The Ceuta crisis has become an opportunity for Giorgia Meloni to try to impose her migration agenda in Europe. The Italian right celebrates the “success of the diplomatic initiative” for having placed the strengthening of borders at the center of the European debate. But, at the same time, in Palazzo Chigi there is a much more immediate fear: that Spain will respond with reciprocal measures, introducing controls for travelers coming from Italy. In the middle of August, when hundreds of thousands of Italians spend their holidays in Spain, that decision could translate into long lines at airports and ports and end up exposing the essentially symbolic – or, as the Italian opposition denounces, “populist” – nature of the temporary suspension of Schengen decreed by Rome.

The real political pulse of the day was not taken this Wednesday in the chamber, but a few meters away, in the Plaza de las Cortes. A fire drill forced the evacuation of Congress and pushed deputies, ministers, and advisors into an improvised gathering where, far from the face-to-face confrontations of the control session, interpretations and consequences about the UCO’s entry into Ferraz multiplied. The noise of the debate paused for a few minutes, giving way to countless cross conversations that, between cigarette breaks and searches on mobile phones, allowed some and others to reposition their pieces on a political board that keeps suffering shocks. The PSOE has activated a strategy of resistance and calm, the partners have begun to verbalize their limits, and the PP has opted for patient waiting, convinced that socialist wear and tear will do the work on its own.