King Felipe VI will visit Ceuta and Melilla, ending an institutional hiatus of more than two decades in the two autonomous cities. This was announced on Monday by the Prime Minister, Pedro Sánchez, during an interview on Cadena SER in which he confirmed that the visit has already been discussed with the Head of State, although there is still no specific date for the trip.
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Sánchez has stated that there are “sufficient arguments and reasons” for the Head of State to travel to both cities and has taken for granted that the visit will eventually take place. “That visit will happen,” he affirmed, without specifying when and leaving the decision linked to the “ideal conditions” being met to carry it out.
The president recalled that he was the first head of government in the democracy to visit Ceuta and Melilla while in office and, in a veiled reference to the leaders of the Popular Party — especially former president José María Aznar — he reproached those who, in his opinion, now come to “sow discord” and to “claim the Perejil islet as if it were a historic milestone.”
The interview also served Sánchez to clear up doubts about his political future. The president has assured that his intention is to run again in the 2027 general elections, “as long as he has the support of the PSOE,” in a message with which he tried to close speculation about his continuity at the head of the party and the government. The socialist leader admitted that alternation in power “is always good,” but maintained that in today’s Spain “we do not have a proposal for alternation.” In his view, this is due “not only to the presence of Vox in the equation, no matter how much the Popular Party tries to hide it,” but also to the PP’s shift towards more extreme positions and that the party, according to his diagnosis, has turned “destructive opposition” into its “reason for being.”
Sánchez criticizes the Popular Party’s criticisms: “They have done nothing else in life but sow discord, as former presidents and as presidents”
Three days before his appearance at his own request in the Congress of Deputies — where this Thursday he will give explanations before an extraordinary plenary session — Sánchez has detailed the current situation in Ceuta after the events of July 30 and 31. According to data provided by the government, of the nearly 70,000 people who entered irregularly during those 48 hours, nine out of ten have already voluntarily returned to Morocco. Currently, about 5,000 people remain in Ceuta, of whom 1,200 are unaccompanied minors.
To manage the identification, possible returns, and asylum requests of this contingent, the government has activated an infrastructure shock plan in coordination with the Autonomous City. The reception places managed by the state have multiplied, increasing from 500 to 3,300 active, with the forecast of reaching 6,000 in a short time, while the capacity for attending minors has risen from 200 to 1,200 places.
Asked about the authorship and Rabat’s passivity, Sánchez ruled out any report from the National Intelligence Center (CNI) or foreign services that places the Moroccan authorities behind the assault. The president attributed the crisis to structural inequality at the border, the action of mafias dedicated to human trafficking, and a disinformation campaign initiated after distorting a Supreme Court ruling from July 8 on returns by swimming. Sánchez denounced the spread of these “hoaxes” through social networks “linked to Russia, Israel” and an “ultra-right international to attack Spain and divide Europe.”
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Also, although he admitted that Spanish intelligence could not foresee the disproportionate magnitude of the July 30 assault, the president defended the professionalism of the secret services and highlighted the budget increase of the CNI under his mandate to 445 million euros, in addition to the investment effort in cybersecurity.
On the economic front, the president announced that the Council of Ministers will approve this Tuesday an extraordinary package of 168 million euros for Ceuta — equivalent to 8% of its GDP — with direct aid to SMEs and self-employed workers, as well as a 75% reduction in employer contributions to Social Security for 2026 and 2027, a measure that will be applied in the same way in Melilla.
Sánchez regrets that “Begoña Gómez is involved in a judicial case for being the president’s wife”
The head of government has expressed his confidence that the origin of the jewels linked to the environment of José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero will eventually be clarified and has defended the former socialist president, whose activity he framed as a usual practice in international politics. “Former presidents engage in lobbying; it is the norm not only in Spain but worldwide,” Sánchez asserted.
In this regard, he categorically denied that Zapatero intervened with him for the granting of the 53 million euro aid given in 2021 to the airline Plus Ultra. “He has never spoken to me about this company,” the president guaranteed, who defended the cleanliness of the administrative file pointing out that it was not a non-repayable bailout, but a “loan guaranteed by all judicial instances” whose process was “spotless.”
On a personal level, the head of government made a strong defense of his wife, Begoña Gómez, and described the recent conviction for administrative prevarication imposed on his brother, David Sánchez, as “unfair.” Sánchez denounced a “dehumanization strategy by some pseudo-media” and maintained that Gómez “is involved in a judicial case for being the president’s wife.”
The socialist leader recalled that when he took office at Moncloa, his partner gave up her private job so as not to hinder government action, deciding to focus her work at the Complutense University of Madrid: “Now they are taking her to a trial with a popular jury for that,” he lamented. Regarding his brother, he highlighted his professional and polyglot career in the cultural field, maintaining that the sentence received is unfair and “would not have happened if he were not Pedro Sánchez’s brother.”
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