Ceuta: PM Sánchez Stands Alone In Defence Of Morocco
By Inés Fernández-Pontes
Key Takeaways:
- About 80,000 people crossed from Morocco into Ceuta in July, in a surge Sánchez called a “violation of Spain’s territorial integrity.” Over 100 died. Ministers blamed smugglers, disinformation, even Russia and Israel; critics in Madrid blame Rabat, which claims Ceuta and Melilla.
- Sánchez told parliament there was no “solid evidence” Morocco planned it and called Rabat a “trustworthy ally.” A police report a day earlier alleged Moroccan forces “planned” and “ushered” people to the fence; he later conceded the gendarmerie let crossings run for 10 hours but would not say they organized the exodus. He promised to declassify pre-crisis intel. Feijóo, Abascal, Belarra, and Rufián all reject the “no warning / no Rabat” line.
- The political charge is that friendship with Morocco—especially PSOE’s 2022 shift on Western Sahara after the 2021 Ceuta rush—looks like failed appeasement. Sánchez says cooperation must change but Spain should not pick a diplomatic fight without facts. “I call for prudence.”
(EurActiv) — As political fallout from the Ceuta crisis threatens to spiral out of control, Pedro Sánchez is walking a tightrope as more Spanish politicians question why his party continues to shield the government in Rabat.
The crossing of approximately 80,000 people from Morocco into the Spanish enclave in North Africa plunged Spain into a deep national security crisis and sparked infighting within the Spanish cabinet over what the government knew about the surge, and since when.
The breach of the Spanish border in July was called by Sánchez a “violation of Spain’s territorial integrity”. Yet, when pressed who was behind the violation, Spanish ministers, in line with their Moroccan counterparts, pointed to human smuggling mafias and social disinformation, even blaming Russia and Israel.
Back in Madrid, fingers have been pointed at the Moroccan leadership, with Sánchez facing questions from across the political spectrum over whether his long-standing policy of friendship with Morocco had not only failed, but emboldened the kingdom. Rabat claims sovereignty over Ceuta and Spain’s other African enclave, Melilla.
Morocco under the spotlight
On Thursday, one month after the border incident that claimed over 100 lives, Sánchez gave his first parliamentary address to explain his handling of the crisis. Spain’s socialist premier claimed there was no “solid evidence” that Rabat, a “trustworthy ally”, was behind the disastrous influx.
His statement contrasted with a police report released a day earlier, which alleged that Moroccan security forces had “planned” and “actively ushered” migrants towards a frontier that is normally heavily controlled.
Sánchez later confirmed the Moroccan gendarmerie had “allowed people to cross the border for 10 hours”, but refrained from accusing Moroccan authorities of the “planning and execution” of the exodus. “If evidence against Morocco existed, we would act with firmness”, he said.
Neither the opposition, nor even his left-wing allies appear convinced. The surge “originated in Morocco, was permitted by Morocco, and the government knew it because they were warned about it,” said the conservative People’s Party leader Alberto Núñez Feijóo.
“Who attacked us?” asked far-right leader Santiago Abascal. “Why do you stand alone in defending Morocco?”
The left, meanwhile, urged Sánchez to clarify Morocco’s role in the crisis. “I ask for transparency,” said far-left Podemos MP Ione Belarra, who called for the severing of diplomatic and commercial relations with Rabat.
“I accuse Morocco of sending 80,000 people to its border to bring down the Spanish government…Mohammed VI [the Moroccan king] is a murderer,” said Gabriel Rufián, an MP for Catalonian Republican Left (ERC), an ally of Sánchez.
Amid a growing backlash, Sánchez said all security and intelligence reports ahead of the influx would be declassified, to prove, he added, that his government had no “prior warnings”.
Failed appeasement?
On the left, MPs criticised what they described as Madrid’s appeasement policy towards Rabat, marked by Spain’s historic shift on the Western Sahara, a former Spanish colony illegally annexed by Morocco since 1975.
“With the Sahara, you sacrificed your credibility in pursuit of a so-called ‘flawless diplomacy’,” decried Rufián, the Catalan lawmaker.
In 2022, Sánchez’s Socialist Party (PSOE) broke with a long-standing state policy of neutrality and support for the Sahrawi self-determination movement. This was widely perceived in Spain as a concession to calm Rabat following another deadly influx of migrants in 2021, when 10,000 people stormed Ceuta.
Then, Moroccan security forces eased border controls in response to Spain allowing Sahrawi leader Brahim Ghali to receive treatment in a local hospital, enraging Rabat.
Morocco, whose cooperation on migration and security is important for Spain and the European Union, made no attempt to pretend its actions were anything but retaliation.
“There are actions that have consequences,” Karima Benyaich, then Morocco’s ambassador to Spain, said at the time.
Now, with lawmakers, security services and former top Spanish officials directly pointing toMorocco’s aim to annex Ceuta and Melilla, pressure is mounting on Sánchez to act.
Sánchez acknowledged that “cooperation has to be different” following the events of the July. Still, he said Spain “cannot get into a major diplomatic conflict with a neighbouring country without having the facts to back it up.”
“I call for prudence,” Sánchez said.
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