The PP and the Government maintain the clash over Ceuta and now focus the battle on the health situation

The Moroccan border city of Castillejos continues to show a wide security deployment this Sunday. Morocco thus exhibits, at the gates of Europe, its capacity to neutralize and repel —in short, to control— the attempt of arrival of hundreds of migrants who in recent hours aimed to reach the autonomous city of Ceuta. Diplomacy, when exercised with willingness by both parties —conversations between the Spanish Executive and the Alawi monarchy do not cease—, works.

However, and despite the fact that the border area has been calmer in recent days, the situation in Ceuta still has not returned to normal. The Government tries to reduce tension while hundreds of migrants remain on the Spanish side, most of them in a situation of hardship and with a scarcity of the most basic resources.

According to the latest balance from the Ministry of Interior, nearly 5,000 people still remain in Ceuta after entering last July 30. Of these, 1,800 are already registered minors.

Without domestic diplomacy

The tension over the Ceuta crisis continues to transfer to national politics and the latest clash between the Government and the PP now has the health situation of the autonomous city as its scenario.

“Ceutans have the right to live in peace. Women have the right to go out into the street without fear. Children have the right to grow up safe,” wrote the leader of the opposition, Alberto Núñez Feijóo, on social media about the crisis.

Minutes earlier, the deputy secretary of Regional and Municipal Policy and Electoral Analysis of the PP, Elías Bendodo, had demanded the resignation of the Minister of Health, Mónica García, whom he holds responsible for the “health collapse” that, in his opinion, Ceuta is suffering. “The minister must assume her responsibility. I no longer ask her to go, I ask her to resign,” he stated.

In parallel to these statements, the head of Health, displaced to Ceuta, assured that “there is no collapse.” García added that “Ceuta and Melilla have been made a priority of the Ministry of Health.”

The minister did acknowledge that there is a risk for migrants derived from the overcrowding of people. For this reason, she has proposed to the Autonomous City to enable and cede spaces to be able to carry out sanitation actions and make early diagnoses.

A diagnosis not shared by the president of Ceuta, Juan Jesús Vivas, who has asked the minister—with whom he has held a meeting—to address the demands of the healthcare collective in the autonomous city. Vivas has stressed that the region “is in danger” after a massive influx that has “radically” altered its normality.

Pressure on the healthcare system decreases

According to data provided this Sunday by the Ministry of Health, in the last 15 days, 5,800 migrants have been attended to in Ceuta: 3,500 in primary care and another 2,300 in the hospital.

Although the Ministry acknowledges the greater effort made by healthcare professionals, who have faced increased strain on the system, it maintains that the volume of care has decreased from the 1,100 registered on the first day to 193 this Saturday.

The hospital currently attends to 101 admitted patients, of whom 28 are migrants. Only one remains in the ICU.

The data forms part of the Government's argument to maintain that the healthcare system is strained, but not collapsed. The PP, however, maintains its diagnosis and turns the healthcare management of the migratory crisis into the new front of confrontation with the Executive.

Abascal demands criminal accountability from Sánchez

While the confrontation between the Government and the PP continues without an open line of communication between them, Vox continues to raise the tone and try to occupy the toughest space of the opposition in the face of the Ceuta crisis.

The leader of Vox, Santiago Abascal, accused the President of the Government, Pedro Sánchez, this Sunday of “abandoning” Ceuta to “demoralize” its inhabitants and make them “throw in the towel,” abandon the city, and have it “handed over” to Morocco.

Abascal thus defended the thesis that the Government intends to leave Spanish territory in the hands of the neighboring country, an accusation for which he provides no evidence and which the Vox leader directly links to the management of the migratory crisis.

Furthermore, he again called Sánchez a “traitor” and reiterated that he “has to end up in jail for many things, but above all” for the migratory crisis in Ceuta.

In Vox, they appeal to article 102 of the Constitution, which regulates the criminal responsibility of the president and other members of the Government. The precept establishes that, when the accusation is for treason or for any crime against the security of the State in the exercise of their functions, this can only be raised at the initiative of a quarter of the members of Congress and with the approval of the absolute majority of the Chamber. 

The Congress Regulations develop this procedure and establish that the initiative must be formulated in writing and signed by at least a quarter of the deputies. Subsequently, it would have to be approved by an absolute majority for the Presidency of Congress to communicate it to the Supreme Court. 

The Ceuta conflict thus enters a new phase. With the border more contained and Morocco maintaining control of the other side of the border crossing, the political battle shifts to Spanish territory: first, to the response capacity of the administrations and, now, in a particularly visible way, to the state of the healthcare system. The Government defends that there is tension but not collapse; the PP demands political responsibilities and Vox raises the pressure to the criminal level. The migratory crisis, therefore, is still far from being closed.