The first vice president and minister of Economy, Trade and Business, Carlos Cuerpo, has chosen to support the version of the Minister of the Interior, Fernando Grande-Marlaska, regarding the migratory crisis recorded in Ceuta on July 30. Cuerpo has referred to Marlaska's statements, in which he emphasized that "there was no report" that anticipated an "unprecedented" entry of migrants into the autonomous city.
These words have been interpreted in contrast to the position expressed by the Minister of Defense, Margarita Robles, who defended that the personnel of the National Intelligence Center (CNI) carried out their work in the days leading up to the massive arrival, supervising the situation and conveying their assessments to the Security Forces and Corps and to the Government Delegation.
Asked by journalists in Granada this Wednesday, Cuerpo has ruled out any clash between the two versions. "I don't think there is any contradiction. The Minister of the Interior explained it perfectly and I refer to his words," he stated during his appearance before the media.
The Minister of Economy has emphasized that "we were all aware in the days prior of an increase in arrivals by swimming," although he stressed that "there is a substantial leap" between that prior information and the magnitude of the massive entry of migrant people from Morocco that ultimately occurred on July 30.
Cuerpo has added that, "had we been aware of the extent of that risk, then the necessary and appropriate measures would have been taken," thus insisting that the Government would have acted differently had the scale of the episode been known in advance.
In parallel, the Minister of Territorial Policy and Democratic Memory, Ángel Víctor Torres, has reiterated in a radio interview this Wednesday that in the days leading up to July 30 "there was no communication" that "tens of thousands of people" were going to arrive in Ceuta, also supporting the version offered by Marlaska.
Torres has defended that the Minister of the Interior "was clear in his statement and I believe it was a practically 'in situ' response to what was the intervention of the minister," referring to Robles' words about the role of the CNI.
For his part, the spokesperson for the PSOE in Congress, Patxi López, pointed out this Wednesday that the explanations of the ministers of Defense and Interior regarding the existence or not of prior warnings from the CNI about the massive arrival of thousands of migrants to Ceuta "can be true at the same time." In his opinion, it is plausible that the Intelligence services warned of certain movements of people, but without being able to foresee the "extraordinary dimension" that the avalanche ultimately acquired.