The disinformation campaign with which the Government has responded to the National Police report that dismantles its implausible narrative about the assault on Ceuta is the culmination of a management disaster that, at a minimum, demands the immediate dismissal of the Minister of the Interior.
The report, whose literal content was previewed this Wednesday by EL MUNDO, breaks the two pillars of the government’s narrative about what it defines as a “massive violation of Spain’s territorial sovereignty”: the Intelligence services do have indications that Moroccan security forces were behind the avalanche and the Executive was indeed warned about the risk of the assault, contrary to what Pedro Sánchez, José Manuel Albares, Félix Bolaños, Elma Saiz, and Fernando Grande-Marlaska himself have repeatedly claimed.
The dissonance is so evident that only two alternatives remain, and both leave the Government indefensible. If the president and the minister knew nothing, it means they do not control the State’s security apparatus. And if they knew these facts, they have not only hidden them from the citizens: they have blatantly lied to them.
The 55-page report that the National Immigration and Borders Center has delivered to magistrate María Tardón about the entry of more than 70,000 immigrants into Ceuta between July 30 and 31 is devastating for Moncloa. According to this unit, which provides multiple images and messages spread on social networks, it was a planned operation, with sophistication beyond the reach of mafias, in which Moroccan agents participated at least by actively guiding them towards the border.
Therefore, it would not be a migratory crisis, but a strategy with political objectives, linked to the massive entries of 2021 and 2024 and followed by reivindicative messages, “even at an official level,” against the Spanish sovereignty of Ceuta and Melilla.
The situation is of unprecedented gravity. The president has categorically blamed the “mafias”, without providing any data, as well as “Russia” and “Israel,” in this case referring to a European Commission report that it has denied. And with the same firmness, he has denied any Moroccan involvement. Is it possible that Rabat can still be praised as a loyal ally? How is this level of political submission to Mohamed VI explained? What does the PSOE owe him?
Read more Two Moroccans arrested for assaulting civil guards on Trampolín beach, in Ceuta
As Judicial Police, the Foreigners unit was obliged to keep the report secret. However, upon learning its first conclusions, the Interior Ministry did not direct its outrage towards Rabat, but towards the Police, to deploy a purely Trump-style information poisoning operation, asserting that the report does not hold the Moroccan regime responsible as such.
All this is inconceivable. Starting with Marlaska’s surprise: did he not request from the start all available data from his various Intelligence services—most from open sources—about the attack and its authorship? In this month, and when even the press has pointed to Rabat, had no one shown him any photos of the Moroccan agents involved? How can one trust that the Government’s priority is to find the truth and not to hide it to cover up its manifest political errors?
The two Intelligence reports we reveal today provide even more clarity about the three days prior to the crisis. The Government was not only warned about the magnitude of the crossing, but the warnings were eloquent: on July 27, military Intelligence alerted that the “massive entry of irregular migration” into Ceuta on the 30th was “very likely,” and that same day the National Police conveyed in writing the “extreme risk of collapse” with “immediate character.” The question is why, with these severe warnings on the table, the Government only began to act hours after the assault.
After a month of vacation, today Sánchez arrives knocked out at Congress, with his exculpatory strategy broken, questioned by his most loyal partners and just hours after the moving civic mobilization that has swept across Spain. The heartfelt expressions of solidarity towards the people of Ceuta and the defense of their Spanish identity were yesterday a massive and cross-cutting outcry. Our country will not abandon its compatriots: Ceuta’s problem is the problem of all Spain.
