The Ceuta Issue Needs to be Resolved

There’s not really a lot of point to Ceuta and Melilla, Spain’s two inhabited territories in North Africa: fine places as they no doubt must be. Ceuta is small at just 18.5km² and one can walk from one end of Melilla to the other in an hour of so (4kms long, 3kms wide).

Neither of them charge IVA, and furthermore, residents and businesses enjoy massive tax cuts, including a 60% reduction in personal income tax (IRPF) and major corporate tax reliefs. This represents hundreds of millions in tax revenue that Spain willingly forgives every year to keep the cities economically viable.

…and they don’t really produce anything at all, except occasional trouble.

But there are around 170,000 people living in the two enclaves, which have both been Spanish possessions for the last 530 years (Melilla) and 360 years (Ceuta). As Pedro Sánchez says, they are both españolísimo.

Although, for practical reasons, Spain is stuck with two difficult stepchildren that are both a huge financial and political burden.

The total combined economic burden to Spain of Ceuta and Melilla, says Google AI, for the 2025 financial period, including structural maintenance, military operations, and foregone tax revenue, is estimated to be between €1,100 million and €1,500 million. This year, with extra protection, subsidies and defence investment, it will be more.

We remember the virulent reaction of Spain in 2002 to the brief occupation of the deserted Spanish island of Perejil, just 250 metres off the Moroccan coast. Then, and on the other hand, and casting back to a couple of weeks before Franco’s death in 1975, there was King Hassan II’s ‘Green March’ which took the more or less uncontested control of the Spanish Sahara (with Washington’s tacit approval).

In politics, we have the Moroccans claiming the two enclaves (known to them as Sebta and Mellila) for their own. As happened in the last days of July, this claim can sometimes prove to be a major problem, exacerbated (or maybe encouraged) by Donald Trump, Benjamin Netanyahu plus the usual suspects – Feijóo, Abascal and various nazi troublemakers.

Not that the Partido Popular or Vox want to lose the two cities – far from it. But there are political advantages to them both to go in with guns blazing. There were major protests outside every (PP/Vox) town hall in Spain last Wednesday (September 2) against the Government’s admittedly poor handling of the crisis, under the banner of the Federation of Municipalities and Provinces (FEMP), a right-leaning agency. I was in Granada that day and saw a large number of demonstrators heading towards the Plaza del Carmen, the town hall square, with many people wearing Spanish flags wrapped around their shoulders.

Indeed, the Ceuta ‘invasion’ (if I may quote Vox) has proven to be the biggest headache for Pedro Sánchez in this entire, complicated legislature.

The Moroccans are backing down for the moment, having caused a huge problem – they don’t particularly want a right-wing government in Spain, and Sánchez is firmly not blaming them for the 72,000 that crossed the border on July 31st (no doubt for sound political reasons), yet the fresh threat of Felipe VI visiting Ceuta and Melilla in the coming weeks is certainly not going to be at all acceptable to King Mohammad VI’s government.

So, what is to be done with the 5,000 migrants currently causing problems in Ceuta? Some are Moroccan, some are minors and some are Sub-Saharans. In theory, the Moroccans should be processed before being allowed to stay or to be returned; the 1,200 minors, known dismissively as los menas, should be allowed to stay and sent to refuges on the mainland (although the regional authorities run by the PP don’t want them); while the Sub-Saharans can’t be returned from one foreign country to another foreign country (!), so must be checked before being allowed to stay or to be returned to their homeland. This would be following Spanish and EU law.

The Spanish Supreme Court must come in for some blame over these events, as it ruled in July this year that those crossing a frontier may be returned ‘en caliente’, but those arriving by sea must be processed. A decision that would have been seen among the Moroccan youth as little short of an invitation.

It’s no doubt a lot easier to resolve the problem of 5,000 anxious migrants killing time in Ceuta than the alternative preferred by the Moroccans on the other side of the wall: to remove 170,000 irate Spanish residents to the Peninsular.

The Brief Invasion of Ceuta

All a bit odd – on Thursday morning a large number of apparently young men crossed the bay into Ceuta from Morocco. Bussed to their departure point by the gendarmerie and with the Moroccan border guards all away from their posts. They swam or crossed the rocky boundary into the Spanish enclave and – while there was no chance of them making their way to the Spanish mainland (or to the United Kingdom as faragistas would have us believe) – they milled around in the autonomous city until they had mostly returned, hungry, to Morocco by Saturday morning.

In all, some fifty to sixty thousand of them – creating a stink that could be heard around the world.

Around 67 are reported to have drowned in the exercise (and I wonder who lost sleep over that particular tragedy?), and it was noticeable that none of them brought so much as a change of clothes.

Why did this suddenly occur?

Could Spain’s recent deal with Algeria to import more gas have been the spark (excuse the pun)? Morocco and Algeria are historic enemies.

And what about Netanyahu’s son working to raise the Moroccans against the Spanish enclaves of Melilla and Ceuta? 

