Key moments
- Gamarra (PP), to Bolaños about the ‘grandchildren law’: “The electoral roll is sacred in democracy”
- Albares assures he is in contact with Morocco “practically daily”
The leader of the PP, Alberto Núñez Feijóo, and the Prime Minister, Pedro Sánchez, have accused each other this Wednesday of “chronicling” the Ceuta crisis, each with their actions, in a government control session in Congress marked by the situation in the autonomous city and tensions over the grandchildren law. Feijóo accused him of doing so by not returning to Morocco all the migrants still in Ceuta, despite Rabat saying it is willing to receive them. For his part, the president states that, by advocating in the European Parliament to break the association agreement with Morocco, the country to which migrants must return, the populars are “chronicling the problem, not solving it.” Meanwhile, the Ministry of Migrations canceled early this morning the transfer of immigrants from El Trampolín beach that was scheduled for dawn, without specifying a new exact date for relocation. Meanwhile, the President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, sent a clear message to Spain and the people of Ceuta: “The Ceuta border is a European border. Europe is there for you,” she said.
Read more Ayuso stands up the rectors at the start of the academic year and thus avoids a university protest
EL PAÍS offers the latest political news free of charge. If you want to support our journalism, subscribe.
Eviction of El Trampolín beach in Ceuta postponed until the Puerto camp is completed
The Ministry of Migrations canceled early this Wednesday the transfer of immigrants from El Trampolín beach that was scheduled for today at dawn. Police and Civil Guard planned to evacuate the beach and accompany about 1,500 people of the estimated 4,000 who have camped there to two new reception facilities: men to the resource at Muelle de Poniente and women to the Hípica one. The government resists specifying a new exact date for relocation.
On Tuesday, government sources confirmed it would take place early this morning, but pending tasks at the reception facilities forced the operation to be postponed. Migrations is waiting, first, for the completion of the Puerto work, which has a large tent and several small ones. The workers in charge of preparing the facility are still working on assembling the last tents. In addition, they are waiting for NGO staff responsible for migrant care to be available, according to sources consulted.
This facility, at Muelle de Poniente, has capacity for about 1,400 people, insufficient for all those camping at El Trampolín. The Ceuta government estimates 4,000 migrants in the beach settlements, so tension is expected during the eviction and subsequent transfer to the new provisional centers, as happened with transfers to the Loma Colmenar and Los Rosales centers, when migrants left out tried to enter en masse and by force, and the National Police had to contain them. (EP)
Marlaska says Ceutans must “be careful with lies, hoaxes and irresponsibility” of the Popular Party and Vox
The Interior Minister, Fernando Grande-Marlaska, responded to Vox’s questions about the Ceuta crisis in the control session, warning that Ceutans must “be careful with lies, hoaxes and irresponsibility of parties like the Popular Party and Vox.” Addressing the ultra Ignacio Gil Lázaro, the Vox deputy who asked him the question, Marlaska said: “I think in that sense the PP is ahead of them.”
Marlaska insisted that “there was no alert, no information was received,” about a massive arrival. “The CNI has stated and clarified that there was no report in that regard. Nor the information systems of the Police and Civil Guard.” The minister argued that, after the crisis began, the government reinforced the number of police officers and border surveillance. “They are responding to the security crisis with more arrests, more effectiveness in response and the expulsion of those charged with crimes, more than 300.”
Óscar López, on possible rejection of the ‘lobbies’ law: “European funds will be lost, but less than originally”
By Fernando Criado
The Minister for Digital Transformation and Public Function, Óscar López, acknowledged that part of the European funds will be lost if the royal decree-law regulating lobbies is not validated today, although “less than originally” after renegotiating the criteria with Brussels. He also stated that “if someone wonders in the future why Spain does not have such a law, the answer will be that it is the fault of the right.” Junts has announced its vote against and the PP has not confirmed its position.
IU will decide on Sunday the schedule of its internal primaries to provide a candidate for the general elections
The federal coordinator of Izquierda Unida, Antonio Maíllo, announced that this Sunday the party leadership will open the process to decide the schedule of candidate primaries of their organization to “offer to the broad left space.” The leader ruled himself out as a candidate for the general elections. “I do not enter into predictions. My institutional commitment is in the Parliament of Andalusia,” he said at a press conference in Seville.
