The diplomatic tension between Rome and Madrid does not ease. Italy’s Foreign Minister, Antonio Tajani, has called Spain’s decision to establish random checks on travelers coming from his country “incomprehensible and totally unacceptable.” The Government of Pedro Sánchez, which announced this temporary suspension of free movement within the Schengen area after the Government of Giorgia Meloni had done the same with its citizens, responds to the authorities of the Italian country by urging them to “react.”
The trigger for this unprecedented crisis between two community partners lies in the avalanche that occurred on July 30 between Morocco and Ceuta, with the arrival in the autonomous city mainly by swimming of at least 72,000 foreigners in an irregular situation. The Italian leader then led the criticism of Spanish migration policy, accusing it of putting at risk the borders of the European Union, which was joined by 22 member states.
In an interview with the newspaper La Stampa published this Sunday, Tajani argued that they decided to apply controls to travelers coming from Spain because of the “extraordinary” nature of this situation. Their refusal to reverse this supervision at the request of La Moncloa is justified because the Ceuta president himself, Juan Jesús Vivas, has estimated between 8,000 and 11,000 the people who remain in his territory after the expulsion of the rest and that “thousands are sub-Saharan Africans who cannot be repatriated.”
“What is incomprehensible and totally unacceptable is Spain’s reaction,” says the Italian Foreign Minister, who points out that, according to “Spanish Intelligence services, there is a risk of a new wave in mid-August” and that, therefore, not deactivating the application of the measure “is a precaution.” “We hope to lift the suspension soon, as soon as the risk has disappeared. It is Sánchez who has dramatized,” added the Forza Italia leader, reports Efe.
Representing the coalition Government of PSOE and Sumar, the third vice president, Sara Aagesen, responded that what they expect is that their community partner “reacts” and that it is “clear” that the Schengen area is guaranteed, without having been violated, because “no person has arrived on the Peninsula.” In addition, she emphasized that the main objective is to “defend the dignity of Spanish citizens,” which is why she has expressed her support for the measures published this Sunday in the Official State Gazette (BOE).
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The European Union Commissioner for Home Affairs and Migration, Magnus Brunner, held talks on Saturday with the Interior Ministers of Spain and Italy, Fernando Grande-Marlaska and Matteo Piantedosi, who told him that the reciprocal restrictions on free movement are “temporary.” The Austrian politician, according to what he explained on his own X account, conveyed to both the importance of the “progress” that the 27 have achieved in the fight against illegal immigration and warned them that “trust among member states” is the “most valuable currency” that the European Union has.
Controls at Spanish airports began at 00:00 on Saturday and will remain until September 7, although the measure will be evaluated permanently and may be lifted earlier “if the circumstances that motivated it disappear.” Until 21:00 on the first day of application of the measure, the Police had requested identity documentation from 199 national travelers from third countries arriving on 12 flights from Italy in Madrid, Barcelona, Seville, Bilbao, Alicante, and Valencia.
Although Sánchez’s Government has hinted that the reciprocal temporary suspension of Schengen with Italy is in retaliation for the Meloni Government doing so first, the government order that approved it justifies it due to migratory pressure on the central Mediterranean route and the risk of subsequent movements from Italy to other community countries. The text warns that there is a “serious, real, and current threat to public order and internal security” due to the concentration of movements on certain flights and maritime links from Italy.