Or perhaps Donald Trump, annoyed with Pedro Sánchez, along with Benjamin Netanyahu – both firm allies of Mohammed VI – could have hatched a plot.

The ‘invasion’ played into the hands of the Spanish right-wing: Feijóo and Abascal both.

As long as events of this type are considered as ‘grey’, deniable and unfortunate, then they will continue – and who is to say that Melilla and Ceuta (and their 170,000 Spanish inhabitants) aren’t a justifiable target?

But now it’s over (except for a certain excitement led by the Italians), and the Spanish media can turn to other subjects; like forest fires, August holidays and Ayuso’s roof apartments scandal.

Fire and Global Warming

Sadly, Spain continues to burn. A giant fire in Madrid and another in Ávila managed by Sunday morning between them to burn some 45,000 hectares, but at least this time, the ES-Alarm warnings were sent out and there were no deaths reported. Other major fires were reported in Toledo and Castellón.

By Wednesday, the hectares burned in July had risen spectacularly to 172,000, as another hot-spell – the fourth this summer – arrived.

El Huff Post on Saturday had an embedded reporter with the firefighters in the south-eastern part of the Madrid region, where the neighbours said that it was the worst fire in Madrid’s history. Even the city to the north was full of smoke and ash. An opinion found at 20Minutos is bleak: ‘we are not prepared for these catastrophes’.

‘As climate scientists long warned would be the case, Europe’s wildfires are worsening in intensity, scale and duration as the planet heats up. When the Spanish prime minister, Pedro Sánchez, attributed the current crisis to the effects of the climate emergency, he was stating the obvious’ says The Guardian. In a recent report, the World Health Organization’s regional director for Europe issued a warning about climate change, saying it is directly responsible for intensifying wildfires and their increasing frequency.

The rule is that these responsibilities fall on the regional governments, who may cut back on emergency funds in the knowledge that central Government can and will help if called to do so. And thus we have Madrid’s Díaz Ayuso and the Transport Minister Óscar Puente trading horrific insults over who is responsible to organise the defence against the flames.

The Madrid firefighters are not happy bunnies, as their standing wage of 1,300€ a month (May to October only) hasn’t increased in the last fifteen years. It’s just one of those things: considered as a waste of resources during the winter months, and as an alarming necessity during the fires. No doubt they could be found a useful task in the colder months – cleaning the dry brush, cutting back the growth, trimming the branches near the road and buildings, and even helping plan emergency escape routes and giving fire-prevention lectures to schoolchildren. Indeed, the Madrid firefighters warned back in April that fire prevention efforts had been cut in half.

We read that ‘the farmers criticize rural abandonment and demand a plan to rid the summer wildfires of potential fuel during the winter months’. We also read that the law (la ley de montes) insists on brush-cleaning and other fire-preventative obligations.

Furthermore, we read of donkeys, goats, sheep, bison (!) and even toros bravos grazing clean the hills (following the wet winter and extra growth).

All grist for the armchair firefighters and hostile social media influencers.

The always critical leader of Vox, Santiago Abascal, links the "repeated disasters" in Spain to corruption and the government's "climate fanaticism". So not much help from him.

As more than one critic says – we need more firefighters and less bullfighters. 

So, is it over? From El Mundo earlier this week here: ‘The fourth heatwave of the summer will trigger a surge in wildfires starting Wednesday, with temperatures exceeding 40 degrees Celsius. The intense heat and dry conditions will cause the fire risk to reach critical levels across almost the entire country’.

 

The New Normal: The Coalition of the Right

Those of us who live in Andalucía (or, for that matter, in Castilla y León, Extremadura or Aragón) now have a regional government made up of the PP (the majority party) in alliance with the Vox. The tail in every case, wagging the dog.

This dreary coalition, I call it the PPox, has the program of the Partido Popular with certain policies from Vox added under duress (or at least, so Juanma Moreno claims) such as the discriminatory Prioridad Nacional. 

Wiki explains: ‘National Priority or preference is the idea that a series of political, economic, or social rights should be reserved exclusively or primarily for the members of a nation. It is a popular term that encompasses the concepts of nativism and social chauvinism’.

Málaga Hoy says that the Andalusian agreement supposes: ‘National Priority for housing, a ban on the burka in public spaces, and an emergency plan to address waiting lists are among the 150 measures in the pact. For access to public housing, ten years of residency registration will be required for purchases and five years for rentals. There will be a priority pathway for cancer diagnosis and an annual audit of the cost of healthcare for foreigners’.  

Google AI says: ‘The "national priority" (or prioridad nacional) policies proposed by conservative coalitions aim to give native-born Spaniards preference over foreigners for state aid, social housing, and public subsidies. However, experts note these moves directly conflict with national equality laws’ (and indeed, Article 13 of the Constitution: “Foreigners shall enjoy in Spain the public freedoms guaranteed by this Title under the terms established by treaties and the law"). The European Commission doesn’t approve either: ‘Brussels warns that it will ensure there is no discrimination with the National Priority’.

