Kings Felipe and Letizia will visit Ceuta and Melilla on October 13 and 14

King Felipe and Queen Letizia will visit Ceuta and Melilla on October 13 and 14, as the King promised Juan Jesús Vivas, and fulfilling his wish to make the historic trip as close to the National Holiday as possible. The information has been conveyed by Zarzuela sources, who have detailed that the visit "has been agreed upon by the Government and the Royal House", in addition to reporting that "in the coming days the agenda that will be developed in the two autonomous cities will be announced."

This will be the first visit by a head of state to the autonomous cities in 20 years, a unique and singular presence that Don Felipe has wanted to make since he was proclaimed in 2014. However, successive presidents of the Government have denied permission for this visit, always claiming that it was not the right time. The attempted violation of Spain's territorial sovereignty through the massive crossing of people swimming has precipitated the events.

It was on July 30 when thousands of immigrants - up to 70,000 according to Government figures - arrived en masse in Ceuta through the Tarajal Pass. From that moment, Don Felipe showed his concern and interest in approaching the autonomous city to, in compliance with his constitutional mandate of being a "symbol of unity and permanence", be with the citizens of Ceuta. However, the Executive did not see this visit as opportune as soon as the migrants arrived, nor a few days later when, according to the official story, 90% had returned to Morocco.

Since then, Don Felipe made an effort to show his support for the people of Ceuta through unusual gestures. The first thing he did was stay in telephone contact with the regional president, Juan Jesús Vivas, who has spoken more than four times with the King since then. On August 1, two days after the attempted violation of territorial sovereignty, Casa Real issued a statement in which Don Felipe confessed his "great concern and indignation" and asked to "adopt all those measures that transmit in a united, clear and decisive manner to the populations of Ceuta and Melilla the support and affection of the rest of Spain." Furthermore, the Monarch sent a message to the Government: "The State must ensure their safety and prevent these events - which have also resulted in a sad and tragic loss of dozens of lives - from being repeated."

A few days later, the King received the regional president in Marivent in a historic event, since the summer headquarters of the Head of State is not usually a place for audiences of regional presidents. At that time, Juan Jesús Vivas stated that Don Felipe had promised to visit the two autonomous cities as soon as he could.