The Government faces pressure from its partners over the Ceuta reports while reinforcing its response and Morocco raises diplomatic tension

The Government reaches this Friday under growing pressure from its parliamentary partners and allies for the management of the massive entry of migrants into Ceuta. The publication of the 40 declassified documents has made it possible to know the warnings that circulated before July 30, but it has also not closed the doubts about the trajectory of that information or about the measures adopted during the previous hours.

The documentation shows that the National Intelligence Center (CNI) detected calls to enter Ceuta by sea and by the fence. On July 29, it transferred the content through conversations with the Government Delegation and a Civil Guard information unit, in addition to sending a note to the Moroccan secret services.

The messages referred to two Facebook groups with more than 180,000 followers and calls to take advantage of Morocco's Throne Day. The Government maintains that none of those communications arrived as a formal alert to the ministries nor anticipated the dimension of what would happen a few hours later.

The CNI itself has acknowledged that it reported on the campaign disseminated on social networks, although it admits that it "did not anticipate the magnitude and nature" of the episode. The declassification has thus exposed a fragmented chain of warnings, lacking an assessment capable of converting the noise detected on the internet into an operational warning proportional to the risk.

Partners demand clarification on who failed

The spokesperson for Sumar in Congress, Verónica Martínez Barbero, considers it "serious" that information of that caliber was left out of the levels in charge of adopting measures. She has demanded a review of the transmission chain and to assume the corresponding responsibilities if it is confirmed that there was a failure. The Compromís deputy integrated into Sumar, Alberto Ibáñez, has valued the transparency of the publication, although he has described some of the explanations offered as "quite far-fetched". "It is clear that something failed," he said before pointing out that someone will have to answer for what happened.

The Més-Compromís deputy Águeda Micó, currently assigned to the Mixed Group, has gone further. Micó has called for dismissals and has directly pointed to the Government delegate in Ceuta, Miguel Ángel Pérez Triano, considering that his team downplayed the information received from the intelligence services.

Esquerra Republicana has also raised its tone. Deputy Francesc-Marc Álvaro has demanded "transparency, responsibility, and self-criticism" and considers it difficult to accept that a crisis of this magnitude ends without political consequences. "Someone in a government of an advanced democracy should resign," he stated. ERC spokesperson, Gabriel Rufián, initially affirmed that the documents reflected the existence of a part of the State that acted against the Executive. This Thursday, he has focused on Moncloa's internal management and has interpreted the subsequent explanations as a "clear targeting" of the Minister of Defense, Margarita Robles, whom he believes the Government is placing "at the feet of the horses."

Podemos maintains that there were sufficient indications to activate a preventive response. Its spokesperson, Pablo Fernández, has spoken of a "very negligent" action and has asked to determine what failed, who had decision-making capacity, and what responsibilities should be cleared. He has also criticized that the humanitarian emergency remains open six weeks later.

Izquierda Unida directs a good part of its reproaches towards the intelligence services. Its parliamentary spokesperson, Enrique Santiago, considers it insufficient that a warning against such a risk was reduced to informal messages and calls. "The WhatsApp and phone call thing is like a comic, it's not serious," he assured.

The Basque Nationalist Party has described the situation as "worrying for the Government itself," while Junts believes that the documents reveal a lack of control over the border and over the internal functioning of the Executive. Its spokesperson, Míriam Nogueras, has asked Pedro Sánchez to "step aside" if he lacks the capacity to resolve the crisis.

EH Bildu has introduced the main nuance among the parliamentary allies. Mertxe Aizpurua considers that the message sent by WhatsApp to the Government Delegation lacked the conditions of an official alert and believes that the Executive acted with the available means in the face of an episode of unknown dimensions.

Moncloa claims transparency and accelerates the response

The Executive defends that the complete publication of the 40 documents allows examining what happened based on the original files and verifying that no ministry received a formal warning about an arrival of tens of thousands of people. It also recalls that the CNI ruled out having anticipated the final scope of the crisis.

The Minister of Interior, Fernando Grande-Marlaska, has refused to resign and has insisted that the known warnings lacked a comparable forecast to the entry registered in Ceuta in 2021. Óscar Puente has also defended that it was "very difficult to anticipate" with the available information.

Margarita Robles has asked to avoid the search for confrontations within the Council of Ministers. The head of Defense maintains that the Government works "united" and that all institutions fulfilled their obligations in the face of a phenomenon whose dimension was unpredictable.

The Government delegate in Ceuta has explained that the CNI message was received by his chief of staff within a usual conversation and that its content never reached his hands. Pérez Triano considers that communication "did not provide absolutely anything new", because the calls to try to cross the border were already circulating in local media and social networks.

Pedro Sánchez has acknowledged that the State must improve its capacity to interpret this type of digital mobilizations and convert them into effective prevention. The president has defended that the documents were situation reports and has assumed the need to update intelligence mechanisms in the face of phenomena that are born and grow rapidly on the internet.

The institutional response continues to advance on the ground. The Audiencia Nacional has admitted the State as a private prosecution in the investigation opened for the massive entry, considering that the events could have affected the sovereignty, territorial integrity, and external security of Spain.

Brussels has also granted 114.7 million euros in emergency funding. A total of 82.7 million will come from the Asylum, Migration and Integration Fund and another 32 million from the European instrument for border and visa management. The funds will finance reception, identification processes, guaranteed returns, staff reinforcement, and new surveillance means.

The European Commission has also offered to expand the intervention of Frontex, Europol, and the European Union Agency for Asylum. Spain and Brussels have created a joint coordination group that will hold regular meetings to monitor the disbursement and adapt resources to Ceuta's needs.

This Thursday, the first transfers of migrant girls to the Peninsula also began. Navarra will host five minors, two of whom arrived during the day and the other three are scheduled to do so this Friday. The movement opens a path to relieve Ceuta's protection system while individual evaluations continue.

The Ministry of Youth and Childhood has deployed the Multidisciplinary Unit for the Care of Migrant Children in Emergencies. Its first action will be a mobile team of eight Save the Children professionals, coordinated with the Ceuta Minors Area and UNICEF. Half of its resources will be dedicated to expediting interviews with already protected minors and facilitating their transfer, international protection, or family reunification when appropriate. The rest of the team will work in the streets to locate children and adolescents who remain outside institutional resources.

Morocco denies reports and escalates the threat

Rabat has broken its silence with a particularly harsh statement against Spain. The Moroccan Ministry of Foreign Affairs rejects any involvement in the massive entry and maintains that "no data, fact, or report" allows attributing responsibility to its authorities.

This statement goes beyond the actual content of the documents. The reports lack a firm conclusion that proves Morocco organized the entry, although several of them do describe passivity, lack of proactive reaction, and a delayed deployment of Moroccan forces when the border breakwater had already been overwhelmed.

The Moroccan government accuses political sectors, media, and Spanish institutions of using the Alawi kingdom in their internal disputes. It also refuses to become a "pre-electoral political pawn" or Spain's "scapegoat" and criticizes parties with government experience for having fallen into a "mire" marked by "irrational and populist escalation".

Rabat has accompanied its reproaches with a warning. A supposed "strategic blindness," it maintains, could turn the bilateral relationship into a source of "chronic distrust and recurrent tensions." The message arrives the same day that Congress approved a law to facilitate Spanish nationality for certain Sahrawis born when Western Sahara remained under Spanish administration.

Morocco has also demanded explanations for the lack of expulsions and for the permanence of unaccompanied minors in Spain despite its offer to readmit them. Any return of a child or adolescent requires an individual assessment of their situation, the protection of their best interest, and verification that they will have a family, a guardian, or a safe resource upon arrival in Morocco.