The report that the National Police have sent to the judge, which would prove Morocco’s involvement in the mass crossing into Ceuta and which the Government claims to have been unaware of, has given the Popular Party the perfect ammunition to insist on the message it has been sending for days: that the Executive did know what was going to happen on July 30 and that it has tried to hide that Rabat was behind the incident. “The Government knew and covered it up. They have lied to us to our faces. Hiding and ignoring the warnings,” accused the leader of the PP, Alberto Núñez Feijóo, from Ceuta, on his third visit since the beginning of the crisis. The head of the Popular Party has held Morocco responsible for having “coordinated” the operation of the entry of about 70,000 people into the autonomous city, and demands that hostility with the neighboring country be raised by summoning the Moroccan ambassador to Spain and recalling the Spanish ambassador in the Alawite kingdom for consultations.
Feijóo has expressed his “support” for the National Police and intelligence services ―under scrutiny due to the clash of versions between the Ministers of Interior and Defense about whether they warned or not about the mass crossing― because “they did fulfill their duties.” “The one who failed in their duty was the Government of Spain. Yes, they had repeated warnings. On the 27th, 28th, and 29th of July they knew. And they disregarded all the reports. Therefore, they are responsible for the death and the invasion,” the PP leader stated in a press conference in Ceuta alongside the Ceuta president, the Popular Juan Jesús Vivas.
“What kind of mind thinks that the Minister of the Interior addresses his subordinates by letter?” Feijóo asked, referring to Fernando Grande-Marlaska having sent a letter to the Director General of the Police, Francisco Pardo Piqueras, urging him to, “if true,” inform him from when the police force had information indicating that Moroccan agents directed the mass entry of people into Ceuta with a purpose other than migration. “And the most important question,” Feijóo emphasized, “what kind of mind thinks the president allowed it?” “While the police protect the Nation, the Government is more concerned with protecting itself and Morocco,” he criticized La Moncloa.
Feijóo relies on the Police report previewed by El Español, although he stated that the PP does not have it in its possession, to raise the tone against Morocco and directly accuse it of being behind the mass crossing into Ceuta. “The attack was not a spontaneous migratory movement,” the PP leader reflected today. “The police confirm it. The operation came from Morocco, it was allowed, and everything seems to indicate it was coordinated by Morocco,” he warned.
From that premise, the opposition leader calls for raising diplomatic tension with the neighboring country by summoning the Moroccan ambassador in Spain “to announce initial response measures” and recalling the Spanish ambassador in Morocco for consultations. “After learning what we learned this morning and that the Government knew and had information before the invasion, it is necessary to ask Morocco for explanations through the ambassador and recall our ambassador,” Feijóo insisted, who did not want to specify what initial response measures against the neighboring country he was referring to. “Depending on the explanations we get, we will give a response. I will not anticipate or specify anything else out of responsibility. We are a state party.”
The PP thus hardens its position on Morocco, which it already pointed to as knowing what happened in Ceuta, but did not directly accuse of being behind an aggression against the country, as Feijóo has done now. It was Vox who pressured the PP to raise hostilities with the neighboring country, urging the PP to join its request to suspend the Friendship Treaty with Morocco and challenging it to support in the Senate the withdrawal of the Spanish ambassador in Morocco. The PP even asked for the Moroccan ambassador to be recalled in mid-August after the words of the Minister of Justice that questioned the Spanishness of Ceuta and Melilla, but the Populars had not reiterated that idea and had not joined the initiative to suspend the Friendship Treaty with the neighboring country. Now they go further.
The huge uproar over the National Police report on the mass entry, which has caused great discomfort in the Government because it claims to have been unaware, has also served the PP to heat up the gatherings for Ceuta Day that will be held this evening at eight in front of the town halls of the country. Feijóo, who maintains that “the Government is not in a position to guarantee the country’s security” and therefore its “only way out is to call elections and give the people a voice,” predicts a massive mobilization. “Hundreds of thousands of Spaniards will take to the streets today. We will say that Ceuta is not abandoned, not sold, and not surrendered,” he defended today from the autonomous city, before traveling again to Madrid to participate in this evening’s gathering at Plaza de Cibeles. “Spain has a failed Government,” he stressed, “but not a failed State nor a failed Nation.”
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