Sánchez exonerates Morocco from the crisis and announces that the King will travel to Ceuta and Melilla “in the coming weeks”

Eduardo González The Prime Minister, Pedro Sánchez, assured Congress this Thursday that the Executive had received “no prior warnings about the magnitude” of the migrant assault on Ceuta nor about Rabat's possible involvement in the crisis. He also reiterated that “Ceuta and Melilla have been Spanish for centuries and will remain so until the end of time” and admitted that Spain wants “to continue cooperating with Morocco, but it is clear that after what has happened, that cooperation has to be different.” “Ceuta and Melilla have been Spanish for centuries and I assure you that the Government will maintain this position until the end of time,” Sánchez stated during his first appearance before the Lower House to explain the migration crisis that Ceuta has been experiencing since July 30. According to the Prime Minister, the State Security Forces “had to choose between guaranteeing border security or safeguarding the human lives” of the many migrants who were drowning while trying to swim across the border. “They did the right thing, because in the face of the threat they responded with humanity and chose to defend human life,” he asserted. “Before expelling a human being, it is necessary to verify who they are and their origin, and if they are a minor, it must be ensured that they have a place to go,” because “you can’t just grab a human being by the arm and throw them across the border as if they were a sack of dirt,” he warned. “We are a state governed by the rule of law, and that means there are a series of laws,” he added. According to Sánchez, Morocco's cooperation in addressing the crisis was "fundamental" because, otherwise, "it would have been logistically and legally impossible" to stop it. However, in his opinion, Rabat's statements regarding the sovereignty of Ceuta and Melilla are "unacceptable," statements which, he asserted, Moncloa has categorically rejected, summoning the Moroccan ambassador to convey its protest. In any case, he admitted, Spain wants to "continue cooperating with Morocco, but it is clear that after what happened, that cooperation has to be different." According to Sánchez, the ambassador was summoned on August 21. However, the newspaper La Razón, without citing sources, asserted that Ambassador Karima Benyaich was not in Spain that day and that the meeting did not take place. Foreign Ministry sources told The Diplomat that “the ambassador was summoned, the appropriate messages were conveyed to her,” and the meeting occurred “at the Ministry headquarters.” The incident followed recent statements by the Moroccan Ministers of Justice, Abdellatif Ouahbi, and of Islamic Affairs, Ahmed Toufiq, in which they asserted Morocco's sovereignty over Ceuta and Melilla. Later, sources at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs clarified that, indeed, on August 21, the Ministry summoned the Moroccan ambassador in Madrid to reject statements made by a Moroccan minister regarding Ceuta and Melilla, “as the Prime Minister has correctly and accurately informed the House.” “Since the ambassador was not in Spain, and in accordance with the Vienna Convention, the Chargé d'Affaires, who was at that time the highest-ranking official at the embassy, attended the meeting at the Ministry headquarters on her behalf. This does not alter in any way either the act itself or the diplomatic significance of the summons,” they continued. “To infer otherwise is erroneous and does not conform to either the law or the diplomatic practices that govern relations between states,” they warned. “No one has provided evidence against the Moroccan authorities” During his speech, Sánchez insisted that “it seems clear” that behind the surge were “mafias and merchants who took advantage of and fueled the situation to sell supplies and services related to crossing the border.” Regarding the alleged report from the National Center for Immigration and Borders (CENIF), the intelligence unit of the General Commissariat for Immigration and Borders, which supposedly informed Judge María Tardón of the National Court that the assailants were guided by Moroccan gendarmes, Pedro Sánchez asserted that "no information went beyond routine notification" and that "no document went beyond the data." “It’s absurd to think that the government was warned and deliberately did nothing, as leaders of the PP and Vox parties have claimed. How could anyone even think that?” he warned. “We received no prior warnings about the scale of the crisis,” he insisted. The CENIF report, he added, did not refer to Ceuta and focused on the Canary and Balearic Islands. “We reacted to the only real change that occurred in the migration situation at that time,” he added. “No one has provided evidence that (this crisis) was orchestrated by the Moroccan authorities,” and, should “evidence” of Rabat’s possible complicity be discovered, "decisive action" will be taken, and “the media and the public” will be informed with “complete transparency so that the truth about this matter is known.” Furthermore, the Prime Minister confirmed that, in the “coming weeks”, King Felipe VI will travel to Ceuta and Melilla to “convey the State’s absolute commitment after twenty years without a visit from the Head of State” to the Autonomous Cities. Feijóo For his part, the leader of the People's Party, Alberto Núñez Feijóo, used his speech to call for Sánchez's resignation for being "incompetent" and "complicit." "He will pay for it before the courts and at the ballot box," he asserted. "He hasn't come here to speak as president. If he wants to continue his vacation, he should resign. A president cannot be absent from his duties," because "Ceuta didn't suffer a migration crisis, it was an invasion that continues," he continued. "Why are you afraid of Morocco? What does Morocco know about you?" Feijóo asked. "Spain cannot have a president under blackmail, nor one without any control in a situation like this. No personal fear can take precedence over the national interest," Feijóo warned. After Sánchez's commitment to unblock the reports from the National Intelligence Center (CNI) and the National Police, he asked him: "Will we also see the data from Pegasus?"—the espionage network allegedly used by Rabat against several members of the Spanish government, including the president. Feijóo also called for the expulsion of illegal immigrants in Ceuta and demanded a change in immigration policy and the approach towards Rabat. “Ceuta and Melilla are Spain,” he said, adding that the relationship with Morocco must be “balanced.” For his part, Santiago Abascal, leader of the far-right Vox party, accused Sánchez of being “a traitor to Spain” and of acting as “Morocco’s ambassador to Spain” and “the viceroy of Mohammed VI.” “Morocco is your master, Mr. Sánchez,” he insisted. “If you think you haven’t betrayed the Spanish people, then take responsibility,” he added. Enrique Santiago, a member of parliament for United Left, asked the government, on behalf of Sumar (the junior partner in the coalition government), to transfer the migrants still in Ceuta to the mainland because Morocco will not accept their return. According to Santiago, “Spain has suffered an attack from Morocco” and the government has “acted late and poorly.” Juan Jesús Vivas For his part, the president of Ceuta, Juan Jesús Vivas (of the PP party), described Sánchez's words in Congress as "shameful" this Thursday. "Can an attack on Spain's territorial integrity be organized from Morocco without Morocco knowing about it? Can it be organized without Morocco organizing it? No one with common sense can understand these explanations," Vivas declared on the Antena 3 program 'Espejo Público'. "There was a veritable invasion on July 30th and 31st, and there was no proportional response from the Government," in what appears to be a "clear attempt not to upset Morocco," he added.

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