Santiago Abascal turns the Ceuta tragedy into a xenophobic rally: speaks of war, demands expulsions, and calls for Sánchez's imprisonment

Santiago Abascal has turned his visit to Ceuta this Sunday into a new xenophobic offensive against migrants and the Government. The far-right leader has described the massive entry from Morocco as an "invasion" and an "act of war", has demanded permanent militarization of the border and has assured that Pedro Sánchez "should be in prison".

The president of Vox appeared in the Plaza de África accompanied by the head of the party's delegation in the European Parliament, Jorge Buxadé, and by its leader in Ceuta, Juan Sergio Redondo. From there, he used the dozens of deaths recorded at sea to fuel his discourse against immigration and launch serious accusations against the head of the Executive.

Abascal has put the number of people who would have entered the city at 65,000, although official estimates speak of more than 50,000. Security Forces estimate that some 73,500 departures to Morocco have occurred, a count that may include repeated movements and people who arrived in previous days. Most have already returned to the neighboring country and the border has remained calm this Sunday.

A tragedy turned into political ammunition

The far-right leader has described Sánchez as a "satrap, corrupt, mafioso and psychopathic" and has held him responsible for both the entry of migrants and the deaths that occurred during the crisis. He has also insinuated that Morocco has evidence of alleged "corruption and mafias" of the president, an accusation for which he has not presented any document or indication.

"Probably Morocco has information and evidence about Sánchez that we Spaniards still don't know," he said. Based on that suspicion, Abascal has built the theory that Rabat acted because it knew that the Spanish Government would avoid any retaliation. He then demanded that the president be "put on trial" and sent to prison, without specifying the crime that would justify that request.

His intervention has also railed against immigration laws, international conventions, and humanitarian organizations. Abascal has accused NGOs of collaborating with mafias and has defined as "criminal" the norms that protect the rights of migrants, including the guarantees that must be respected before executing a return.

The speech prolongs the campaign launched by Vox's extremists since the crisis began. Abascal had already described those crossing the border as "men of military age" and went so far as to attribute to Sánchez responsibility for "every rape" and "every stabbing" they might commit. He also called for "throwing them all out" and encouraged citizens to act on their own if the Executive did not.

Vox ridicules barriers while demanding more military personnel

Abascal has called for permanent militarization despite the fact that almost 3,000 police officers, civil guards, and military personnel remain deployed in Ceuta. The Government delegate, Miguel Ángel Pérez Triano, has assured that these personnel will remain in the city "as long as necessary" while the return of those who entered irregularly is completed.

The leader of Vox also wants to close the border crossing until Morocco guarantees that a similar entry will not happen again. He also demands legal changes to allow the Army and Security Forces to act "with the necessary forcefulness", although he has avoided specifying the content of these reforms and their limits.

Vox has accompanied this demand with a campaign of mockery against the maritime barriers placed in El Tarajal. The party has reduced the entire device to a supposed "float", hiding that it is a 500-meter pneumatic structure, combined with a line of buoys anchored by the Navy and permanently monitored by the Civil Guard.

The barriers are now fully operational and are part of the deployment activated after the massive entry. During the night from Saturday to Sunday, no new accesses were registered through the Tarajal breakwater, while a small group that tried to reach the coast by swimming was intercepted by the deployed personnel.

The border calm coexists with a still open humanitarian emergency. The official toll has risen to 72 deceased people, although the Ceuta morgue accumulates 88 bodies, some possibly from previous crossings. More than a thousand migrants also wait in the vicinity of the CETI, which houses more than 700 people despite having 512 places.

The far-right mobilizes its sympathizers in Madrid

Vox has also supported a demonstration called this Sunday at 8:30 p.m. in front of the Moroccan Embassy in Madrid. The poster disseminated under the signature of "Sociedad Civil Española" calls to attend "in defense of Ceuta and Melilla" and uses the same nationalist aesthetic with which the far-right has accompanied its campaign throughout the crisis.

The appeal for a protest "beyond acronyms" comes accompanied by an express mobilization of the party's affiliates and sympathizers. Vox thus tries to transfer its offensive from Ceuta to the streets of Madrid, while its leaders continue to spread messages that present thousands of people as a military threat to Spain.

Abascal has also asked the European Union to suspend its preferential agreement with Morocco and has supported Giorgia Meloni's decision to restrict free movement with Spain. The far-right leader has presented this measure as a legitimate defense of Italy, despite the fact that Ceuta has a special border regime and those who irregularly access the city cannot directly move to the Schengen area.

The president of Vox has concluded his visit to Ceuta with a roadmap focused on expulsions, border closures, permanent militarization, and legal actions against Sánchez. In the vicinity of the CETI, the Army continued to distribute water to those waiting for a place while families searched for their missing loved ones and forensic experts tried to identify the bodies recovered from the sea.