The Secretary General of the European People's Party (EPP) and Vice President of the European People's Party Group in the European Parliament, Dolors Montserrat, reiterated this Sunday during a visit to Melilla that "Europe is not going to abandon" the autonomous city and insisted that "Ceuta and Melilla are Spain and Europe."
The 'popular' leader has highlighted the actions promoted by her party in the institutions of the European Union to strengthen the border security of Ceuta and Melilla, including an amendment to the community budget that provides for a budget of 80 million euros aimed at improving border protection.
From the Southern Dock, the port area closest to Morocco, she conveyed to the people of Ceuta and Melilla that "you are not alone and Europe is not going to abandon you." "If I am here today, it is to send a clear and loud message: that the European People's Party is with the people of Melilla and with the people of Ceuta and that here, in Melilla, Europe begins," Montserrat stated, emphasizing that the defense of the two autonomous cities is a priority for her party.
The PP MEP, who also visited the main land border crossing between Melilla and Morocco and participated in the race against cancer, recalled that among the initiatives she has defended is the recent approval in the plenary session of the European Parliament held in Strasbourg of a budget amendment promoted by the Spanish People's Party, which allocates 80 million euros to strengthen border protection.
As she detailed, those resources will be used to strengthen security by incorporating new technological means and constructing maritime and land barriers, infrastructures that she considers essential for Ceuta and Melilla.
"And who has achieved this? The Spanish People's Party and the European People's Party," she emphasized, before defending that these actions serve to protect the southern border of Europe, as well as territorial integrity and national sovereignty.
European measures on migration
Dolors Montserrat has also focused on the regulatory advances approved in the European Union regarding migration, including the migration pact, the return regulation, and a new emergency mechanism that, she explained, would allow "temporarily suspending asylum in certain circumstances, strengthening border protection, and facilitating collective returns of people in irregular situations."
The head of the PPE has criticized the PSOE's stance on these texts. She pointed out that the socialists abstained in the vote on the first package, related to the conditions of entry into Europe, voted against the return regulation, and also rejected the emergency instrument that contemplates the temporary suspension of asylum.
She also referred to the resolution approved in the European Parliament that, in her view, "represents a historic change in the recognition of the European dimension of Ceuta and Melilla." Montserrat reiterated that both cities "are Spanish and European" and accused the President of the Government, Pedro Sánchez, of "not having been up to the task during the border crisis that Ceuta suffered" from July 30 and 31, 2026, with the entry into the Spanish city of more than 80,000 Moroccans.
Criticism of Sánchez and a call to vote
Montserrat's stay in Melilla has also had a marked political tone, with reproaches to the central Executive and continuous references to the general elections on November 29. The Secretary General of the PPE has labeled Sánchez as "the pariah of Europe" and accused him of being "complicit" with the mafias and Morocco.
The PP leader has defended that "the upcoming elections represent an opportunity to put an end to a harmful stage for Spain" and has assured that, with Alberto Núñez Feijóo at the head of the Executive, "the PP would work to regain citizen trust, strengthen judicial independence, guarantee respect for the State Security Forces and Bodies, and defend the freedom of the media."
In relation to Melilla, she has called for support for the popular candidate Sofía Acedo, head of the list for the Melilla constituency for the General Elections on November 29, understanding that "the defense of borders and territorial integrity must occupy a central place in national politics."
Finally, Montserrat has condemned the recent episodes of violence recorded in various Spanish cities, including those in Barcelona last night, with serious disturbances, looting, burning of containers, and damage in the very center of the City of Barcelona, and has demanded that the Government act against those who, in her words, "attack coexistence, freedom, public spaces, and businesses."