Thirty-eight hours after some newspapers proclaimed from their front pages the “invasion” of Spain through the Ceuta border, it would be good to have access to a webcam that captured their astonished reactions when the vast majority of people who crossed the territorial limit returned home. Number of shots fired to guarantee territorial integrity: zero. Obviously, the case highlights the State's weakness in anticipating and managing such a phenomenon, but before loading the verbal Cetme with bombastic words, perhaps it is worth applying the principle of caution and looking at it with a bit of geopolitical perspective.
The same could be said for certain European leaders of easy exaltation, who will now have to back down, trying not to look too ridiculous. But, for the moment, these petty politicians will still render a penultimate service to the cause by allowing Spanish newspapers anchored in perpetual lamentation to headline thanks to “the European reaction” instead of having to record the stark reality: that the immense majority of the “assailants”, as they were called, have obediently followed the path back as soon as they were asked by whoever activated them. In fact, neither El Mundo nor Abc reported on the front page that after the massive crossing there had also been a general withdrawal; only La Razón let it slip in a subtitle. And then there were media outlets like OK Diario which had directly taken the Matrix pill to headline: “Applause and ovation for the army in the streets of Ceuta: ‘Thanks to them, most of the invaders have left’”. Tremendous military victory; there will be no trucks for so many medals of merit. The chronicle lacks half a dose of patriotic enthusiasm to include a new appearance of El Cid Campeador returning to win a battle after death, considerably more battered and damaged than any there in 1099, mind you.
