The president of the Basque PP, Javier de Andrés, argues that Euskadi should not be defined as "northern border" in the passage of migrant people to Europe, but as "pull factor border" of the guaranteed income, which is "a bargain" due to the "management disaster" of the Basque Government.
In an interview on Onda Vasca, collected by Europa Press, De Andrés, in response to the request of the lehendakari, Imanol Pradales, to recognize Euskadi as "northern border," has stated that "what needs to be done is to recognize the Basque Country as a pull factor border."
In his opinion, people do not come to the Basque Country "because this is the northern border of Spain," but because there are "a series of circumstances of social services, particularly the guaranteed income which is a bargain."
In this line, he recalled that "the other day we learned that 38 million euros had been paid improperly because too much had been paid and a Senegalese was also detained in Canada who had received more than a million euros in GRI and rental assistance." "He had taken more than a million euros from the Basques through fraud in the GRI," he denounced, emphasizing that "it is known that this is a sieve, that it is done poorly and there is a pull effect."
On the other hand, Javier de Andrés has reiterated that the massive entry of immigrants to Ceuta last July is "evident" that it is an "invasion" and has opined that "if we hide that, they will do the same to us again in Melilla, in the Canary Islands, and in Al-Andalus."
According to him, Europe "needs to wake up a little" because "if we think that 80,000 people arrive like this just because, because suddenly they thought of it overnight, without a dictatorship that does not allow a demonstration of ten people finding out, then we are fools."
After emphasizing that "Europe cannot be so foolish," he lamented that Europe "has been manifesting itself as very foolish for a long time and is losing many opportunities and leverage in the international context precisely for being a bit short-sighted."
In relation to Ceuta, he has assured that "we have to see it clearly, it is a full-blown assault on the borders and an invasion supported from Morocco."
About the attitude of the Government of Pedro Sánchez towards the dictatorship of Morocco in relation to what happened in Morocco, it has been stated that the reason is the same for which "he is sending them hundreds of millions of euros for equipment or has granted them the celebration of the World Cup that was granted to Spain and it seems that even the final could end up being played in Morocco".
Government "kidnapped by Morocco"
It has also been criticized that "the defense of the idea of the Sahara has been renounced because the government of Spain and Pedro Sánchez is kidnapped by Morocco and is acting as an ambassador of Morocco". "That is the reality, it is evident, there are things that are so clear that we are not going to dwell on them any longer," he has stated.
In that direction, he has reiterated that the government of Spain is "conditioned by Morocco" and what happened in Ceuta has occurred because Morocco "knows about the weakness that Pedro Sánchez has and the opportunity they have for their territorial claims, for territorial expansion, whether it is the Sahara, whether it is Melilla, whether it is Ceuta, and I also say it, the Canary Islands". "If we are so gullible, in the end there will also be someone who justifies that they invade Seville and Granada," he has warned.
The leader of the Basque Popular Party has pointed out that the massive entry of immigrants in Ceuta "should not have happened" and has attributed it "to the mistakes" of Sánchez's Executive "in diplomatic, police, and military matters". Javier de Andrés has emphasized that the Government "has not been able to make Morocco fulfill its part of the defense of a border and has also not been able to defend its own border".
"After that mistake, what we are seeing is that we may find that this repeats itself over and over again. And we must prepare for this not to happen, which means that there should be no reward for those who have stormed our borders" because "if there is a reward for those who have stormed the borders, we are going to have them here by the tens of thousands every week".
"And that is what I believe Morocco intends, those who have stormed Ceuta and a part of that left that we suffer in Spain and in Europe, but very especially in Spain and in the Basque Country, well it seems to them that it is the right thing, the convenient thing and what needs to be done, to let themselves be stormed and behave as if this were simply a social, human, humanitarian circumstance that needs to be resolved," he has indicated.
For this reason, he has reiterated that "if everyone is not returned to Morocco and it is interpreted by the assailants as a reward, what is going to happen is that the assailants are going to multiply and this is going to be a constant."
Reception of migrant minors
Regarding the reception of immigrant minors that has only occurred in Navarra, Javier de Andrés has defended that "what needs to be done is to return the minors with their parents," as he stated during the crisis in the Canary Islands. "We must not forget that those children, many of them, have families in Morocco and that the natural and first option is for them to return with their parents," he emphasized, to assure that "people are understanding that, indeed, it is the appropriate thing to do."
For this reason, he has reiterated that "it is what needs to be achieved," because, otherwise, "what we are doing is rewarding a behavior that is completely inappropriate in the relationship between two countries, Morocco and Spain, which are neighboring and cannot have a border with the permeability that Morocco has allowed and with the undeniable failures of border control that Spain has had."
He also referred to the attack on the car in which the Ceuta deputy Julia Ferreras, the activist member of the Gaza Flotilla Rafael Borrego, and the human rights lawyer Sofía Cánovas were traveling, recorded last Sunday at the exit of vehicles from the Port of Ceuta, where dozens of neighbors from the city had gathered to reject the arrival of the Pamplona association Negu Gorriak/Derecho a Techo, which they accused of being "radical" and of coming to "break the coexistence."
Javier de Andrés has pointed out that he does not know "who can be blamed beyond those who have done it, those who have exceeded in their protests, in their complaints, in what was, using violence, which is something absolutely condemnable and that in no way should that step be taken."
In his view, the responsibility is "above all personal of those people who have transgressed that basic limit which is to act in peace and peacefully." "And I believe that is where the responsibility must be located," he reiterated, to add that, "on many occasions, there are people who exceed, their temperament can overwhelm them and they end up resorting to violence and it is their personal responsibility."
"I don't think it's appropriate to look for other culprits beyond that," he stated, to acknowledge that, "public debate, sometimes, is also conducted in an inadequate, exalted manner" and to warn that "the situation in which one lives in Ceuta is extreme" because "its streets, its houses, all its properties, its life, its schools, are taken," which "has to create a social climate often difficult to bear."