Absolute discredit of Marlaska and nightmare for Sánchez

BarcelonaThe leak of the existence of a police report pointing to the participation of Moroccan security forces in the mass entry of migrants into Ceuta on July 30th has triggered a political storm that threatens the already fragile position of Pedro Sánchez's executive on this entire issue. The report itself was prepared by a border intelligence unit that has no agents on the ground and arrives at this conclusion by analyzing the videos and images that circulated those days on social media, where Moroccan gendarmes were indeed seen guiding migrants towards the border. The report is relevant for two reasons. The first is that it refutes the version that the Spanish government has defended from day one, which is that there is no proof that Morocco had any involvement in the crisis. And the second is that the Director General of the Police himself, and therefore also Minister Fernando Grande-Marlaska and the rest of the executive, were unaware of its existence until this Wednesday. This is the case, according to their version, because the judge of the National Court who requested it to decide if there were grounds to open an investigation asked the agents not to send it to their superiors, which is highly irregular, because the police officers in question were not yet acting formally as judicial police.

However, the situation has become even more complicated when the Director General of the Police, Francisco Pardo, conveyed to Marlaska that there was no police report pointing to Morocco, which has been proven false. L'ARA has had access to the report, and it clearly points out that "Moroccan security forces" "actively guided" the migrants towards Ceuta. The Interior Ministry is trying to avoid discredit by claiming that the report only raises hypotheses and that the involvement of Morocco is not "accredited," but of course, the judge only wanted to know if there were grounds to open an investigation, and it is the instruction of the case and the subsequent trial that should determine the possible criminal responsibilities for what is considered a "violation of national sovereignty".

In its attempt to avoid a diplomatic clash with Morocco, the Spanish government is falling into discredit and ridicule, and the episode of the report also reveals a manifest lack of control of its own security forces. If we add to this the Interior Ministry's attempt to provide disinformation about the content of the police document, any request for the resignation of Minister Marlaska is more than justified.

The Ceuta crisis is turning into a nightmare for Pedro Sánchez from which he will hardly emerge, because what the right-wing opposition is asking of him would be equivalent to opening a diplomatic crisis with Morocco with even more uncertain consequences. The truth is, however, that the management of the crisis has been disastrous from the first day, and since then it has done nothing but get worse.