The PP accuses Sánchez of using his absence before Trump as a "gesture" to cover up the migratory crisis: "Let's talk about everything but Ceuta"

The PP has focused on Pedro Sánchez's absence from the reception offered this Tuesday by Donald Trump on the occasion of the United Nations General Assembly. The spokesperson for the Popular Group in Congress, Ester Muñoz, has interpreted the Prime Minister's decision as a maneuver to shift the debate on the situation in Ceuta after the massive entry of migrants recorded at the end of July.

"It could be a gesture to avoid talking about Ceuta," Muñoz stated during a press conference in Congress. The popular leader maintained that the Executive is trying to focus attention on Sánchez's absence from the meeting with Trump instead of on the migratory crisis in the autonomous city. "Since we are seeing the Government try to talk about everything but Ceuta, it is capable of not greeting Mr. Trump so that people here talk about that," she added.

The PP spokesperson also resorted to irony to refer to the reason given by Moncloa to justify Sánchez's absence from the reception. "He must have more important things," Muñoz said, before joking about the possibility that the president might be doing an activity similar to the one recently carried out by the Minister of Foreign Affairs, José Manuel Albares, in New York: "I imagine that perhaps he has gone to record a TikTok on the streets of New York as Minister Albares has done."

The Government alleges a private commitment

Sánchez received the invitation to attend the traditional reception organized by Trump, but will ultimately not attend. The absence has been explained by agenda reasons, while the president's official program does not include any public event that coincides with the reception. Moncloa maintains that there is a private commitment that is not included in the public agenda.

Sánchez's day in New York does include several official commitments. The president participates in the opening of the 81st session of the UN General Assembly and has scheduled a tribute to Gloria Steinem, an event on child protection against artificial intelligence, and a meeting on financing the Sustainable Development Goals.

For Muñoz, the issue is not limited to Trump's reception. The popular spokesperson has used the president's decision to question what she considers a strategy based on political communication versus problem management. "We already know the government's policy of gestures and narrative instead of the policy of facts," she concluded.

Sánchez's absence is not unprecedented: the president also did not attend Trump's reception last year, when the Spanish delegation was headed by the King, nor that of 2024, held under the presidency of Joe Biden, as it coincided then with his speech before the General Assembly.