Alberto Núñez Feijóo, chair of the Partido Popular, called on 29 August in Cercedo-Cotobade (Pontevedra province) for a Senate hearing of the director of the Centro Nacional de Inteligencia, Esperanza Casteleiro, concerning the crisis in Ceuta . The PP leader also announced that his party would join the proceedings pending before the Audiencia Nacional concerning the events at the end of July.
Feijóo said the summons was needed to establish the facts: Parliament should find out when warnings were issued, what information was passed on and what the government knew before the mass crossings into the North African exclave on 30 and 31 July. He also criticised the executive’s handling of the crisis.
The PSOE immediately pointed out that a similar initiative, registered in early August by Vox , had been rejected by the Mesa del Senado . The chamber’s decision-making body, in which the Partido Popular has a majority, justified the rejection on legal grounds relating to the handling of classified information. Under current law, intelligence matters subject to secrecy are discussed in the designated parliamentary oversight committees. In Spain, ongoing oversight of the Centro Nacional de Inteligencia is the responsibility of the Congreso de los Diputados, so public hearings in the Senate on potentially classified matters are legally contentious.
It remains unclear whether the Mesa del Senado will even admit a renewed PP request for a hearing with the CNI leadership. If it again rules the request inadmissible, the opposition’s main options would be to use the relevant oversight formats in the Congreso or examine non-classified aspects in the Senate. Separately from the parliamentary route, the Audiencia Nacional is investigating individual events; the PP wants to register as a party to the proceedings. The Tribunal Supremo had already rejected an urgent PP application on 22 August, which sought to compel ministers to appear in August over the Ceuta crisis.
Politically, Feijóo’s demand increases pressure on the government and positions the Partido Popular as the driving force of the opposition following the Ceuta crisis. The PSOE counters that the PP itself blocks requests for information when they raise legal concerns, and is exploiting the security framework for political purposes. Vox, for its part, is taking a hard line and had referred to possible advance information in its rejected initiative. How far public forums can go in establishing the facts now depends on where the line is drawn between political responsibility and protection of classified information.
Editor: Phillipe Schmidt-Araguin (Article created with AI assistance).