The opposition plays, on the political board, with the trick of making promises that can later be forgotten when it takes control. However, there are some positions that define a party, and that accompany it from one bench to another, whether it is in the opposition or in Moncloa. This is the case of those that affect an external third party, such as Morocco. And, thus, it is the case of what Alberto Núñez Feijóo, leader of the PP, made yesterday and whom all the polls have profiled, for months, as the candidate with the most possibilities of presiding over the Government in the next legislature.
In the three weeks that have passed since the irregular entry of 80,000 people into Ceuta through Morocco, Pedro Sánchez's Executive has at all times avoided making any reproach to the neighboring country. Aware that some poorly received words from Rabat could have worsened the situation, the ministers have limited themselves to praising the cooperation with their counterparts to resolve the crisis, without commenting on whether Morocco could have played any role in the avalanche. Yes, Feijóo did, however, yesterday from Ceuta: «What happened here on July 30 responds to what the European regulation defines as instrumentalization. Whether by action or omission, the movement of tens of thousands of people from Morocco to the European Union was facilitated.
And, although members of the Government have recently claimed Spanish sovereignty over Ceuta and Melilla - "they are very Spanish," said the Minister of Defense, Margarita Robles -, Feijóo yesterday raised that position. He did so after referring to "statements from ministers and other high-ranking Moroccan officials that do not help at all" - the head of Rabat's Justice Department stated that the sovereignty of both cities is a "pending" matter. Addressing them, the opposition leader stated: «The Spanishness of Ceuta and Melilla is not negotiable. And it has not been negotiable, not for years or decades; "It has not been negotiable for centuries." And although Feijóo said he had "no interest in looking for any enemy," he warned Rabat: "You will understand that we cannot act under blackmail or threat." To this string of statements, which are in themselves a position that compromises the PP if it reaches La Moncloa, it is added that Feijóo drew on his horizon to reinforce the El Tarajal breakwater "in order to prevent the maritime border from being crossed by swimming."
The popular leader was not always this forceful regarding Rabat during this crisis. In fact, his party avoided blaming Morocco directly until a week ago and now still maintains certain balances: it censures Sánchez's "secret diplomacy" with the neighboring country, but at the same time it hides behind Rabat's offer to host its minors to demand this resolution. However, the symbolism of Feijóo's statements yesterday are above that conjugation, since they are commitments that bind him if he reaches La Moncloa. And, with him, to Spain.
If the Government has been with maximum restraint these days in its words about Morocco, it is because it already knows what the neighboring country can do in the face of a diplomatic clash: in 2021, the reception in Spain of the leader of the Polisario Front triggered the largest irregular entry of people from Morocco to Spain since the Green March. "There are acts that have consequences and have to be assumed," the Rabat ambassador told Europa Press at the time.
But the PP, despite the forcefulness that Feijóo expressed yesterday with Morocco - and that in recent days other leaders of its leadership had been advancing -, also knows what it is to manage a territorial incident with the neighboring country from La Moncloa. It happened in July 2002, when a team of the Royal Moroccan Gendarmerie occupied the islet of Perejil (in the Strait of Gibraltar). José María Aznar was then in government, whose Executive then entered into a diplomatic clash with Rabat, but with the support of the opposition and Europe. Finally, Spanish troops evicted the Moroccans. A decade later, members of the Coordination Committee for the Liberation of Ceuta and Melilla placed a Moroccan flag on the rock of Vélez de la Gomera - a Spanish territory in North Africa, halfway between the two autonomous cities. It was the Government of Mariano Rajoy that was in charge of managing that incident.
