Ceuta will bring its difficult situation this Wednesday to the squares of hundreds of Spanish municipalities. The Spanish Federation of Municipalities and Provinces has called on the country's 8,132 city councils to hold concentrations at 8:00 p.m., coinciding with Ceuta Day, to show their support for a city that is still trying to recover normality after the entry of more than 70,000 migrants on July 30 and 31.
The call was born as a gesture of institutional solidarity, but it has ended up crossed by political dispute. The PP has mobilized its entire leadership, the PSOE has asked its officials to stay out, and the far-right Vox intends to take advantage of the day to fuel its offensive against the Government and further harden its discourse against migrants.
The latest clash occurred this Tuesday in Madrid. The City Council accused the Government of "boycotting" the event planned in Cibeles after receiving a letter from the Delegation that refused to process it as a concentration protected by the right of assembly. The reason was formal, since a public administration lacks the necessary legal status to avail itself of that procedure. The Government Delegation subsequently clarified that the event can be held as an institutional act organized by the Consistory and communicated its call to the State Security Forces and Corps to guarantee its development. The Cibeles concentration, therefore, remains scheduled for eight in the evening.
The mobilizations will open a decisive week for crisis management. Pedro Sánchez will appear this Thursday, September 3, in Congress to explain the Executive's actions, the information available before the massive entry, and the relationship maintained with Morocco.
The Government vindicates its response and the PSOE distances itself from the format
The Government has defended the right of citizens to demonstrate peacefully, although it considers that the PP is using the FEMP as a tool for confrontation. The Executive's spokesperson, Elma Saiz, accused the popular party of instrumentalizing institutions and recalled that support for Ceuta requires collaboration between administrations. "Spanishness demands respect for institutions and not instrumentalizing them," she affirmed after the Council of Ministers.
The Executive accompanied this position with the approval of a shock plan endowed with 309 million euros to address the needs of Ceuta during the last four months of the year. The investment is equivalent to 16% of the city's gross domestic product and allocates 118 million to humanitarian reception, 90 million to strengthening security, 80 million to economic support, and 21 million to essential services.
The Minister of Economy, Carlos Cuerpo, explained that the measures seek to offer peace of mind to workers, companies, and self-employed individuals. The package includes direct aid, incentives for commerce and tourism, protection for companies that resort to temporary employment files, and new investments in accommodation, basic care, and assistance for minors remaining in the city.
Ferraz sent a circular to its municipal officials rejecting the chosen method by the president of the FEMP, María José García-Pelayo, the popular mayor of Jerez. The socialist leadership maintains that the initiative was convened without the usual consensus of the federation's groups and fears that it will end up becoming a protest against Sánchez.
The instruction has met with resistance in different territories. Socialist mayors of Andalusian municipalities such as Chiclana, Vejer, Grazalema, Moguer, or Fuenteheridos have announced acts of support, while other towns governed by the PSOE will hold their own calls. The most significant decision has come from the autonomous city itself.
The PSOE of Ceuta will be present and has defended that demanding security, resources, and solutions is compatible with the protection of human rights. "In difficult times, our place is with our people," said its regional leadership, which also marked any violent episode and xenophobic speeches as red lines.
The PP deploys its leadership and Vivas appeals to all of Spain
The institutional impetus of the day comes from the FEMP, chaired by García-Pelayo, who launched the call after meeting with the president of Ceuta, Juan Jesús Vivas. The popular leader maintains that the city's situation has generated a citizen sentiment that transcends party lines and asks that Ceuta Day be a display of "common sense and humanity."
Vivas has called for massive participation and has described what happened during the last month as an "unprecedented outrage" against Spanish territory and sovereignty. The president of the autonomous city considers that the cause of Ceuta belongs to the entire country and has appealed to maintain unity among its inhabitants, regardless of their origin, religion or political position.
The PP will fully support the call. Alberto Núñez Feijóo will travel to Ceuta in the morning to participate in institutional events and will then travel to Madrid. At 8:00 p.m. he will be in Cibeles with José Luis Martínez-Almeida, Isabel Díaz Ayuso and other national and regional leaders of the party.
The event will also leave the first joint photograph of Feijóo and Ayuso since the controversy over the Chamberí penthouse erupted. The public company Planifica Madrid paid 6.3 million euros for a property whose initial use was ruled out and which was later put up for sale for 6.7 million. The episode opened several weeks of internal discomfort and forced Génova to demand explanations from the Madrid Government.
Feijóo and Ayuso will try to project unity in Cibeles while the popular leadership is distributed among different cities. Miguel Tellado will go to Toledo, Cuca Gamarra will be in Logroño, Carmen Fúnez in Ciudad Real and the parliamentary spokespersons will participate in the events in Alcalá de Henares and Ávila.
The far-right Vox tries to turn support for Ceuta into another campaign against migrants
The far-right Vox has chosen the call to intensify a strategy based on fear, confrontation and the presentation of migrants as a collective threat. Santiago Abascal will attend the Cibeles concentration, where he will coincide with Feijóo and Ayuso, although his party has already announced that it intends to go beyond the institutional nature proposed by the FEMP.
Its spokesperson in Congress, Pepa Millán, accused the PP of acting with "lukewarmness" and warned that the concentrations "are not for singing carols". Vox wants to use the events to directly point to Sánchez and Morocco, while again resorting to the term "invasion" to refer to thousands of people who arrived at the border in the midst of a migratory and humanitarian emergency.
Abascal has described what happened as an "act of war", has demanded to break the Treaty of Friendship with Morocco and advocates building new walls, deploying the Navy and carrying out mass expulsions. His party thus takes advantage of the legitimate concern of the people of Ceuta to extend a hostile framework that has already contributed to raising tension in the streets of the autonomous city.
Against this discourse, social organizations and anti-racist groups have called concentrations in different cities at the same time. Podemos has supported these mobilizations and has asked to recover the spirit of welcome shown during previous refugee crises, with the defense of coexistence and human rights as the central axis of the protests.
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