The leader of the Partido Popular, Alberto Núñez Feijóo, announced in Ceuta on 19 August that he would take the boycott by three ministers of Senate summonses to the Tribunal Supremo The background is cancelled or unanswered invitations to clarify the recent migration crisis in Ceuta, which the PP-dominated upper house said had been sent to José Manuel Albares (foreign affairs), Margarita Robles (Defence) and Fernando Grande-Marlaska (the interior). Feijóo accused Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez of abandoning the city, which has a population of around 85,000, for political reasons.
The government counters that executive accountability to parliament should primarily take place in the Congreso de los Diputados . It had already requested ministerial statements there for late August on 7 August. Several dates scheduled in the Senate for August did not go ahead: among others, Fernando Grande-Marlaska did not attend a meeting scheduled for 12 August; other hearings called by the PP also took place without the government members who had been summoned. Government sources said that parallel, short-notice meetings in the upper house were politically motivated; the ministers would answer questions fully in Congress.
By taking the matter to the Tribunal Supremo, the Partido Popular wants a ruling on whether, and under what conditions, government members must comply with formal Senate summonses (Senado) and how this relates to the practice of making statements in the lower house. The legal issue concerns the division of powers between the two chambers in their scrutiny of the executive. A ruling could clarify the future arrangements for ministerial appearances in exceptional situations such as the situation in Ceuta.
The political dispute was triggered by mass border crossings into Ceuta in late July, which led to a short-term overload of local reception facilities. Since then, the government and opposition have disagreed over where and how often parliamentary scrutiny should take place. While Feijóo again called in Ceuta for a unified command and additional resources, the government points to measures already under way and forthcoming statements in the lower house. Court rulings and specific new dates in Congress were still pending on Wednesday; the parties’ positions are based on official institutional communications and public statements.
Editor: Phillipe Schmidt-Araguin (Article created with AI assistance).