The Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food, Luis Planas, has valued the imminent visit of Kings Felipe VI and Letizia to Ceuta and Melilla as "normal" and also positive.
Planas spoke this Thursday in Jaén, in statements to the media, after Zarzuela and the Government confirmed that the monarchs' trip will take place on October 13 and 14, two and a half months after the entry of more than 80,000 migrants into the Ceuta city from Morocco.
"It seems normal to me. I was ambassador in Morocco when Their Majesties Kings Juan Carlos and Sofía visited Ceuta and Melilla and now the kings have decided to visit Ceuta, it seems to me within the normality, of the functioning of the institutions," he declared.
After emphasizing that Spain is made up of 17 autonomous communities and the two mentioned autonomous cities, the minister insisted that the fact that the kings "visit a part of the national territory" constitutes "a normal and always positive act."
Felipe VI and Letizia will travel to Ceuta on October 13, which will be their first visit to the city since their proclamation in June 2014. The trip, which "has been agreed upon by the Government and the Royal House," will also include a stop in Melilla, where they had not been until now.
To date, the only visit of a head of the Spanish State to both cities in North Africa since the restoration of the monarchy was that of Juan Carlos I and Sofía on November 6 and 7, 2007.
The announcement of Felipe VI and Letizia's trip was made at the end of August by the President of the Government, Pedro Sánchez, who stated that there were "arguments and reasons more than sufficient" for the king to go to the autonomous city and guaranteed that the trip would take place when "the conditions for it" were met.