This is the third week I have to talk about Ceuta and I would like not to have to do it again for a long time. Not because I have nothing to say about Ceuta, a city I have visited on several occasions, but because it would be a sign that the very serious crisis this city is experiencing had been overcome. But no. It’s not that nothing has been done. What could be done has been done when things are done late and poorly and the circumstances at the beginning have become ungovernable.
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The initial crisis has turned into an emergency of unmanageable proportions, whose solution, even if partial, is becoming impossible due to absurd promises made to look good. For example, that all immigrants who had arrived in Ceuta, even if by swimming, would be returned to Morocco. Even then, the authorities, the Government, knew that this would not be possible. Also, the Executive miscalculated the scale of what was happening and thought that about two thousand people would remain in Ceuta. The rest had returned. But no. The Ceuta government spoke of 8,000 or 10,000, which in Moncloa was considered an exaggeration to attack Pedro Sánchez. Another mistake, thinking that anyone who is not one of yours only wants to attack you. How many there are, no one really knows, a sign that the problem is not even halfway solved, but whether 8,000 or 10,000, if not more, the problem is of proportions that should be taken into account.
There are too many details that tell us coexistence in Ceuta has broken down
Why, so as not to delay its solution. The Government is now requesting European help from Frontex, which was offered from the beginning. It has also asked for help from Europol, for the triage of migrants, an acknowledgment of what it did not want to accept when the president of Ceuta, Juan Jesús Vivas, complained that only 25 people were being registered per day.
But the real problem at this moment is the impact on coexistence in the city. Ceuta, which has proudly shown, as it did at the start of the crisis, to be an open and tolerant city where Christians and Muslims live together without problems, is now something else. There are too many details that tell us that coexistence has broken down. Christians who have confronted their Muslim neighbors believing they were part of the immigrants who entered on July 30. Muslims who no longer dare to attend demonstrations they used to attend as Ceutans, for fear of being singled out. Ceutans who destroy the camps where immigrants take refuge on the beach, who block food distribution by the Red Cross, and immigrants who attack the Security Forces. Ultra infiltrators trying to make everything worse than it is. The lives of Ceutans have been affected for a month: people who have gone to the Peninsula unexpectedly, girls who are not allowed to go out for fear of rape, rationing in bakeries. Why continue listing if you have already read it in Joaquín Vera’s reports in this newspaper.
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All this mixes with the lack of political reaction. If last week we urged the Government to give explanations that would reassure citizens, after the appearances and disagreements between the Ministers of Defense and Interior, citizens have the feeling that there is more effort to solve their own issues than the problem of Ceuta.
And in the autonomous city, President Vivas, who from the beginning maintained an institutional position valued by all, now lets himself be swayed by the siren songs of some Ceutans, who cheer him on to attack Sánchez. To both, I say that what Spaniards and Ceutans need are solutions that will only come if both sit down without reservations, as they have done on previous occasions, and seek solutions. President, take advantage of your appearance.
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