Pedro Sánchez said: “Until this is normalized, the minister will be here, don’t worry.” And Juan Vivas, mayor-president of Ceuta, asked him: “But, what do we understand by normalization?” “Absolute normality,” the president replied.
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It was Friday, July 31, and Ceuta was hosting a dystopian scene, with 80,000 migrants having just arrived by storm in the previous 40 hours.
Sánchez had just landed in the autonomous city, both had agreed by phone on his trip the day before, and their relationship had always been “very frank”, according to local government sources, who reconstruct for EL MUNDO what they consider the “deception” that has left the city abandoned for almost a month.
According to this version, which is supported by already known data, Sánchez tried to make an enveloping move to appear together at that time, and thus condition their subsequent requests just as the central government’s holidays were beginning.
“Sánchez and Fernando Grande-Marlaska met upon arrival with Vivas, who asked the minister what had caused the jump. ‘We don’t know’, replied Marlaska, who at the same time said something that caused great surprise in our president,” continue the city government: “First he said it had been an attack on Spain’s territorial integrity. Secondly, that Morocco had behaved ‘with great complicity.’ There Juan saw that something didn’t add up.”
Sánchez intervened in the exchange, according to this source, and said: “Anyway, Juan, the minister stays here and will not leave until this is fixed, rest assured”. “President,” replied Vivas, “and what do you understand by fixed? What do you mean by normalization?” “The return of everything to normal,” said Sánchez, “absolute normality.” “Thank you, president,” replied Vivas, “I agree.”
Then, the Ceuta president asked Marlaska what “horizon” he had for the departure of the migrants, knowing that mass returns were not a possibility. “One by one”, said the Interior Minister, explain the local government. “Well, if it’s one by one, this is going to last a long time…”, Vivas began to say, before Sánchez interrupted him: “The minister will not leave until this is normalized, you have my word”.
“And now,” Sánchez continued, “we are going to appear together”. Vivas, an old hand, did not want to pay for the product before seeing the goods: “President, forgive me but I can’t”. “And why?” Sánchez asked him. “I’m going to say things about Morocco that it’s better you are not by my side,” he replied.
Vivas saw at that moment, according to these sources, that Sánchez hardened his expression, and answered him: “Alright, another time then.” In his press conference that day, Sánchez proclaimed that the entry of migrants was “an attack on the territorial integrity” of Spain. Vivas appeared on his side, blaming the central government for having acted “late and insufficiently” – he could not imagine that everything would continue like this 25 days later -.
The next morning, the mayor-president of Ceuta was heading to El Tarajal when he received a call from Grande-Marlaska. “The minister goes and says to him: ‘President, I’m calling to tell you that I’m leaving, this is fixed and I have a meeting of European interior ministers’.” Vivas, according to these sources, could not believe it.
– Minister, but the president told me less than 24 hours ago that you were going to stay until this was over.
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– Yes, but it is already like this, with all the people who have returned [to Morocco]. And I have a European meeting, sorry…
The meeting Marlaska was supposed to attend, point out the Ceuta government, “was on Tuesday, and that day was Saturday… Marlaska didn’t even last a day.”
The Ministry assures EL MUNDO that the plan was already drawn up, and that Marlaska was supposed to return to Madrid on Sunday, as he indeed did.
On Thursday, August 6, already with the Ceuta president sensing that the government was barely going to do anything to help, the Minister of Childhood and Youth, Sira Rego, visits Ceuta, “who goes and tells Vivas the opposite of what [the Foreign Minister, José Manuel] Albares said. If Albares said that Morocco was our first ally, our best friend, Rego tells him that diplomatic relations with Morocco must be broken. The president realizes that even within the Council of Ministers they are divided.”
On the 17th, the Minister of Migrations, Elma Sáiz, arrives in the autonomous city. “The first thing she does,” continue sources from the autonomous government, “is to ask Vivas for her own security, to guarantee it. The president, imagine,” these sources continue, “tells her: ‘But Minister, I have my city invaded. How am I going to give you security? If I don’t even have the capacity to ensure my fellow citizens, which is my obligation…”.
The “height of ignorance”,” report from the local government, comes with the eviction of the Trampolín beach last Thursday. Minister Sáiz holds a press conference afterwards and leaves Ceuta – “we are clear that she mainly came to capitalize on the eviction of the beach,” say the local government -.
As soon as the migrants leave, other Maghrebis take advantage to reoccupy the beach. Vivas receives a call from the Minister of Territorial Policy, Ángel Víctor Torres, now appointed sole commander and with whom he has a good friendship since he was president of the Canary Islands. “And Torres asks him: ‘Hey, Juan, but these migrants, who had been taken to the centers, how come they have returned?'”.
The Ceuta president cannot believe it again. “But Ángel, they are not the same as before, they are others… Don’t you know that we have Ceuta completely taken over by these people? Don’t you know what’s happening here?'”
Finally, the local government has “several theories” about the “incredible” paralysis, as they call it, of the central government in this crisis. “On the one hand, there may be ineptitude, because sadly we have seen it in other situations. On the other, the constant will has been not to upset Morocco, that is clear to us, although we don’t know how it would bother Morocco less to put order in our city, something that would be done in hours if there was will.”
They point out one last reason: “And then, there is a factor that we believe unavoidable, although it seems unbelievable: the holidays. They have been on vacation all this time and perhaps preferred to rest. It seems incredible, but we can’t think of another explanation.”
