Mbappé, 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 their 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 will go down to the locker rooms) now comes “let the footballers wear a solidarity t-shirt with Ceuta”. Needless to say, if they wear a yellow ribbon for the pro-independence prisoners they get fined, and if they bring out an estelada, 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 fanatic before he spoils the patriotic message).

Where the patriots only see a violated border, frightened neighbors, and a traitorous president, Mbappé looks at it differently: “I wanted to have a gesture with 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 us 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 poorly 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 must be possible. But try telling that to those of “Ceuta is not for sale, Ceuta must be defended”.