The academic year has begun with alarms ringing in the unions, but also in the public administration, after the Volkswagen group put the Seat brand in play, which has placed the Martorell factory in the crosshairs. "Martorell will not disappear," stated the secretary general of CCOO, Unai Sordo, this Monday morning during an intervention at the Ateneo de Madrid. The message seeks to provide reassurance, especially to the employees, and the president of the Generalitat, Salvador Illa, and the Minister of Economy, Carlos Cuerpo, also joined in this Monday. In fact, they have all rushed to defend the Seat brand: "It is historic," Sordo affirmed. "It is a product that must continue to be championed," he reiterated.

The last week of the school year before the summer holidays ended marked by the entry of thousands of migrants from Morocco into Ceuta. A migratory tragedy that has triggered a humanitarian emergency in the autonomous city. At first, the Spanish government, which was just emerging from the crisis over the serious fires in the State, tried to avoid it by maintaining a low public profile –Pedro Sánchez only traveled there on July 31– and quickly calling for a return to "normality". However, in the week of August 10, it was forced to increase its presence in the autonomous city with almost one minister visiting per day.

An unprecedented crisis like that of the covid-19 pandemic led to an unprecedented solution: anti-pandemic funds for reconstruction. A European windfall of 750,000 million euros in direct aid and loans that broke some taboos – for example, that of strict debt control – but also maintained concessions to the northern countries that made it Solomon-like: a ceiling was placed on transfers and control over the allocated money was tightened.

The stoves in the kitchen of the NGO Luna Blanca in Ceuta continue to operate at full capacity. This is due to the arrival on July 30 and 31 of tens of thousands of people – between 70,000 and 80,000 – who crossed the border with Morocco. A few hours later, the vast majority left or were returned. At Luna Blanca, they prepare 2,750 breakfasts, 2,750 lunches, and 2,750 dinners daily, which they distribute among the migrants who continue to live in precarious conditions in the city, but at the beginning of the humanitarian crisis, they had distributed over 6,000 rations per day.

"It is not true". With these three words, the Minister of the Interior, Fernando Grande-Marlaska, responded to all the deputies who, this Friday, during his appearance in Congress, referred to prior warnings about an entry of people into Ceuta – Marlaska put the figure at 72,000 – on July 30th. "Do not say that someone saw what would happen on the 30th [of July] coming, because it is not true," stated Marlaska, who began his speech by calling for calm in Ceuta and rejecting "partisan" speeches that "incite hatred".

The worst migratory crisis in recent years, which has claimed at least 140 lives, is pushing Ceuta to its limit. This Thursday, hundreds of people blocked the access of a Red Cross truck to Trampolín beach for more than two hours, where the organization distributes food to the immigrants who have remained there since their arrival on July 30. Afterwards, the demonstrators, many of them carrying Spanish flags, sticks, and stones, broke the police cordon on Benítez beach, stormed the camp where these people have been sleeping for almost a month, and set fire to two straw parasols that had become improvised shelters for the migrants to protect themselves from the sun.

The Spanish government and the autonomous communities have agreed to give the green light to an extraordinary 25 million euros to strengthen Ceuta's resources for the reception of unaccompanied migrant minors. This was unanimously voted by the Ministers of Childhood and Youth at the sectoral conference held this Thursday. However, the communities in which Vox holds these responsibilities after agreements with the PP were not present; that is, Aragon, Castile and León, and Extremadura. In fact, the Minister of Childhood and Youth, Sira Rego, explained that they not only failed to attend the meeting but also communicated in writing that they were against the extra budgetary allocation.

The Spanish government and the government of Ceuta continue to search for spaces to temporarily house the immigrant individuals who entered the autonomous city on July 30 and 31 and who are still living on the streets. The intention is that, once they are "contained" in temporary spaces, they can be registered and "returned" to their country of origin in accordance with the law, said the Minister of Territorial Policy, Ángel Víctor Torres, at a press conference this Wednesday. Torres also promised more resources to expedite procedures and facilitate returns. It should be noted that the law requires individualized files to be made and cases to be studied one by one.

Antonio Garamendi will be proclaimed president of the Spanish employers' association CEOE for four more years, thus beginning his third term. And he will not need elections. On October 1, when the business organization's assembly is convened to decide who will continue at the helm, Garamendi will be automatically appointed president. The reason is that no rival has emerged for him – there was time to submit a candidacy until this Monday at 11:59 p.m. – and, as stipulated in article 41 of the employers' statutes, this allows him to be president without the need for a vote. "There is only one candidate [Antonio Garamendi]," confirm from the CEOE.

The CNI has re-entered the scene regarding the crisis in Ceuta. The role of the intelligence services was one of the keys in the appearance of the Minister of Defense, Margarita Robles, this Tuesday in Congress. The unknown hovered over her and her ministry as to what the CNI knew about the entry of tens of thousands of people – around 80,000 – on July 30 and 31 from Morocco. And in particular, whether the services had warned of the possibility of the migratory crisis. The question has led to a tangle between this portfolio, the Ministry of the Interior, and the Spanish Government Delegation in Ceuta, as everyone wants to defend their actions. While Robles assures that the CNI transferred information to the Interior and the Delegation, they clarify that they were not warned in any way about a massive entry of migrants.

