The leader of the PP, Alberto Núñez Feijóo, has insisted that “to this day they still do not know why the ‘invasion’ of migrants in Ceuta occurred and was allowed” and “why it is still said that the collaboration with Morocco is exemplary.” “The President of the Government is on the beach with his flip-flops while the president [Juan Jesús] Vivas is managing a problem that does not depend on him with his boots on from day one,” he stated in an interview with the Europa Press agency.
Read more Unbearable pressure on the King
Regarding whether he believes Morocco is a reliable partner, Feijóo defended a relationship of “neighborhood and friendship” with the Alawite country but warned that this “requires reciprocity,” “loyalty,” and “respect between both,” while making it clear that “neither threats nor blackmail” against Spain are acceptable. He also added that as leader of the opposition he does not have “all the data” and there are “many unknowns” about the massive entry of more than 70,000 illegal migrants on July 30 and 31.
When asked if a migration crisis like the one in Ceuta would not have occurred if the PP were in Moncloa, he responded that if his party were governing, they would have “information from the CNI, from the foreign police station of the National Police and from the Guardia Civil.” “And we would have contacted Morocco immediately to avoid an avalanche and an invasion of 70,000 people,” he assured.
At this point, he added that “what is clear is that Morocco either consented to or encouraged the invasion” at the end of July. “And what is also clear is that the Government, knowing about it, did not act,” he emphasized. Asked if he believes there are blackmails or threats being made to the Spanish Government, Feijóo replied that he does not know “what is happening between the Government of Pedro Sánchez and Morocco,” but warned that they will end up “knowing.”
“Hidden diplomacy”
In his view, Sánchez “behaves more like a subject of Morocco than as the President of the Government of Spain.” “His policy or hidden diplomacy with Rabat has resulted in this invasion of Spanish territory,” Feijóo stated, reproaching him for calling the Italian ambassador for consultations and not the Moroccan ambassador.
During his interview with Europa Press, Feijóo also spoke about the possible visit of the King to Ceuta. The PP leader considers that Felipe VI “wants to go to Ceuta” because “it corresponds to him” as head of State in the face of the “humanitarian, public health, and public order crisis” being experienced in the autonomous city. For this reason, he has asked the Government of Pedro Sánchez to “authorize” that visit.
After assuring that Sánchez’s Executive has acted “with enormous indolence and incompetence,” he said he does not want to think there has been “complicity” because in that case they would be “facing a very serious case.” “Indolence and incompetence are confirmed, and complicity with Morocco I do not want to think is a possibility,” he emphasized.
“Far right”
This Saturday, the spokesperson for the PSOE in Congress, Patxi López, also spoke through a statement distributed to the media in which he accused the PP and its leader, Alberto Núñez Feijóo, of having become the “main feeder of hoaxes” in the country.
Patxi accused Feijóo of having decided to take the PP “to the far right” and of having copied its strategy. At this point, he accused him of being “the main feeder of hoaxes in this country,” “the absolute encyclopedia of insult and disqualification,” and “the biggest void in terms of ideas and proposals.”
According to López, the leader of the opposition intends to reach the Government of Spain through that strategy, but he assured that citizens “will turn their backs on him.” Thus, he assured that Spaniards do not want “racism, xenophobia, rejection of the different, denial of climate change, or denial of gender-based violence.”
López emphasized that, from the “first minute” of the legislature, the right has tried to install the idea that the Executive was incapable of pushing forward initiatives and forming sufficient majorities in Parliament, which, in his opinion, painted a Government and a Congress “inactive” and “empty of content.”
Against that approach, the socialist leader cited as an example the appearances scheduled next week in Congress, “in the middle of August,” of seven ministers to give explanations about the situation in Ceuta. In his opinion, these appearances constitute “another exercise of explanations and transparency from this Government.”
López also highlighted that, in the three years since the last general elections, Congress has approved 74 legislative initiatives, including laws and decrees, aimed, as he defended, at “improving people’s lives” and responding to situations such as floods, volcanoes, or wars in Ukraine and Iran. “Each and every one of them has had a response from the Government and approval in Parliament,” he pointed out.
