The Minister of Defense, Margarita Robles, has sent a clear and emphatic message to Morocco: “Ceuta and Melilla are Spanish and untouchable.” The forcefulness of her statement comes in response to the migratory and humanitarian crisis caused in Ceuta by action or omission of Rabat and amid the expansionist ambitions expressed by various members of the Moroccan government.
Robles inaugurates with such an explicit and firm message the carousel of extraordinary Government appearances in the Congress, in which up to eight ministers will be accountable for the crisis in Ceuta and will report on the situation the autonomous city has been going through since the irregular entry of about 80,000 people last July 30, of whom at least more than 9,000 remain.
The Defense Minister began her speech by apologizing to “all those who may have felt or who even today continue to feel abandoned or not sufficiently supported” by the authorities. “We are with them and suffer with them. Their anguish is also our anguish. I want to tell them that they have not been abandoned, they will not be,” she assured.
Thus, she pointed out that work is underway on the design of new physical barriers and signaling beacons on the Tarajal breakwater to strengthen border containment and that there is a willingness to “increase the participation” of the European Union “in defense of the autonomous city and its border” through Frontex and other community mechanisms.
It was then that the Minister of Defense emphasized that Ceuta and Melilla are “very Spanish” “They represent the best Spain. An example of respect, maximum tolerance, and coexistence among religions. We will not allow these values of coexistence and tolerance to be put at risk or questioned from any perspective.”
In this regard, Robles warned: “Any aggression or attempted aggression against Ceuta or Melilla is against all of Spain, because our sovereignty and territorial integrity are untouchable. Ceuta and Melilla are Spain. Let no one forget or doubt it.”
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The minister concluded that the “sovereignty,” “territorial integrity,” and “security” of Ceuta and Melilla constitute “a responsibility of the State as a whole” and that, therefore, Spain “will respond to any violation of them firmly, within the law, but firmly.”
On the other hand, Robles addressed the controversy over whether the CNI had information or not and whether it informed the Ministry of the Interior. The Defense Minister pointed out that this information was shared with the security forces, which contradicts the official version of Minister Fernando Grande-Marlaska, who maintained in the days following the massive entry that no one had warned him that something like this could happen.
Despite saying that the duty of secrecy is a guarantee that prevents publicizing the work of the CNI, and that it operates as a “burden,” “it cannot be an obstacle” to say that the military and Intelligence “carried out the work that was and is required of them and shared and analyzed it with the State Security Forces and the personnel of the Government Delegation.”
Robles explained that the intelligence services did their job well, also the 25 CNI agents who have their destination secret and who carry out their mission in Ceuta. These agents are “monitoring the situation in the area daily from multiple perspectives: relations with neighboring countries, the geopolitical situation on the southern flank, the actions of organized mafias, their use of networks, the rise and increase of jihadist terrorism, and obviously the development of irregular migration, considering the situation of neighboring countries, the Sahel, as well as destabilizing actions through hybrid threats carried out by international agents.”
