Spain’s handling of a mass irregular border crossing from Morocco has drawn sharp criticism from the editorial board of La Razón, which argued that the government of Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez was left chasing events it should have foreseen.
More than 50,000 people were involved in the crossing, according to the editorial. It questioned whether Morocco’s government in Rabat could have been unaware of a mobilization on that scale, given Morocco’s established record of maintaining strict internal order.
The editorial acknowledged that Sanchez had little choice but to accept Morocco’s explanations, but argued that the gravity of the episode demanded more than promises of correction. The crisis had, it said, seriously damaged Spain’s standing among European Union partners, who now questioned Madrid’s ability to manage irregular immigration and secure the bloc’s external border.
Local officials in the autonomous city of Ceuta had warned of Morocco’s potential as a destabilizing force on migration policy, the editorial said, and those warnings went unheeded. It dismissed as unconvincing the government’s claim that legislation prevented a national emergency declaration, noting that a State of Exception was available as an alternative.
Interior Minister Fernando Grande-Marlaska and Foreign Affairs Minister Jose Manuel Albares were singled out for criticism, their records described in terms the editorial considered far from distinguished.
Sanchez has since said Morocco pledged its full cooperation in resolving the crisis and that Spain intends to restore its partners’ confidence in its migration policy. The editorial expressed doubt that either objective would be achieved in the months ahead.
