The leader of the Partido Popular, Alberto Núñez Feijóo, has described the situation in the Spanish exclave Ceuta as a continuing “aggression” by Morocco and said that this crisis would be “the epitaph of Pedro Sánchez”. In an interview published on 13 September with El Mundo he held Rabat partly responsible for mass border crossings “through action or omission” and also accused the Spanish government of failings. He explicitly distinguished between Morocco as a state, to which he attributed primary responsibility, and Spain, which “knew the scenario was going to unfold” and had failed to prevent it.
Feijóo announced that, if elected prime minister, his first foreign trip would be to Morocco. By his account, at an earlier meeting he told the Moroccan prime minister that he could not guarantee “consolidating what Sánchez has agreed with you”. Feijóo was referring to Madrid’s change of course on the Western Sahara issue and the normalisation of relations with Rabat. He did not comment on specific alternatives in the interview. He presented the view that Spain’s response had been influenced by the possibility that the prime minister was vulnerable to blackmail as his own speculation; he provided no evidence.
Alongside Feijóo’s accusations, the central government reported operational measures in Ceuta. According to La Moncloa and the Ministerio del Interior more than 800 additional places for initial reception have been created in the city in recent days. Authorities have also begun moving people who had initially spent the night outdoors after recent arrivals into regular accommodation. The Interior Ministry and local authorities say the measures are easing pressure on the local system and coordinating transfers within the state reception network.
The government defends its approach by pointing to the restoration of orderly relations with Morocco since 2022 and close cooperation between the security services. The Interior Ministry recently provided figures on returns and ongoing cases only in aggregate form. The opposition and government therefore view the causes of the current situation in Ceuta very differently: while the Partido Popular wants to hold Rabat more firmly to account and recalibrate policy towards Morocco, the executive is relying on cooperation and expanded reception capacity.
It remains unclear whether arrivals will stabilise in the short term. Local authorities report fluctuating movements at the border and in the surrounding waters, but say they are responding with additional accommodation, staff and transfers within the network.
Editor: Phillipe Schmidt-Araguin (Article created with AI assistance).