Ancient military men used to say that ‘the Moor’ smells weakness. Both from friend and foe. (Allah save me from my friends, let alone…). What ‘the Moor’ has indeed sensed is the stench of the decaying Government because Spain, despite what we tell ourselves, is well prepared to face (that is, deter) the massive arrival of illegal immigrants if those in charge so decide.
Read more The military fears more immigrant ambushes in Ceuta and asks to be authority agents
It is not true that one must resign oneself to wait for the country ruled by Mohamed VI to decide to act to stop the human tide. Spain has resources that qualify it as the fourth power of the EU. And it has faced this situation before.
THE SPANISH ARMY, despite its shortcomings, is good and effective, as can be seen in the deployment in Lithuania. On August 28, 2005, a little over a year after Zapatero’s arrival, about 300 sub-Saharans stormed the fence of Melilla; weeks later there was another attempt in Ceuta. The socialist Government reinforced the fences with the Army; the incidents of that autumn ended with five deaths. From then on, agents and soldiers carried blank bullets, and immigrants knew that if they continued, the ammunition would be real.
Our soldiers now go unarmed; it is no surprise that they feel frustrated because they are sent without means to fulfill their mission. On Thursday dawn, a group of about 30 Moroccans ambushed a Spanish military patrol with stones and sticks. Four were injured.
DIPLOMACY. In November 2007, Don Juan Carlos and Doña Sofía visited Ceuta and Melilla. Morocco made a fuss by recalling its ambassador to Spain and a mini-crisis was staged, but nothing that could not be resolved by the – always very calculated – relationship between the King’s father and ‘his nephew’. Neighborhood relations are always ambiguous. To date, the largest human avalanche by number was that of Ceuta in 2021, attributed to Morocco’s negligence after the entry into Logroño, with a false identity, of the secretary general of the Polisario Front for treatment. For years, the Sahrawi leader had entered Spain several times for medical reasons: it had been done discreetly and with Morocco’s knowledge. That is why there were no consequences then. Pedro Sánchez’s recent trip to Algeria has also not been the most convenient for Morocco to cooperate.
Read more Sánchez’s paralysis in Ceuta plunges Spain into a state crisis
COMPLEXES. Yes, we depend on the neighbor, but the neighbor depends even more on us. We are the gateway to the EU for their exports and, since Algeria closed the Maghreb-Europe gas pipeline on its side, Morocco channels its liquefied natural gas through plants on the peninsula. Another matter is that the Alaouite monarch wants the same treatment the EU gives Erdogan for containing immigration. In 2016, Brussels committed 6 billion.
THE AMERICAN FRIEND. In 2020, Trump made Mohamed VI sign the normalization of his diplomatic relations with Israel in exchange for recognizing the Sahara. Since then, the threat of moving the Rota and Morón bases to Moroccan soil has always hung over, but it is impossible to replicate a similar development: the facilities in Spain have more than 70 years of adaptation, improvements, works, materials. And… what American soldier would want to be assigned there so that his daughters go out in Rabat or Casablanca instead of doing so in Málaga, Seville..? That plays in our favor.
BUT PEGASUS… If Morocco has such compromising data on Sánchez, he could do the same with what the Spanish intelligence services have collected about the Commander of the Faithful. It is more likely that the shots go in another direction and that the interests, links, and various shady dealings attributed to other prominent socialists in the Alaouite kingdom weigh more.
It is not Spain that is going adrift. It is the Government that is leading us astray. And do not rule out that the violence in Ceuta is a calculation to mobilize the left. There are barely nine months left until the elections are held. Calm and prudence must prevail over this unease for the people of Ceuta.
