The first to raise her voice was the head of the Italian Government, Giorgia Meloni, and that earned her the ire of the Foreign Minister, who directed it at her colleague, Antonio Tajani. But José Manuel Albares found himself overwhelmed with work in just a few hours: France, Germany, Denmark, Finland, and Sweden, for now, expressed their “concern” about the “invasion” of Ceuta.
It is curious, however, that the Ministry led by Albares did not express its outrage, or its views, regarding its European colleagues in writing. On other occasions and in similar matters, it has done so. This time, the minister preferred to summon Ambassador Giuseppe Buccino, as if we were facing a serious diplomatic crisis with Italy and not with Morocco, whose authorities have been exempted from all blame.
In fact, the Moroccan ambassador, Karima Benyaich, did not have to meet with the minister, unlike her Italian counterpart. Her speech on Thursday night at the reception she hosted for the Throne Day was enough. But the “invaders” came from Morocco, didn’t they?
Let’s return to Italy. It is supposed that Albares showed Buccino his outrage because his Foreign Minister, Antonio Tajani, declared in favor of temporarily closing the Schengen area with Spain, which makes quite a bit of sense given the uncontrollable nature of the mob —barely 50,000 individuals, according to Marlaska— that entered Ceuta under the benevolent gaze of the Moroccan Gendarmerie and the impotence of the Spanish law enforcement.
And if the protest had only been a matter for Italy, Albares would probably be happy: he would have fulfilled his duty. But all the other European partners have been coming in behind, to whom he has not asked for the same “European solidarity” as to the transalpine ambassador.
France took only a few hours to reinforce its controls at the border with Spain. “In light of the situation observed in the enclave of Ceuta, since last night I have given instructions to promptly reinforce the controls at the Spanish border,” declared the French Minister of the Interior, Laurent Nuñez, on his social media.
That is to say, France acted while Italy, by that point, had only suggested. And behind came Denmark and Finland. The Danish Prime Minister, Mette Frederiksen, did not hold back: “the EU must take the necessary steps and consider all possibilities, including the suspension of Schengen cooperation.”
And the Finnish Minister of the Interior, Mari Rantanen, joined without hesitation the possibility of suspending Spain from the Schengen Area.
In Germany, Chancellor Merz did his best to calm things down, but still let slip that “Spain must regain control of the situation as soon as possible,” in light of the more forceful statements from the leader of the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD), Alice Weidel, who has also called for suspending Spain from the Schengen Area.
The latest governments to join have been those of Sweden, Portugal, and Czechia. And to make matters worse, the ambassadors of the EU member countries in Madrid have announced that they will meet on Monday to address the migration crisis at the request of the Embassy of Ireland, which holds the presidency of the Council of the European Union until the end of the year.
To recap, France took action while Italy only suggested. Denmark, Finland, Germany, Sweden, and the Czech Republic are also calling for measures to be taken, such as suspending Spain from the Schengen Agreement. Ireland has summoned all European ambassadors in Madrid to “evaluate the situation and facilitate coordination.”
Ireland has also convened a meeting today Saturday within the framework of the Integrated Political Response Mechanism to Crises (ICPR), a community tool that has already been activated to address migration crises in the past.
It aims to “provide experts the opportunity to discuss the movements towards Ceuta in the last two days, the number of people who have returned to Morocco, the support that the EU is providing to Spain to manage this situation, and the diplomatic efforts with Morocco“.
In all this, and despite both Sánchez and Albares having actively and passively absolved the Alaouite kingdom, there are already those who wonder if this is not a collateral effect —with a little warning included— of the recent Hispano-Algerian agreement, which probably did not sit well in Rabat. And those who know Morocco know that there is no crowd of 50,000 people —nor 5— that goes unnoticed by the Moroccan authorities.
