Mbappe, Ceuta and the t-shirt: how much comedy

The eternal Spain is furious with two Real Madrid stars who have refused to support the good heart of the Valencian Association of Entrepreneurs (they have the website in Spanish), which apparently is very worried about Ceuta.

What a comedy. From the creators of “politics and sports cannot be mixed” (but before the match we will play some anthems and at the end of the match the king should come down to the locker rooms) now comes “the footballers should wear a solidarity t-shirt with Ceuta”. Needless to say, if they wear a yellow ribbon for the pro-independence prisoners they are fined, and if they bring out an 'estelada' flag, they get beaten up.

I can hear their voices: “It’s just that Ceuta is not politics: it is Spain, it is its territorial integrity, it is an invasion, and Pedro Sánchez, son of a…” (here the sentence is cut off because they cover the mouth of the enraged person before he ruins the patriotic message).

Where patriots only see a violated border, frightened neighbors, and a traitorous president, Mbappé looks at it in another way: “I wanted to make a gesture to the immigrants who have lost their lives. […] I did not want to prioritize suffering”. Man, as a gesture, clearer ones have been seen. Because the geopolitical calculations of global stars invite one to think that, rather than not wanting to prioritize suffering, he did not want to prioritize Spain over Morocco, and that, in reality, the gesture was towards the Arab rulers, rather than towards the people who live in misery on the beaches.

Because the sad reality is that a month and a half later, the people of Ceuta are having a hard time, and those who crossed the line and are still there, too. Taking care of both groups should not be incompatible. But go tell that to those of “Ceuta is not for sale, Ceuta is defended”.