The PP managed to approve this Wednesday in the Senate a motion that reproves the Government for its management in the face of the massive entry of migrants in Ceuta on July 30 and 31, directly pointing to the actions of the Minister of the Interior, Fernando Grande-Marlaska; the Minister of Foreign Affairs, European Union and Cooperation, José Manuel Albares; the Minister of Defense, Margarita Robles; the Minister of Health, Mónica García, and the Minister of Equality, Ana Redondo.
The proposal from the 'populars' was passed with the support of UPN and Junts, while PSOE, ERC, EH Bildu, and BNG voted against it. Vox, PNV, and Coalición Canaria, among other groups, opted for abstention.
UPN also included an amendment to "regret the death of more than a hundred people during the assault and recognize the work of the Ceuta authorities, the Security Forces and Corps, emergency services, professionals, public services, and social entities."
In defending the motion, the PP spokesperson in the Senate, Alicia García, accused the Executive of failing to prevent an assault that, she claimed, had been warned about by security and intelligence services and of not adequately reinforcing the border. "In Ceuta, the State did not fail. The Government failed," she emphasized.
García also questioned the different versions offered by members of the Executive regarding the prior alerts and the role of Morocco, accusing them of hiding information about what happened. "A Government that always lies. With data, without data, and against the data," she denounced.
In this line, she criticized the Government for attributing the origin of the crisis to Russia, Israel, or the "ultra-right international," while defending that the reports known later would point towards Morocco. "It's that not even the lies come out well," she stated.
The PP attacks the involved ministers
A good part of García's intervention focused on the Minister of the Interior, whom she described as "the most reproached of the Kingdom of Spain" and reproached for not having deployed, in her opinion, the necessary forces to defend the border.
The spokesperson also criticized that the minister did not appear before the Senate in August and compared the device organized for the eclipse with the means sent to Ceuta. "For the eclipse, there was a device. For Ceuta, there was none," she emphasized.
The Foreign Minister reproached the lack of explanations about the role of Morocco and accused the Government of prioritizing the relationship with Rabat over the defense of the autonomous city. "On July 30, they had to choose: Ceuta or Morocco. They chose Morocco," he stated.
He also directed reproaches at the Minister of Health, whom he accused of "contempt" towards the Ceuta healthcare workers and of minimizing the seriousness of the problems faced by the city's public services.
Regarding the Minister of Equality, the PP leader criticized her for taking six weeks to travel to Ceuta and condemned that she did so, in her words, "in secret" and without speaking out about the women and girls who had reported sexual assaults.
Although the motion explicitly mentions four ministers as particularly deserving of censure, García extended his criticisms to the Minister of Defense, Margarita Robles, for the management of information from the intelligence services and for not allowing, as he claimed, the appearance of the director of the CNI before the Official Secrets Commission.
The PP spokesperson extended his reproaches to the group of ministers who did not attend the Senate during the month of August despite the requests from the Chamber and concluded his intervention by demanding the return of the people who, he said, remain illegally in Ceuta. "Whoever does not stand up for Ceuta does not stand up for Spain," he concluded.
Support and abstentions: UPN, Junts, Vox, and PNV
UPN supported the motion and described the situation that Ceuta has been experiencing for more than 40 days as "outrageous and shameful," denouncing that the people of Ceuta are "scared" and that there have been sexual assaults on minors.
The Navarre formation defended its amendment to recognize the Ceuta authorities and the various public services that acted during the crisis and to "regret" the more than one hundred deaths recorded during the attempt to enter the city.
Junts, for its part, ended up supporting the initiative, although its spokesperson emphasized in the debate that a person's origin cannot be a "condemnation" and admitted that there is concern about "crime" and "incivility."
Vox, which ultimately abstained, accused the Government of being "collaborative with the invader" and maintained that it is "impossible" for the Executive not to have known what was going to happen despite the intelligence services it has. Furthermore, it accused it of having concealed data from the judges. "You are a collaborative Government with the invader and it must be said at all times," Vox stated.
The Abascal formation denounced the consequences of the crisis for the citizens of Ceuta, including restrictions on their freedom of movement and sexual assaults on minors, and questioned the Executive's relationship with Morocco again.
The PNV also opted for abstention and agreed with the PP in censuring the Government's management, accusing it of reacting late, not assessing the magnitude of the crisis, and showing "a lack of transparency." It also demanded greater involvement from the European Union in a situation that affects an external border.
The PSOE and left-wing partners reject the initiative
From the PSOE, the PP and Vox were accused of using the crisis to "wear down" the Government instead of contributing to its resolution.
The socialists defended that a situation of this magnitude requires the "collaboration" of all administrations and demanded that the autonomous communities temporarily host the people who remain in Ceuta while the returns are processed.
In this context, they accused the PP of moving from initially talking about "migratory crisis" or "avalanche" to using the term "invasion," and reproached the 'popular' for turning the situation into a weapon of political confrontation.
The PSOE admitted the seriousness of the crisis and acknowledged that the Government has made mistakes, but rejected that the Executive knew in advance about the assault and did not act, calling that accusation a "lie."
It also defended that the Government is responding with "responsibility," "humanity," and respect for human rights, and assured that it continues to investigate who "coordinated, misinformed, and mobilized thousands of people" to overwhelm the border.
EH Bildu and ERC also positioned themselves against the PP's motion. EH Bildu accused the 'popular' of fueling "tension and hatred" for electoral purposes and called for addressing the root causes of the crisis, including the inequalities on both sides of the border.
ERC, finally, reproached the Government for not having correctly assessed the crisis, but also criticized the PP for trying to obtain "partisan gain" and for contributing to the "dehumanization" of migrant people through the use of the term "invasion".