The Government’s pressure to involve Felipe VI in the Ceuta crisis constitutes an irresponsible maneuver to divert attention from its catastrophic management. With thousands of immigrants wandering through an overwhelmed city, a device unable to absorb the consequences of the wave, and Rabat pending explanation of its responsibility in the violation of Spanish sovereignty and territorial integrity, the Executive seems more interested in distributing responsibilities than in assuming them.
The suggestion of a minister to the Royal House that the King call Mohamed VI to thank him for his collaboration – published yesterday by El País – is another attempt to instrumentalize the head of state. The deputy spokesperson of Sumar, Enrique Santiago, even warned that the King “is taking too long” to speak with his counterpart. It is worth remembering that Felipe VI exercises the highest representation of the State in international relations, but the direction of foreign policy corresponds to the Government. A conversation of such importance therefore requires government initiative and coordination.
The contradictions within the coalition remain, moreover, evident. While Santiago described what happened as a “hybrid attack,” the PSOE insists on praising Rabat’s collaboration despite reports supporting that, if it did not orchestrate the massive entry, it at least allowed it. Under those circumstances, proposing a call of thanks to Mohamed VI is difficult to justify. Rabat’s subsequent cooperation to contain the consequences of the crisis does not erase its responsibility. Spain maintains a strategic relationship with Morocco that requires keeping channels of communication open, but diplomacy does not imply renouncing the defense of one’s own interests.
The Government cannot systematically resort to the symbolic capacity of the Crown in any crisis. If Pedro Sánchez considers a conversation between Felipe VI and Mohamed VI essential, he must promote it and politically assume its content. What is unacceptable is to publicly convey the impression that the King has failed to fulfill an obligation. Especially in the case of a Government that took 22 days to appoint a coordinator, Ángel Víctor Torres, for an emergency that required a single command from the start.
Felipe VI has already intervened within the margins of the Head of State. He has spoken with Sánchez, Feijóo, and the presidents of Ceuta and Melilla, and expressed an unusual “concern and indignation” about the events. He has also received the president of Ceuta, Juan Jesús Vivas. His willingness to visit the city is part of that same institutional function of support for those affected. However, the call to Mohamed VI belongs to a different category, susceptible to being used by Rabat, which maintains its claim over Ceuta and Melilla.
Turning a State decision of that magnitude into a reason to publicly reproach the Monarch deepens the rift between Zarzuela and Moncloa, causing institutional instability at the highest level, one of Morocco’s objectives that the Spanish Government is unfortunately helping to fulfill by involving the King.
