The PP, the PSOE and the ghost of prevarication with Ceuta
MadridEveryone seems to be looking for a "solution" for Ceuta. A week ago, the Spanish government and the PP fully agreed on the idea of returning all immigrants who remained in the autonomous city. Also on prioritizing family reunification in the case of minors. The issue was that those who remained in Ceuta should also end up leaving. In fact, the trickle of returns has not stopped, police sources tell ARA, and some NGOs suspect that illegalities may have been committed among the first cases.
In recent days, however, Pedro Sánchez's executive has focused on the humanitarian crisis. Almost twenty days later. "You can't cover the sun with a finger," says the proverb.
Organizations on the ground that monitor human rights take for granted that returns will continue. What they wonder is how far the PP and the PSOE will push it and if they have already forgotten that both parties have among their ranks two politicians convicted of administrative prevarication and disqualified for nine years. These are the former government delegate in the autonomous city, Salvadora Mateos (PSOE) and the former vice-president of the Ceuta government, Mabel Deu (PP). The reason? The repatriation of 55 unaccompanied minor migrants in 2021, in the context of the last major migratory crisis in Ceuta after this 2026.
ARA has recalled in recent days that the Supreme Court already confirmed in 2024 that the returns of those minors were illegal because they did not follow the immigration procedure. Then, in the court's opinion, it was a matter of determining whether those responsible for the decision had adopted it despite knowing it was a violation of the law.
The sixth section of the Provincial Court of Cadiz concluded in September 2025, not even a year ago, the following: "The decision to repatriate the minors was not only arbitrary, but also manifestly unjust." "The result was an absolute violation of the rights of the minors, who ended up completely unprotected," concluded the court. Both "were aware of the irregularity and impropriety of the return of minors they intended to carry out".
Since July 30, some journalists who have been working in Ceuta for years have also thought about that episode and have recalled to their professional colleagues that, like paratroopers, even if one tries to avoid it, they have moved to this enclave to work to report on an unprecedented humanitarian crisis. The deadliest on the southern border since records began.
The question is whether the leaders of their parties have also thought about it. After all, the decision was theirs, but they did not make it alone: "As I have stated so many times, I knew, I shared and I supported the actions taken [...] We were all convinced that we were acting under the law and attending to the best interests of the minor, in a humanitarian emergency situation never before known," stated the president of Ceuta, Juan Jesús Vivas (PP), at the time. Justice, with all its shadows, did not think the same.
