Sánchez announces that King Felipe VI will visit Ceuta for the first time

MadridThe Spanish President, Pedro Sánchez, broke his silence this Monday amid an unprecedented crisis in Ceuta and made an announcement: he assured that there are "arguments and reasons" for King Felipe VI to visit the autonomous city for the first time. In an interview with La Ser, after a month without speaking publicly, he explained the Spanish government's management of the entry of migrants and defended that he had "worked" this summer but also "rested," in the face of opposition criticism for having taken holidays. "It is a right that we politicians also have," he said, although he assured that a president of the government "does not disconnect and is 24/7 attentive to the country".

The Spanish President began the interview by giving figures: he said that around 72,000 people entered and that currently 5,000 remain in Ceuta, 1,200 of whom are minors. What Sánchez could not say is how many are currently being attended to. "In a short time we will have the capacity to accommodate them," he said.

He also spoke about the origin of the massive entry of migrants: he absolved Morocco of responsibility and assured that its collaboration was "instantaneous". "Cooperation with Morocco is positive," he asserted, adding that thanks to agreements with the Alauite country, irregular entries have been reduced, beyond what happened on July 30. Furthermore, he reaffirmed that without getting along with the Alauite country, the crisis cannot be resolved.

He admitted, in any case, that at the moment he cannot explain the precise origin of the crisis, but he did indicate that it does not have to be a "state actor". According to him, they are "investigating" the origin of the massive entry of migrants, but he cited a "misrepresentation" of the Supreme Court ruling rejecting pushbacks, the role of mafias, as well as an amplification of fake news by the "reactionary international", Israel and Russia.

Sánchez has pointed out that Ceuta and Melilla are two very complex places, as it is the only land border between Europe and Africa, a very unequal border, and that "security cannot be guaranteed 100%". In fact, he assured that "the majority of migrants who entered did so for economic and not humanitarian reasons", so he predicted that most people will have to return to Morocco because they will not have the right to asylum. In this regard, he said that the priority of the Spanish government is to return migrants and resolve the cases in the autonomous city itself, without transferring them to the mainland.

The CNI warnings

Were there warnings or not from the CNI to prevent the situation? Sánchez defended that there was no information about the magnitude of the massive entry of migrants. He stated that the CNI warned of a rebound in entries to Ceuta by swimming, but not of the magnitude of what happened, so the reinforcement that occurred at the border was not sufficient. "No one predicted that we would have an entry of those characteristics," he asserted, adding that in his opinion there is no contradiction between what Defense says —which said there were CNI reports— and Interior —which states that there were no warnings to interpret that a massive entry would occur—.

This Monday, the Ministers of Youth, Sira Rego, and Equality, Ana Redondo, will also appear to account for their management in Ceuta to Congress, while this Tuesday the Council of Ministers will approve a new package of measures for the autonomous city. Throughout last week, a dozen ministers appeared, but they did not resolve the doubts about the management: Interior and Defense clashed over whether or not there was a CNI warning about what could happen, and the explanations about the origin of the crisis from the rest of the portfolios also did not convince the opposition.