Ceuta migrant surge puts Spain’s Sánchez under pressure as opposition demands answers

A month after thousands of migrants surged into Ceuta, Spain’s North African enclave, Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez is facing nationwide opposition protests and accusations that his government lost control of the European Union’s external border.

The conservative People’s Party, led by Alberto Núñez Feijóo, and the right-wing Vox organised rallies across Spain. They described them as acts of solidarity with Ceuta, which they said remains under pressure from thousands of migrants. The parties also held a demonstration outside the European Parliament in Brussels, where they called for Sánchez’s resignation and early elections.

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Hypocritical.

Sánchez called the campaign “hypocritical.” He said the right-wing opposition spoke of solidarity with Ceuta but blocked efforts to ease the city’s pressure by using the reception capacity of other autonomous communities. Instead, he said, the opposition demanded mass deportations that would violate the law.

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Rather slowly and chaotically.

Sánchez said the protests were really intended to prevent him from continuing in office. Migration expert Sonia Martínez told APA that the government had in fact responded to the migrant surge “rather slowly and chaotically.” Opposition parties accuse the governing left of “losing control” and “failure,” and say Madrid ignored warnings from Spain’s intelligence service, the CNI.

Dolors Montserrat, Spain’s secretary-general of the European People’s Party, said Sánchez had lied to Ceuta’s residents, Spaniards and Europeans, claiming he knew an invasion was approaching but failed to defend the city’s territorial integrity and Spanish sovereignty. The Interior Ministry has continued to support Sánchez while arguments over the government’s handling of the crisis continue.

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Sánchez lied to the people of Ceuta, the Spanish people and the Europeans. He knew about the impending invasion and failed to defend Ceuta’s territorial integrity and Spanish sovereignty.