For the main opposition party, the crisis caused by the entry of 60,000 people from Morocco to Ceuta last Thursday “has a main responsible party, and that main responsible party is called Pedro Sánchez.” This is what the secretary general of the PP, Miguel Tellado, stated this Monday, accusing the president of the Government of having incurred in a “continued, chronic negligence” in three areas: migration policy, security, and foreign affairs. In his view, the “failure” of Sánchez’s management in these three issues explains what happened last week in the autonomous city, which Tellado described as a “massive occupation” and “great invasion.”
The popular leader has wanted at all times, in the press conference held this Monday in Madrid, to focus on the responsibility of the Spanish Government regarding what happened, avoiding directly pointing to Morocco for the role the neighboring country could have played in warning – or stopping – the wave of people heading to cross the border. Yesterday, the president of Madrid, Isabel Díaz Ayuso, and the leader of Vox, Santiago Abascal, did look to Rabat, but this Monday Tellado has avoided doing so forcefully, excusing himself with the argument that “the Government of Spain is responsible for Spain’s international relations.”
Thus, only reading between the lines of Tellado’s words reveals a certain stance of the national PP regarding the role of the neighboring country. “A government must demand respect for the country it serves, the country it represents,” he stated, criticizing that there were ministers at an event at the Moroccan embassy while the massive entry was taking place. “Probably the Government of Spain, since it does not respect itself, since it does not respect Spaniards, and since it does not respect the country, it is very difficult for it to gain the respect of third countries,” he hinted.
Earlier, Tellado had adopted the words spoken by the PP leader, Alberto Núñez Feijóo, last Saturday, stating that “every good relationship between States requires reciprocity, mutual respect, transparency, and good faith.” “It is essential to clarify what failed in cooperation with Morocco. This should not have happened and this cannot happen again,” added the popular, although he immediately emphasized that it is “the responsibility of the Government of Spain that this does not happen again.”
Thus avoiding directly pointing to the neighboring country, Tellado limited his stance to these statements when asked about the role Morocco played, arguing that “this is the responsible analysis that today,” in his opinion, they must “make as the leading party of Spain.” “The one who directs Spain’s foreign policy is the one responsible for managing a crisis of this nature,” insisted the number two of the PP, to launch again against Sánchez’s Government: “Certainly, it has not done so.”
For Tellado, the national Executive failed in two ways regarding what happened in Ceuta. On one hand, “it acted very badly in its obligation to prevent this crisis” and, he pointed out, “it acted even worse in responding to it with the necessary firmness.” The popular leader also questioned the truth of what the Interior Minister, Fernando Grande-Marlaska, claims, that there was no information about the avalanche of people about to arrive in Ceuta. “We cannot believe that the intelligence services of our country had no information about what was happening,” he maintained.
“There is a real risk that these events could happen again at any moment,” lamented Tellado, attributing that threat to “the continued dereliction of duties of the Sánchez administration.” Furthermore, the number two of the PP, who traveled to Ceuta this weekend, called the thesis defended by the Government that the city “has returned to normality” an “insult.”
