The Minister of the Presidency and Justice, Félix Bolaños, has refused to assess the replacement of an official from the Department of National Security who is attributed with having leaked data in advance about the massive arrival of migrants at the end of July. "I have no comments to make on this matter," he stated in Congress.
During the first 24 hours of the massive entry of migrants, the Executive opted not to provide official figures on the number of people who had entered Spanish territory irregularly. However, the National Security website got ahead and, on Friday morning, published an initial figure of 49,000 people arriving in Ceuta in a single day.
That message from the DSN page, directed by General Loreto Gutiérrez Hurtado and integrated into the cabinet of the Presidency of the Government, became the first figure disseminated from the Executive's environment and placed the dimension of the crisis at an unprecedented level, well above that recorded in May 2021, when about 10,000 people entered Ceuta in about 48 hours.
Subsequently, the publication was removed and, around 2:00 PM that same Friday, the Government offered its first official balance, in which it spoke of 50,000 people, a figure very close to that advanced on the National Security website.
Moncloa alleges loss of trust
The Executive admitted that the official responsible for managing the National Security Department's page had been removed due to a loss of trust, arguing that she disseminated "unverified" information about a particularly sensitive issue.
The PP has requested the appearance of the director of the Cabinet of the Presidency of the Government, Diego Rubio, to provide explanations about this dismissal. Additionally, they took advantage of Bolaños' attendance at the Joint Commission of National Security to directly question him, but the minister has maintained his refusal to go into details.
"They talk to me about the dismissal of a certain person in the Department of National Security. And, obviously, in a department as large as National Security, there are entries and exits of people and there are decisions made by their hierarchical superiors that I, of course, have no comments to make on that matter," Bolaños limited himself to responding.