German Chancellor Friedrich Merz warned against the immigration policy advocated by the far-right Alternative for Germany party.
During a session in Parliament, Meretz said yesterday that “the word redisplacement (promoted by the party) is nothing but a synonym for ethnic cleansing on the basis of origin and skin color,” as quoted by the German News Agency.
The German Chancellor canceled a scheduled phone call with US President Donald Trump, hours after the latter publicly praised the Alternative Party's victory in local elections. A Meretz spokesman refused to reveal the reason for canceling the call, but explained in response to journalists' questions that the matter was not related to a scheduling conflict.
The party - which Meretz has repeatedly described as racist and a threat to democracy - achieved an unprecedented victory on Sunday in local elections in the state of Saxony-Anhalt in eastern Germany.
Documents published by the Spanish government, today (Wednesday), showed that Spanish intelligence services warned their Moroccan and Madrid counterparts of plans to storm Ceuta, one day before more than 70,000 migrants crossed into the Spanish enclave in North Africa.
In a memorandum dated July 29 to the two Moroccan intelligence agencies, the General Directorate of National Territorial Surveillance and the General Directorate of Studies and Documents (Foreign Intelligence), the Spanish National Intelligence Center warned of plans on social media platforms for migrants to enter Ceuta by climbing the border fence or swimming around it, taking advantage of Morocco’s Throne Day celebrations.
Declassified WhatsApp messages showed that the National Intelligence Center also warned the Spanish government representative in Ceuta on the same day of these plans.
“There are two different groups with a total of 180,000 followers,” the center wrote in reference to activity on social media. This is just to give you an idea of the scope of this matter.
Six weeks after the wave of influx, during which non-governmental organizations estimate that 140 people died, local authorities say that more than 10,000 migrants, including unaccompanied minors, are still in Ceuta and living in temporary camps or on the streets and beaches of the enclave, fueling almost daily protests from residents angry at the way the Spanish government is handling the crisis.
The publication of these documents is likely to intensify scrutiny of operational decisions taken in the hours preceding the crossing, and whether sufficient measures were taken to prevent it.
No flow range warnings
But Spanish Foreign Minister Jose Manuel Albarez said that the documents showed that there was no warning about the scope of the wave of migrants that occurred on July 30.
Albares added to reporters today, “I am speaking in my capacity as Spain’s Foreign Minister, within the framework of my powers and based on what I experienced that day.” “I was not aware of any information of any kind indicating the scope of this massive wave.”
Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez stated last week that Spain had not found any evidence confirming that the border flow that occurred in July from Morocco to Ceuta was orchestrated by the Moroccan authorities.
But a report issued on July 30 showed that the Spanish Ministry of the Interior pointed to the inaction of the Moroccan border police on the day of the influx of migrants, and said that it was supposed to strengthen border security with an additional thousand police and soldiers despite an official holiday in Morocco.
Today, the Spanish government published 40 intelligence reports, alerts and messages related to the migration crisis in Ceuta from July 1 to 31, after Sanchez pledged to publish them.
These documents show that the crisis was escalating during the week preceding the mass crossing.
“Since July 25, a migration crisis has worsened in Ceuta with the arrival of about 1,700 migrants by sea from Morocco to the autonomous city... Available information indicates that further infiltrations are expected in the very near term,” the Spanish Ministry of Defense said in an internal presentation published on July 30, describing the situation on the Moroccan coast near Ceuta as “migratory chaos.”
