The Throne Room of the Ceuta City Council was inaugurated by Alfonso The event began in the old Calle de la Misericordia, where the Kings spent more than 20 minutes greeting the thousands of citizens crowded on the sidewalks. Afterwards, they entered the City Hall and from the balcony they once again greeted the public, who also occupied the Plaza de la Virgen de África.
Inside the town hall, Don Felipe and Doña Letizia had a meeting with a dozen representatives from different areas of Ceuta society. A meeting behind closed doors so that they could freely express their feelings 75 days after the violation of Europe's southern border with the massive entry of immigrants by swimming.
After that moment, the Kings moved to the Throne Room, where they received the golden keys to the city and the official welcome from the regional president, Juan Jesús Vivas. The politician began by quoting Joan Manuel Serrat, to affirm: "Today is a great day." And thank the Kings for their presence to "sow trust where trust is most needed; trust to resist and trust to light the exit from the tunnel in which, for two and a half months, we have found ourselves."
The politician has welcomed the Kings "to his house", using that term because "Ceuta is, above all, Spain on this other shore of the Strait of the sea that unites us." And he has stated that the people of Ceuta feel "affection and admiration" for the Monarch and his wife for "the way in which they exercise the functions that the Constitution attributes to them; for their closeness and humanity; for their involvement in favor of the most vulnerable and for just causes; for their temperance and courage; for their sense of duty; for their decency and integrity; for their love for Spain."
After reviewing the history of Ceuta since ancient Rome, thus remembering that it is a full Spanish territory, and not an occupied colony as Morocco tries to sell, Vivas has been sincere: "We are now experiencing the most difficult moment in our recent history." And it has raised to 100,000 the number of people who "were used to violate our border, our territorial integrity." Vivas has raised the tone to call what happened an "invasion." A phenomenon that, he accused: "It was conceived, organized and carried out with the intention of putting the waterline of our city at risk; its effects make this clear," he said. The politician has listed several consequences, such as putting "our sovereignty in check" and "the greatest national security crisis of our democracy."
Some words that make more sense after knowing that at the time of the invasion, the flagship of the Moroccan Navy, the Mohamed VI, along with two Alawite patrol boats, invaded Spanish territorial waters, which caused the mobilization of two Spanish escort ships: the Santa María and the Victoria, as published by El País and confirmed by Pedro Sánchez himself. "Ceuta is not what it was; we Ceuta have had to change our lifestyle habits and lost security, tranquility and freedom," concluded Vivas, who also stated that they feel "concern that it could happen again; and the risk of collapse of coexistence; in short, a pressure cooker that, at any moment, can explode."
"Ceuta suffers, it is injured, they have tried to cut its wings, but it remains standing and with the firm determination to move forward," said the president, warning that despite this, the people of Ceuta demand "a return to normality through the only possible means: the return to their country of all those who arrived, en masse and illegally, those fateful days of July, and still remain in our city."