Maíllo emphasized that this project must have the will “not only to stop the right and the far right” but also to build a country project that is an alternative to those ultra policies. It is a “democratic procedure” that each organization must do, he specified, to then decide among all the presidential candidate.
After Irene Montero’s announcement and her offer for open primaries, Maíllo responded briefly: “As we have always said, IU has no news in this regard and we continue with our roadmap.”
The Vox spokesperson in Congress, Pepa Millán, this Wednesday during the government control session. / Rodrigo Jiménez / EFE
Vox accuses the government of facilitating the invasion in Ceuta and calls it “pusillanimous and traitor”
The Vox spokesperson, Pepa Millán, directed her questions to the Minister of the Presidency and Justice, Félix Bolaños, and stated that “the only way to save Ceuta is to oust the government that facilitated the invasion.” According to the spokesperson, the next general elections will be between “Sánchez or Ceuta, between the survival of Spain or that of a pusillanimous and traitor government.” She also criticized Sánchez’s government about the grandchildren law: “Hence their intention to replace us with a law that was not going to alter the census, and now it turns out that its suspension, according to their words, does.”
Bolaños responded that the opposition “does not support a single cent for Ceuta, nor will they vote today in favor of 309 million for Ceuta, nor did they vote in favor of the 25 million euros for minors in Ceuta.” He also criticized Vox for promoting the grandchildren law and the PP for buying their discourse. “You have taken the vote from people who voted in ’23, people who voted in the regional elections in Andalusia, Aragon, Castilla y León, in Extremadura,” the minister reproached.
Gamarra (PP), to Minister Bolaños about the ‘grandchildren law’: “The electoral roll is sacred in democracy”
Popular Party deputy Cuca Gamarra asked the Minister of Justice, Félix Bolaños, about the “real objective” of the so-called grandchildren law, during the government control session in Congress. “The electoral roll is sacred in democracy; you enter because the law says so, not because the government opens a back door for whoever you want to enter,” she attacked.
In his response, Bolaños recalled that the instruction with guidelines on how the law should be interpreted in Civil Registry offices to grant nationalities, published by his ministry in 2022, “says exactly the same as the 2008 instruction,” under Mariano Rajoy’s government.
“Are you in favor of the descendants of Spaniards who left our homeland due to the dictatorship and the war being Spanish nationals? Yes or no?” the minister questioned. “Less hypocrisy because what you are doing is a massive cut of the most sacred right in democracy, the right to vote of 400,000 Spaniards.”
Von der Leyen: “The Ceuta border is a European border”
The President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, sent a clear message to Spain and the people of Ceuta: “The Ceuta border is a European border, because Ceuta is Spain. Ceuta is Europe and Europe is there for you.” Her words about the migration crisis in the State of the EU speech were the gateway to the announcement of a European Emergency Response Framework that “will only be activated under strictly defined criteria.” “And in these cases, it will be temporary and will strictly define flexibility in standard procedures,” she continued.
This proposal, still little detailed, is part of a speech in which EU security and borders are at the center of her words in light of events like those that happened this summer. She not only talks about Ceuta but also about the failed drone attacks at Leipzig airport in Germany.
Albares, on Morocco: “We are in contact practically daily”
By Fernando Criado
The Minister of Foreign Affairs, José Manuel Albares, avoided answering whether the Prime Minister, Pedro Sánchez, has spoken with the King of Morocco, Mohamed VI. He did acknowledge that he himself is in contact with his Moroccan counterpart “every day,” since July 31.
Albares states he called Morocco to say migrants “who enter, return”
The Minister of Foreign Affairs, European Union and Cooperation, José Manuel Albares, stated that, after the crisis in Ceuta due to the massive entry of immigrants at the end of July, he called the Moroccan Minister of Foreign Affairs to say that “those who enter, return; this must be stopped immediately and this cannot happen again at any other time,” referring to all those who crossed the border. He said this a day after the email Morocco sent to MEPs was made public, assuring they would cooperate with all returns of migrants to the Alawite country.
