The Minister of Defense has not wanted to confirm whether she will attend the Senate on August 18, an appearance that the PP assures has been agreed with her after she had expressed her “full willingness” to attend the Upper House. However, during a visit to the Spanish autonomous city to which 80,000 immigrants arrived massively on July 30, she did want to send a message to Morocco, although without mentioning it explicitly.
“Any aggression against Ceuta or Melilla is an aggression against Spain as a whole. Ceuta and Melilla are not to be touched,” emphasized Margarita Robles firmly. “Ceuta and Melilla are Spanish, no, they are very Spanish, even more so. And, for that reason, neither Ceuta nor Melilla are to be touched because Spain is a country that feels very proud of what Spain is and Ceuta and Melilla are the best representation of what Spain is,” she added.
In a brief appearance before the media, the head of the Armed Forces warned that “what happened cannot happen again.” Likewise, she expressed her confidence that “the full weight of the law will fall on the mafias and on those who are manipulating and handling these people” and remembered those who died in this “humanitarian drama” while trying to cross the maritime border from Morocco, 83 according to Spanish authorities’ data.
Read more Moroccan nationalists take their claim about the city all the way to the door of Ceuta City Hall
Robles also publicly thanked the president of Ceuta, Juan Jesús Vivas, for his “effort, work, and composure” in the face of this migratory crisis. She also said she was able to “personally” verify, because she had been talking with them, “the concern, anguish, and suffering” of the residents in the autonomous city.
When asked if she would attend the Senate on the date the PP announced on Tuesday that it would go to give explanations about this avalanche, but which Moncloa left in the air afterwards implying it was not confirmed, the Defense Minister, visibly uncomfortable with the question from one of the journalists attending her appearance, concluded: “We are in Ceuta talking about Ceuta.”
