Thousands of protesters march in Spain over Ceuta migrant crisis
PM Pedro Sánchez is appearing in Congress to defend that his executive has no indications that Morocco was in any way behind the sudden mass influx
Tens of thousands of people marched across Spain on Wednesday to show support for the exclave city of Ceuta, a small Spanish territory located in North Africa where a crisis has been unfolding since an estimated 80,000 migrants stormed the border crossing on July 30 and 31.
Around 20,000 people gathered in Ceuta itself, calling for a return to normality in a city that is struggling with the aftermath of the migrant surge, and where an estimated 5,000 to 9,000 migrants still remain after a majority crossed back into Morocco. Protesters demanded the expulsion of illegal migrants while the city’s leader, Juan Jesús Vivas, thanked “all the Spaniards who are telling us we are not alone, who tell us Ceuta is not for sale, that it will be defended.”
Another 50,000 demonstrators, according to national authorities, rallied in Madrid, where they chanted insults directed at the central government led by Pedro Sánchez of the Socialist Party (PSOE). Riot police were called in after the main protest ended at Cibeles Square, where a group of several hundred people continued to march towards Congress with cries of “Viva España!” and “Ceuta is not for sale!”. There were around 25,000 protesters in Valencia, where some people burned images of Sánchez and of Moroccan king Mohammed VI, amid cries of “Spain is Christian, not Muslim!”
Alberto Núñez Feijóo and Santiago Abascal, leaders of the mainstream conservative People’s Party (PP) and the far-right Vox respectively, both attended the Madrid march separately. They accused Sánchez of “lying” to Spaniards and of being a “traitor to Spain” and a “lackey of Morocco” due to the prime minister’s reluctance to express any criticism of the Moroccan government in connection with the sudden migrant influx.
Sánchez appeared in Congress on Thursday to defend that his executive has no indications that Morocco was in any way behind the sudden migrant crossing. This week, Spain’s National Police handed a report to the judge investigating the events of July 30-31; the document, drawn up by the police’s National Center for Immigration and Borders (CENIF), suggests that Moroccan gendarmes may have helped “guide” the mass movement of people towards the Spanish territory.
The prime minister insisted on Thursday that the executive did not receive any “alerts or extraordinary warnings” in the days prior to the migrant surge. “The government has nothing to hide in this matter. I have given the order to release a dossier with all the reports, all of them, so that the media and citizens can examine them personally. It is absurd to think that the executive was warned and purposely didn’t do anything about it.”
The protests had been called by the Federation of Municipalities and Provinces (FEMP), a right-leaning agency.
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