Sánchez, on minors sleeping on the streets in Ceuta: “Ask Vivas”
The Prime Minister, Pedro Sánchez, when asked in the corridors of Congress about the nearly 1,000 minors still sleeping on the streets of Ceuta, replied that this is the responsibility of the President of Ceuta, Juan Jesús Vivas, of the PP, who has competence over minors. “Ask Vivas about that,” Sánchez said. The government complains that Vivas is delaying the entire process with minors and currently refuses to send them to the peninsula, thus blocking the solution for minors already identified, especially 500 girls who would already be ready to leave Ceuta if the city signs, according to the Minister of Childhood, Sira Rego
Government control session in Congress. Juan Bravo (PP). / Claudio Alvarez
PP criticizes Cuerpo for being “capable of managing 23 million income tax returns but not processing 12,000 expulsion files”
PP spokesperson Juan Bravo criticized the Vice President of the Government and Minister of Economy, Carlos Cuerpo, for his management of the Ceuta crisis and the slowness in processing migrant expulsion files. “You are capable of managing 23 million income tax returns, but you are not capable of processing 12,000 expulsion files,” Bravo reproached him. “I don’t know if you know that Ceuta is Spain, but what the people of Ceuta and Melilla know is that Ceuta, Melilla and Spain are way, way too big for you,” the spokesperson attacked.
Cuerpo, for his part, asked him, without response, if the PP will support the validation of the royal decree law supporting Ceuta. He reiterated this after accusing the PP of putting “sticks in the wheels of the solutions” that the government is “trying to implement.”
Muñoz (PP) attacks Sánchez and Cuerpo for managing the Ceuta crisis
Popular Ester Muñoz takes the floor, attacking the Prime Minister, Pedro Sánchez, and the First Vice President and Minister of Economy, Carlos Cuerpo, for managing the Ceuta crisis.
“They ignored the warnings. They ignored Ceuta’s requests for help, abandoned the people of Ceuta to go on vacation,” Muñoz said.
“Ceuta will return to normality, it will. The big question, again, is: Will you help? Or will you continue putting sticks in the wheels?” Cuerpo replied.
The PP president, Alberto Núñez Feijóo, this Wednesday in the government control session in Congress. / Claudio Alvarez
Sánchez and Feijóo accuse each other of “chronicling” the Ceuta crisis
The leader of the PP, Alberto Núñez Feijóo, and the Prime Minister, Pedro Sánchez, have accused each other of “chronicling” the Ceuta crisis, each with their actions. Feijóo accused him of doing so by not returning to Morocco all the migrants still in Ceuta, despite Rabat saying it is willing to receive them. For his part, the president states that by advocating in the European Parliament to break the association agreement with Morocco, the country to which migrants must return, they are “chronicling the problem, not solving it.”
Feijóo reproached him for having assigned 657 officials to consular offices responsible for “granting new nationalities” to children and grandchildren of exiles by the grandchildren law, or 550 for mass regularization, and only having sent 50, with 20 computers, to Ceuta. He demanded that he “activate all economic or diplomatic capacities” to resolve the crisis and “not cover up those responsible” nor “minimize” the crisis, because “patience has run out.”
Sánchez called the suspension of the vote of 400,000 Spaniards by the Supreme Court decision on the grandchildren law a “shame” and told his rival that “for having third-rate candidates” the PP intends to have “first- and second-class citizens.” “You should not fear the vote, you should fear those who want to take it away, who are you and the far-right Vox,” Sánchez told him.
Control session begins
The control session begins in the Congress of Deputies. The Prime Minister, Pedro Sánchez, and the PP leader, Alberto Núñez Feijóo, face off amid the crisis in Ceuta due to the massive entry of migrants at the end of July and after the Supreme Court decision to suspend the vote of those naturalized by the grandchildren law has increased criticism of the government. The plenary of Congress also debates several initiatives that test the support of its partners, such as the regulation of lobbies through a royal decree law that needs to be validated, as well as amendments from the Senate to the reform of dependency and disability laws. Housing and the PISA report will also be debated.
