
Musk’s post was a direct reply to another X user who had described the Barcelona speech as “the greatest betrayal in European history”.
A SCHEME RUNNING AGAINST THE EUROPEAN GRAIN
The extraordinary regularisation was approved by royal decree earlier this year. Foreign nationals who can prove they were living in Spain before January 1, 2026, have resided in the country continuously for at least five months and hold a clean criminal record may apply for a one-year residence and work permit. Applications opened online on April 16 and in person on Monday, with the window closing on June 30.
The Spanish Government estimates that around 500,000 people will qualify. A leaked report from the National Police’s immigration unit, cited by international media, has suggested that as many as 1.1 million could apply.
The decree was fast-tracked by the Government, which lacks a majority in the Spanish lower house and has increasingly relied on executive orders to push through flagship policies. An earlier attempt to legislate an amnesty through parliament had stalled.
The measure originated in a citizens’ initiative that gathered more than 600,000 signatures and was supported by the Catholic Church and hundreds of civil-society groups.
The scheme runs sharply against the direction taken by most other European capitals, which are tightening migration rules and stepping up deportations. It has been denounced by the opposition Popular Party (PP) and by Vox, the right-wing party that has repeatedly accused the Socialist-led Government of encouraging irregular migration.
Long queues have already formed outside the consulates of several North and West African countries across Spain in recent days, as applicants attempt to secure the criminal-record certificates they need to complete their regularisation dossiers.
A LONG-RUNNING FEUD
It is not the first time Musk has used X to attack the Spanish premier. In February, he branded Sánchez “a tyrant and traitor to the people of Spain” after the Prime Minister announced plans to ban social media for under-16s and to make tech platform executives criminally liable for illegal content hosted on their services. The same month, Musk also described him as “the true fascist totalitarian”.
Musk had previously called Sánchez “a traitor to Spain” in a separate X exchange about the regularisation plan.
The Prime Minister hit back at the weekend. Speaking at a rally of his Spanish Socialist Workers’ Party (PSOE) in Huelva, southwest Spain, on Sunday, he accused what he called “technoligarchs” of hiding behind free-speech arguments while profiting at the expense of young people.
“Under that cloak of having to protect freedom of expression, what these technoligarchs are allowed to do is line their pockets at the expense of the mental health of our young people,” Sánchez said.
“It is not freedom of expression to manipulate the images of girls and women with artificial intelligence apps to show them naked on social networks. That is not freedom of expression, that is a violation of people’s rights and freedoms.”
He added that “denigrating and stigmatising” migrants who “honestly contribute to the prosperity and economic development of nations” was not free speech either.
ANTI-TRUMP COALITION
Sánchez used the Barcelona summit – attended by a string of left-leaning leaders from Europe and Latin America – to position himself at the head of a coalition against what he has described as “the global right”. He attacked the policies of US President Donald Trump and warned against billionaires with what he called “boundless greed”.
His Government argues that the regularisation will broaden the social-security base, close labour shortages in agriculture, hospitality and domestic care, and reduce the exploitation of workers operating in the shadow economy. Ministers also point to a sharp fall in irregular sea crossings in 2025, which they credit to closer co-operation with Morocco and Senegal.
Critics reply that past regularisations in Spain, as well as comparable schemes elsewhere in Europe, have acted as pull factors for further irregular arrivals. They argue that Madrid’s unilateral move risks undermining the tougher common line slowly emerging at EU level on border and asylum policy.
Spain’s migration minister, Elma Saiz, has called the regularisation “a historic milestone” and said it would help newly regularised workers move on to longer-term visas through employer-sponsorship routes.
