The role of justice in the Ceuta crisis

BarcelonaThe National Court judge María Tardón has opened a criminal case to investigate the massive entry of immigrants into Ceuta on July 30 as a "serious attack on the territorial integrity of Spain". Among the crimes the judge wants to investigate are those that "compromise the peace or independence of the State", which are those from 589 to 597. "It is deduced that the crime has the intentionality of attacking the State", adds the judge, who recalls that Pedro Sánchez presented the events as a "violation of the territorial integrity of Spain". And she also recalls that a "massive migratory flow" is "one of the characteristic methods of hybrid warfare". Thus, since this Monday there is a Spanish court –and not just any court– investigating whether Morocco launched a hybrid warfare operation against Spain last July 30.

This case, which may be legally justified, raises many doubts. According to article 97 of the Constitution, the direction of foreign policy and the defense of the State corresponds to the executive branch. Here there may be a clash between the judicial power and the executive power, since the National Court's investigation may end up affecting relations between Madrid and Rabat. It is not the first time that something similar has happened. Let us recall, for example, the extradition request for Pinochet that judge Baltasar Garzón formulated in 1998 against the opinion of the government of José María Aznar, which had no desire whatsoever to judge the Chilean dictator.

In any case, a new front is opening for the Spanish government in an already complicated situation, in which it must perform a balancing act to avoid upsetting Morocco and, at the same time, not appear to be a puppet of the Alaouite regime. The situation could become even more complicated if the Supreme Court begins to investigate a complaint from a Spanish nationalist entity called Zeolandia, which has filed a complaint accusing the Spanish government of failing to act to stop the massive influx even though it was warned in advance by the CNI and the various judicial bodies. This Wednesday, Sánchez's government plans to make public all intelligence reports from the days prior to July 30 with the aim of dispelling all doubts. From what has transpired so far, it is true that there was a warning of an increase in entries by sea, but there was no specific alert that warned of what happened that day.

Be that as it may, and as in other areas of Spanish politics, the justice system has made its entry into the Ceuta crisis, and this does not usually bode well for the Spanish government. In the case of the 'Procés', the judges had already decided that they were the ultimate defenders of Spanish "territorial integrity," and until the European justice system came into play, nothing stopped them. Now we will have to see how far they go when it comes to a country that plays a key role in the management of Europe's southern border and that, in addition, has the United States and Israel as allies.