The delicate institutional balance that had been maintained in the face of the unprecedented crisis in Ceuta after the arrival of 80,000 people in an irregular situation has ended up being blown up. The president of the autonomous city, Juan Jesús Vivas (PP), criticized this Monday the Minister of Health for having gone to "give lessons in humanity and solidarity" after Mónica García stated that "migrants do not bring diseases" and that they can contract them now "due to the unsanitary conditions" in which those who have not been returned to Morocco live.
Up to eight members of the central Executive, including Pedro Sánchez within 24 hours of entry, have traveled to Ceuta to try to convey an image of loyal cooperation between administrations, visible in measures such as the creation of 1,500 new shelter places in tents, announced 18 days after the avalanche. If last week he promised that all immigrants would be returned, this measure implies that he recognizes the impossibility of that happening in the short term. On the contrary, he assumes that he will have to deal with the immigrants who have been living poorly on a beach in Ceuta for two weeks and are demanding asylum. And this Moncloa turn came in parallel to the first major institutional shock.
Although Vivas had been raising the tone of his complaints to La Moncloa - the latest was to warn that he would report the situation to the Judiciary - he had not entered into the melee, until this Monday, with the head of Health in the focus. He described García's behavior as "absolutely incorrect", after the minister, during her official visit to the city the day before, had tried to "discharge and evade responsibility by blaming the regional government." "And I'll stick with the incorrect part, because it makes me want to say other things," added the popular president, in an appearance before the media.
In turn, García herself criticized the Ceuta Executive this Monday for not having been "agile enough" to enable safe and healthy spaces for the thousands of people who have not yet been returned to Morocco. In an interview on TVE, Sumar's politician, who will testify at her own request on August 27 in Congress, demanded that Vivas do "basically" what she assures was done in the precedent of the massive jump of 2021: "House all these people to be able to have control and a controlled public health situation."
The person in charge of trying to mediate the clash was the Minister of Inclusion, Social Security and Migration and official spokesperson, as well as a member of the socialist quota in the coalition at the head of the Government. Asked about this matter after holding a meeting with the Ceuta leader, Elma Saiz avoided entering into controversies and worked to highlight "collaboration between administrations" which is what, she stressed, "citizens expect" from the political class in an emergency of these characteristics.
The parade of central executive authorities in Ceuta began with Sánchez on July 31 accompanied by the Minister of the Interior, Fernando Grande-Marlaska, who stayed until Saturday. The following five days there was no representative of La Moncloa on an official visit to the autonomous city, a drought that was interrupted with the stay between August 6 and 8 of the person in charge of Youth and Children, Sira Rego, just before which one of the two schools that had been announced would house the 1,898 unaccompanied foreign minors in the city were opened.
Since then the cadence of visits has been practically one minister per day, which in the PP they have assimilated to something "more similar to an August photocall than to a Government managing a crisis." Many of them greeted with whistles and boos. The only one who has faced the Ceuta protests outside the official car has been the head of Defense, Margarita Robles, who heard first-hand the feelings of a "fed up" population.
Vivas, in turn, accused Sánchez's Executive this Monday of having tried to "make up reality" in the first days of August by stating that the city had recovered "normality" in 48 hours and that only about 2,500 foreigners remained of the nearly 80,000 who had entered, practically all of the registered citizens. His Government raises this estimate to between 8,000 and 11,000 immigrants, while Marlaska acknowledged last Thursday in his second visit that the figure could be around 5,000.
In Moncloa he has also modulated his message as the situation has become entrenched and the installation of shanties on Trampolín beach has multiplied. On Tuesday of last week, the Minister of Foreign Affairs, José Manuel Albares, announced that they were working with Rabat so that "every last person who has entered Spain irregularly returns to Morocco", a heavy-handed message that the head of the Interior qualified the following day by excluding asylum seekers who meet the requirements from this return.
The 1,500 new reception places announced this Monday will be located in three state-owned spaces - the equestrian facilities, the old football field of the Caballería barracks and the El Guano space - and while the fourth, the bagging parking lot, in Loma Colmenar, is owned by Ceuta.
