BarcelonaKing Felipe VI and Queen Letizia will visit Ceuta and Melilla on October 13 and 14, respectively, in the monarch's first official trip to the two autonomous cities since he ascended to the throne in 2014. The visit, agreed upon between the Spanish government and the Royal Household, comes almost twenty years after the last trip by a Spanish monarch to the two cities, in 2007, which caused a diplomatic crisis with Morocco.
The trip also comes after the migration crisis at the end of July. The visit could once again strain relations with Rabat, which claims sovereignty over the two cities and has traditionally rejected visits by the Spanish monarchy to the enclaves, with whom, on the other hand, it maintains a good relationship. For the moment, however, the Moroccan authorities have not commented on the announcement.
The President of the Spanish Government, Pedro Sánchez, will not accompany the royals during the tour. According to sources from the executive branch, they will be accompanied by the minister on duty—the name given to the minister who ends up being designated—in accordance with standard protocol. The Spanish government therefore considers that Sánchez's absence is not an exception nor does it reflect any institutional distancing.
The visit has already sparked political reactions. The PP and Vox, who criticized the Moncloa because they interpreted that it was vetoing King Felipe VI's trip, have celebrated the announcement. The Popular Party spokesperson in Congress, Ester Muñoz, has assured that her party is "very happy" that the King is finally visiting Ceuta and Melilla and "that the government is letting him go." Vox has also received the news "with great joy." "It is the normal thing," reacted the far-right spokesperson in the lower house, Pepa Rodríguez de Millán.
On the other hand, the president of the CEOE, Antonio Garamendi, has shown himself to be satisfied with the announcement and has defended that the trip should serve to vindicate Spanish sovereignty over the two cities. "If the border has been breached, in what is an invasion, we must act with urgency and forcefulness," he stated this Thursday after being re-elected to head the employers' association. Garamendi has also questioned whether the attempt at mass entry of people does not represent, in his words, "the attempt to evict more than 80,000 Spaniards from their homes."
The Royal Household and the Spanish government plan to finalize the monarchs' agenda in the coming days.
The European Parliament will send a mission of MEPs to Ceuta to "evaluate the consequences" of the migration crisis
A delegation of MEPs from the European Parliament's Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs (LIBE) will travel to Ceuta on November 16, 17 and 18 to "evaluate the consequences" of the migration crisis. The mission was promoted by the PP and Vox groups in the European Parliament.
According to a statement from the Spanish Popular group, the travel agenda has yet to be finalized, but the expectation is that the MEPs will meet with local and state authorities, security officials and representatives of civil society, as well as other actors involved in the management of a crisis. "The approval of this mission culminates the intense political monitoring that the European Parliament has carried out since the beginning of the crisis," the PP celebrated.
