Pedro Sánchez’s telling refusal to answer five questions about Morocco
What is the socialist leader hiding about his relationship with Morocco?
In a democratic country, the head of government has an obligation to provide explanations in parliament. Always.
There are presidents who believe they are above that obligation—that is, above democracy. Spain’s leader is one of them. The Spanish Socialist leader always approaches question sessions in the Congress of Deputies in the same way. He never answers the questions put to him. Instead, he invariably attacks and insults the opposition—an attitude typical of an autocrat who believes he owes no explanation to the representatives of the Spanish people.
This Wednesday, during the parliamentary session for government oversight, Sánchez did the same thing again. This time, he did so in relation to the Moroccan migrant influx into Ceuta. In the first question put to the government yesterday, the leader of the Popular Party (PP), Alberto Núñez Feijóo, asked him some very specific questions regarding Morocco. They were as follows:
Mr. Sánchez: When was the last time you spoke directly with the Moroccan authorities? How many times have you done so since July 30th? What have you asked them regarding the invasion suffered by the Spanish city of Ceuta? And what was their response? I ask this because just yesterday, before the European Parliament, Morocco reaffirmed its willingness to accept all the individuals who entered Ceuta illegally on July 30th. All of them. I quote verbatim: “including Moroccan citizens, unaccompanied minors, and third-country nationals.” There are only three possibilities: either you do not want to and prefer to let the problem become chronic, or you are incompetent, or someone here is lying. Let us clear up the doubt. If Morocco states—repeatedly—that it is willing to take them back, and European law authorizes immediate return, can you tell us why they remain in Ceuta a month and a half later, making life miserable for 80,000 Spaniards and tarnishing the Nation’s image?
As on so many other occasions—and visibly in a bad mood—Sánchez did not answer these five questions. True to form, he proceeded to attack the PP, boasted about Spain’s international image, and even questioned Feijóo’s patriotism. You can watch the video of his response and Feijóo’s rejoinder here:
I have been and will continue to be highly critical of the PP president, but Feijóo was unequivocal in his response: “My questions were crystal clear, and your silence is a disgrace.”
Yesterday, with that regrettable attitude and his refusal to answer those five questions, Sánchez not only displayed great political ineptitude but also demonstrated that he is hiding something very important from the Spanish people regarding what he himself defined as an “attack on the territorial integrity of a Spanish city” during a statement in Ceuta on Friday, July 31—the kind of attack that can only originate from another State.
Ever since that attack—defined yesterday by the European Union as an act of “hybrid warfare”, the same label the EU applied to the migration-based attacks launched by Belarus against Poland, Lithuania, and Latvia starting in 2021, months before the Russian invasion of Ukraine—and in a manner unprecedented and scandalous for a head of government, Sánchez has been defending, protecting, and even praising the country that perpetrated that attack: Morocco. Thus, to the five questions raised yesterday by Feijóo, one more could be added: what is Sánchez hiding regarding his relationship with the country that attacked Ceuta on July 30?
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Image: Congreso de los Diputados.
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