The King of Spain Felipe VI goes to Ceuta on Tuesday for an extremely rare and diplomatically very sensitive visit, two and a half months after the massive influx of migrants into this Spanish enclave in northern Africa, whose sovereignty is claimed by Morocco. This is the first visit by a Spanish sovereign since that of Juan Carlos, the father of Felipe VI, in 2007, which then caused a diplomatic crisis with Rabat. On Wednesday, Felipe VI and Queen Letizia will travel to Melilla, the other Spanish enclave located in North African territory.
This trip comes less than seven weeks before the early elections of November 29, when the migration issue is shaping up to be one of the major themes of the campaign. Almost two decades after the last royal visit, Ceuta, which has some 80,000 inhabitants, is trying to regain a certain normality after the shock caused by the arrival of more than 70,000 migrants from Morocco at the end of July.
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Although most left in the hours that followed, several thousand remained in this small territory located between the Mediterranean and the Atlantic, where part of the population felt abandoned by the State. âThe king should have come on the first or second day. And he should have come in the uniform of commander-in-chief of the armies, which he is. For the inhabitants of Ceuta, this would have been the indisputable sign that the State was present,â Susana RomĂĄn, a 57-year-old lawyer and promoter of the âSave Ceutaâ platform, told AFP.
The authorities have set up centers to accommodate more than 7,000 people
Like many residents of this city covered in Spanish flags, she nevertheless understands the delicate diplomatic balances that must be preserved by the monarch, whose movements must be coordinated with the central government. âThey were late, but they come in a very special way since they are going to spend the night in Ceuta,â she adds about the decision of the Spanish sovereigns, the first to sleep in the enclave since the reestablishment of democracy 50 years ago, after the death of Franco.
The authorities have set up centers to accommodate more than 7,000 people and 2,800 minors, thus allowing the evacuation of the large migrant camps set up on certain beaches in the city, but some continue to live in the streets of the enclave or in the hills, mainly on the outskirts. âIf the king had come on the second day of the invasion, he would have realized the situation we have here. Now he will see that everything is clean, because they are all installed in tents (...), because they were simply moved from one place to another,â laments Ana Muñoz, a 33-year-old civil servant, who claims to have lost part of her trust in the king.
On Sunday, the police evacuated the Guano camp, the last one still present on the territory's beaches. A few minutes later, bulldozers reduced the makeshift shelters where some 400 people lived to rubble. The visit will begin at 12:30 p.m. (10:30 a.m. GMT) with a meeting with the authorities at city hall, before continuing to a school in this city where Catholic, Muslim, Jewish and Hindu communities historically coexist.
âCeuta has always been Spanishâ
The sovereigns will then go to the Sidi Embarek cemetery, where they will pay tribute to more than a hundred people who died during the massive arrival of migrants, according to Madrid and Rabat. Later, Felipe VI, who has already described the events in Ceuta as âunacceptableâ, will speak at a meeting with representatives of Ceutian civil society.
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