‘GRANDCHILDREN LAW’
‘Grandchildren law’: hunger, terror and repression in post-war Spain
The Madrid cartoonist Carlos Giménez has portrayed the hunger and terror of post-war Spain through his autobiographical comic series Paracuellos (Reservoir Books), one of the most significant works on Francoism, which he began publishing in 1976, shortly after the dictator’s death, and which remains alive as his memories continue to emerge. Children interned in a Social Aid center in Madrid suffered constant beatings by sadistic Falange instructors, but above all, they were hungry: every day, all the time… At 85 years old, Giménez says “the resentment is gone” when recalling those years of violence and fascism, but “the hunger never completely goes away.”
You can read the full analysis here
opinion
Ceuta and Melilla: people before borders
Ceuta is experiencing an exceptional situation. Thousands of people entered irregularly and several thousand still remain in the city, including many minors. In recent weeks, the term “invaders” has spread. An invasion immediately turns the newcomer into an enemy and in front of the enemy, obligations of solidarity disappear, only defense mechanisms apply. This semantic transformation should worry us, because a democracy begins to deteriorate when it stops seeing people and starts seeing threatening categories.
You can read the full opinion piece here
Migration crisis
Last nights at El Trampolín: the beach of shame and unanswered questions
There is only one certainty tonight at El Trampolín beach: no one wants to be here and no one wants them here. Everything else on this stretch of coast is speculation, a buzz of questions that drowns out the sound of the sea this early morning a month and a half later. It is unclear how many migrants inhabit it – the latest estimates place it at 4,000 – or if this is the chronicle of the last night they will sleep on the shore.
You can read the full information here
CIVIL GUARD
Interior avoids clash and assumes Balas remains in charge of investigations affecting PSOE
The last doubt about the future role of newly promoted Colonel Antonio Balas in the Central Operative Unit (UCO) of the Civil Guard has been cleared. The general directorate of the armed institute published this Tuesday in its official bulletin a list of 71 lieutenant colonel vacancies to be filled by free appointment, in which the position of head of the Economic and Anti-corruption Investigation Department of this unit, the post held by now Colonel Balas until his promotion, does not appear. The Ministry of the Interior’s decision means that the officer ―who upon promotion had to change destination to a post of his new rank and therefore leave the investigations― will not only be in charge of the investigation for which the National Court judge Ismael Moreno expressly requested he remain in charge, the Koldo case, but also the rest of the cases, even if the magistrates leading them had not expressly requested his continuation.
You can read the full information here
MIGRATION CRISIS
Interior prepares installation of two permanent identification centers for migrants in Ceuta and Melilla with 800 places each
Two and a half months after the massive entry in Ceuta, the government is working on two complementary fronts: accelerating the installation of facilities to rehouse migrants with the purpose of removing them from the street and, at the same time, identifying them within those resources to speed up expulsion procedures. Because return files begin once the individual identification of each person has been completed. President Sánchez announced Monday night, in an interview on La Sexta, that the goal is to enable 10,000 places on Ceuta soil. That number includes both the temporary beds being enabled these days — and whose installation continues — and another facility that Interior is preparing with 800 beds to carry out identification processes and that will be installed permanently. In parallel, another triage center will be established in Melilla with the same capacity and both can be facilitated with the boost of European funding.
You can read the full information here
Good morning. We start the live narration of the latest political news, this Wednesday, September 16.
The Prime Minister, Pedro Sánchez, faces again today the PP leader, Alberto Núñez Feijóo, in the control session of Congress, amid the crisis in Ceuta and after the Supreme Court decision to suspend the vote of those naturalized by the grandchildren law has increased criticism of the government. The plenary of Congress also debates several initiatives that test the support of its partners, such as the regulation of lobbies through a royal decree law that needs to be validated, as well as amendments from the Senate to the reform of dependency and disability laws. Housing and the PISA report will also be debated.
Read more The Hasan Piker case: how the American right tried to mock his underwear photos and failed