Furthermore (the Right has always been uneasy with the science of climate change), Andalucía will be declared "free from the burdens of the European Green Deal". There is no mention in the program regarding gender violence, LGTBIQ+ rights and Muslim and Arab language school studies are to be dropped, as the manly activities of bullfighting and la caza (hunting) now take centre stage. 

elDiario.es has: ‘Through 150 measures, the agreement consolidates ideological concessions made by the PP to Vox, such as the outright rejection of the 2030 Agenda and the creation of a new Law of Concord (forgive and forget the past crimes under the Dictatorship). The far-right leader Manuel Gavira will become vice president with a super-ministry under his control: the Ministry of Tourism, Local Administration, and Justice’.

The whole deal was announced just half an hour before the Thursday coronation of Juanma Moreno, giving little time for any revolt among the conservatives. The reaction from the regional PSOE leader María Jesús Montero was to call it a "pact of shame. For the first time since the Franco regime, the far right will enter an Andalusian government", she said.

Will this state of affairs be a success? In Madrid, Alberto Núñez Feijóo (screaming daily for fresh elections) admits that, if the voters wanted it, then he would agree to a pact, a pax, a PPox with Vox.

The Plot Thickens

Spain is in a mess right now. The background to this is a mixture of judicial bullying, corruption, foreign meddling and improper aspiration.

Agenda Pública had several US experts commenting on Spain back in March 2026: ‘Trump’s Oval Office threat to "cut off all trade with Spain" is coercion in plain sight, and it also betrays how stretched he already is on Iran’, said one. ‘Prime Minister Sánchez’s actions are deeply disappointing for those of us in the United States who wish to see a strong U.S.-Spain relationship, including strong military cooperation between our two countries’, said another. ‘There could be other types of actions, such as measures affecting U.S. exports to Spain, investments, or visas, as well as financial matters…’.

‘The White House’, we read elsewhere, ‘through its ambassador, has publicly expressed its "frustration" with the refusal of Pedro Sánchez's government to allow the use of the Rota and Morón military bases for the war against Iran. Furthermore, the ambassador has openly criticized Sánchez for not receiving him in three months, something interpreted as a deliberate snub to the Trump administration’.

By June, this frustration had reached the point where – we suspect – the Americans and their disagreeable friend in the Middle East are now actively trying to remove a thorn in their side, in favour of a sweeter and better colleague in the Moncloa, one able to increase the national expenditure on arms while cutting taxes for the wealthy and – with the insistence of Vox – creating a Jim Crow policy against minorities (including, of course, women).

Sad to say, however, the Spanish electorate have a low opinion of both Trump’s America and Bibi’s Israel.

Late last month, and we return to the US embassy in Madrid, we find the American ambassador Benjamin León receiving in separate meetings both Feijóo and Abascal (and the delightful Ms Ayuso in her offices at the Puerta del Sol). What did they have to discuss, asks the leader of the Izquierda Unida? Plots, plans and a new president for Spain? Perhaps.

The worry about American involvement in Spanish domestic affairs brings this headline from El Huff Post: ‘Donald Trump's frustration with Spain and suspicions about US involvement in Zapatero's indictment: "The real political target is Sánchez."’.

The Italian weekly L'Expresso has a leader that warns that "no European leader sleeps soundly" now that "Washington has activated the beacon."

But the plotters need an unarguable scandal. The joke attacks against Sánchez wife and his brother are not going to pull down the Government – maybe the Judiciary can come up with something better. Cynical? Me?

Step aside Begoña, we’ve got Zapatero… The judicial machine got rid of the Sánchez-appointed Attorney General Álvaro García Ortiz last November without providing any proof of wrongdoing, while still not bringing the investigation of Ayuso’s boyfriend a year down the line any closer to fruition. The case against Cristobal Montoro goes back to 2016 while the Kitchen Case (the last PP government trying to silence proof of fraud) is being quietly unreported. The Courts block Zapatero’s bank account, but not Montoro’s, or ‘the boyfriend’, or Fernández Díaz… They threaten to take away the passport of the president’s wife (where would she go?). But, we all know what’s really happening.

As someone says, the PP has so far failed to bring down the coalition government and Pedro Sánchez, but it has succeeded in destroying the Spanish justice system and its reputation.

What stops the government from falling, says Gabriel Rufián, is that the alternative is infinitely worse. ‘These people prefer a left-wing thief to an honourable right-wing government’ says the PP spokesman Miguel Tellado.

Forget the polling station, or the 2027 elections, ‘"I will do everything possible to change the government, and when I say everything, I mean everything," says Alberto Núñez Feijóo (except, as Junts per Catalunya demands, to go to see Carles Puigdemont in Waterloo).

Will he succeed in his endevour? I suppose it's possible.