Sánchez raises tension with Feijóo to the maximum in Congress over the crisis in Ceuta: "You know nothing about migration management"

The debate on Ceuta ended this Thursday having become a frontal clash between Pedro Sánchez and Alberto Núñez Feijóo. The President of the Government used his turn to reply to the accusations of incompetence, cover-up, and submission to Morocco previously launched by the leader of the Popular Party.

Sánchez has accused Feijóo of using the crisis for a "partisan and vile" purpose, feeding fear and hardening his migratory discourse to stop the flight of voters towards the far-right Vox. "You know nothing about migratory management, you don't care, you don't have a better alternative to solve this problem," he snapped from the rostrum.

The president also reproached the popular leader for focusing his intervention on denouncing the Executive's actions without explaining how he would apply the measures he demands. "You are earning more than 13,000 euros a month. You are not only here to be indignant or to criticize without more", he stated before reminding him that his obligation as head of the opposition also involves presenting solutions.

Feijóo did propose during the session a package of actions that includes more National Police and Civil Guard agents, the reinforcement of Frontex, the extension of the Tarajal breakwater, and an economic plan of 650 million for Ceuta and Melilla. Sánchez responded that several of these initiatives are already underway and questioned the legal viability of others, especially the proposal to return all people who entered irregularly.

The head of the Executive took the contrast to the most extreme scenario by asking if a Government formed by the PP and the far-right Vox would have ordered the agents deployed at the border to open fire. "Would you have preferred to kill hundreds, perhaps thousands of young people, many of them minors, to avoid having to manage a reception crisis?", he launched.

The expulsions and Morocco's archives

Sánchez focused a good part of his response on Feijóo's request that those who entered Ceuta return to Morocco. The president shares that objective for cases that meet the legal requirements, but he recalled that each person must be identified and that asylum applications require individual processing.

"Would you expel all migrants without even processing asylum applications?", he asked him. The president warned that an indiscriminate return would force officials to break the law and ironized about the possibility that the PP would resort to "the gorillas of Desokupa, Mr. Abascal's friends", to carry out the expulsions.

The exchange also touched on the bilateral relationship with Morocco. Feijóo had accused the Government of knowing about the operation, hiding the warnings, and acting conditioned by alleged blackmail from Rabat. Sánchez responded by recalling statements by José María Aznar and Mariano Rajoy in defense of cooperation with the neighboring country.

Aznar spoke in 1999 of building a relationship based on "cooperation, friendship, and trust," while Rajoy defined himself in 2012 as "a friend of Morocco" and presented Mohamed VI's reforms as an example for the Arab world. Sánchez used that archive to accuse the PP of applying a "double standard" when it changes from government to opposition.

The president asked Feijóo to clarify whether he would maintain the traditional Spanish policy of cooperation with Rabat or open a diplomatic confrontation. He also admitted that his Government could have managed some aspects of the crisis better, although he defended that the Executive has reinforced police resources, reception places, and transfers destined for Ceuta.

Ayuso and the "atticazo" enter the face-to-face

The tension momentarily left the Ceuta crisis when Sánchez brought up Feijóo's promise to ensure that the 2030 World Cup final would be held in Spain. The president questioned the PP leader's ability to influence FIFA when, according to his approach, he also fails to impose his authority within his own party.

"But if Mr. Feijóo doesn't even command his own party, he's going to command FIFA. Mr. Feijóo is something else", he ironized amidst protests from the popular bench.

Sánchez has directly pointed to Isabel Díaz Ayuso to support that argument. He has reproached Feijóo for allowing the Madrid president to evade explanations about who paid for her trip to Mexico, that he keeps the mayor of Móstoles despite the investigation for an alleged case of sexual and labor harassment and that the contradictions surrounding the penthouse acquired by the public company Planifica Madrid continue.

The property cost 6.3 million euros and was intended to become Ayuso's provisional office during the works of the Real Casa de Correos. The Community ended up putting it up for sale after the controversy, while the Madrid president initially assured that she was unaware of the operation despite having visited the home in April.

"The one who knew nothing about the huge penthouse seems to have visited it," Sánchez slipped. Then he returned the blow to Feijóo with another phrase aimed at questioning his leadership within the PP. "You promise what you cannot fulfill and you do not fulfill what you can do", he concluded.