Almost a month after the entry of tens of thousands of immigrants into Ceuta (which Pedro Sánchez defined as a "violation of the territorial integrity" of the State), the Spanish government will declare a "situation of interest for national security" and will agree to establish a "single command" that will be led by the Minister of Territorial Policy, Ángel Víctor Torres. It will be approved at this Tuesday's cabinet meeting, the first after the summer period.

Their trail has been lost in the Mediterranean. And every time we talk about the immigrant people who have tried to cross this sea, the balance becomes more sinister. And painful. Like an open wound. These are the disappeared bodies from the migratory crisis in Ceuta, who will never be identified or even located. Statistics can tell us little or nothing about them, although, to get an idea of the magnitude of the tragedy, some have kept in mind the number of emails that arrived on the first day the Civil Guard's missing persons reporting office was launched, on August 4th. "160 emails in one day," police sources reveal to ARA. This does not mean that, as the days went by, relatives or friends could not contact the person they knew nothing about. But, initially, they had had no news of him since July 30th, when, along with tens of thousands of people, he tried to swim across the border between Morocco and Ceuta. A crossing that, for many, has ended in shipwreck.

A high-voltage week for the Spanish government: with activity in Moncloa, where the first cabinet meeting after the summer break will be held, but above all with activity in Congress. Up to eight ministers from Pedro Sánchez's executive will appear to account for the management of the crisis in Ceuta, where many unknowns still remain.

The border between Morocco and Ceuta has suffered Spain's deadliest migratory tragedy. More than three weeks later, there is no definitive figure for the people who entered swimming; nor for those who continue to survive on the streets. It is not known how many people have disappeared, and only six people have been identified out of a total of 82 bodies recovered in Spanish waters. This is the timeline:

The intention of the public administrations to clear El Trampolín beach in Ceuta clashes with the fear of many immigrants of being forcibly deported to Morocco. Twice (Thursday morning and Friday morning) they have been evicted to be transferred to temporary reception centers, and on both occasions they have returned to occupy the sand. Added to the fear that they will be sent to the other side of the border is the evidence that the 1,800 places opened by the Spanish government in two locations are entirely insufficient to attend to all immigrants, the number of whom remains an unknown. Faced with this situation, many of those who were evicted from the beach camp on Thursday have returned this Friday as they have nowhere to take refuge.

The sun was just beginning to rise when the National Police and the Civil Guard deployed a huge operation this Thursday in the El Trampolín beach in Ceuta to evict the thousands of immigrants – there are no official figures to know how many there are – who were living there in subhuman conditions since the massive influx at the end of July. Escorted by the police and with the support of social organizations, about 1,700 people have paraded on foot to the first two temporary reception centers that the Spanish government has just opened to try to restore normality to the African city, broken by the arrival of thousands of immigrants. Just a few hours later, when municipal brigades were still cleaning up trash and all sorts of items that the immigrants had used to set up a precarious camp, about 500 people returned, forcing the municipal brigades to stop their work. Their fear is that, in an official place, they will be returned to Morocco, as some have explained to ARA.

The Ministry of Youth and Childhood is working to transfer up to 500 unaccompanied immigrant girls and adolescents from Ceuta to the Peninsula, according to ministry sources. The proposal is for the autonomous city's government to maintain guardianship of the minors and for custody to be transferred to social entities that manage reception centers. This is the solution they have found to speed up the usual process by which guardianship is transferred to the receiving community, which has the competencies.

Everyone 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.

The exchange of recriminations is not an anomaly in Spanish politics. And Ceuta, which has been experiencing a humanitarian emergency for weeks, is no exception. Pedro Sánchez's government now accuses the PP of going to Ceuta to "further strain" the situation, while the Popular Party raises its tone against the central executive and its crisis management. This is being done by the PP leadership, with Alberto Núñez Feijóo at the helm, but also by the president of Ceuta, Juan Jesús Vivas (PP), who, a day after meeting with government spokesperson Elma Saiz, stated that they feel "abandoned" by the central executive, in statements to the media on Tuesday afternoon. Hours earlier, Feijóo also criticized that Pedro Sánchez's executive is "absent" and "indifferent" to the situation in Ceuta.

Eighteen days after the entry of tens of thousands of people from Morocco to Ceuta, the European Commission maintains its position on the future of migrants who remain in the autonomous city. The community executive has argued that all of them should be returned, including the more than two thousand minors who have entered without adult relatives and to whom community law and Spanish immigration law itself grant special protection. Brussels argues that European Union law also provides for them to be returned. "We continue to insist that the expectation is that all those who are irregularly in Ceuta will be returned," said the spokesman for the Internal Affairs commission, Markus Lammert, this Tuesday at a press conference.