The President of the Government, Pedro Sánchez, will finally appear before the Plenary of the Congress on September 3 to report on the Government’s management of the migration crisis in Ceuta, following the serious incidents recorded since July 30. The setting of the date culminates an undisguised standoff in the Board of Spokespersons, where the initial intention of La Moncloa — which requested to set the appearance for the 9th — clashed with the pressure from several parliamentary groups, led by the PNV. Jeltzale sources have demanded that the meeting be “immediate” and “without the need to reschedule already planned appearances,” once the “situation of interest for national security” in the autonomous city was declared.

The royal decree approved this Tuesday by the Council of Ministers and published this Wednesday in the Official State Gazette (BOE) that declares the “situation of interest for national security in the city of Ceuta,” with a single command and crisis committee, which will initially be in effect until December 31, does not imply an assumption of the limited powers of the autonomous city by the central Government. In other words, far from implying a kind of intervention, like that which would be entailed by the application of article 155 of the Constitution, the Government maintains the constitutionally and statutorily established powers but assumes control of the management of the material and human resources necessary to resolve the crisis.

The Government’s solution to the open crisis in Ceuta still does not fit all the pieces. Neither the solemnity of a National Security Council nor the repeated proclamations that “Ceuta is today the heart of Spain” managed yesterday to hide the coordination difficulties that emerge within the coalition Government. Not only between PSOE and Sumar, regarding Morocco’s responsibility, but also within the very socialist core of the Executive.

The Minister of Territorial Policy and Democratic Memory, Ángel Víctor Torres, who has been appointed as the highest authority in the unified command decreed in response to the Ceuta migration crisis, fully supports the version of his Interior counterpart, Minister Fernando Grande-Marlaska, regarding the lack of prior warnings before the border assault, a version that contradicts that offered by another government colleague, Defense Minister Margarita Robles, who on Tuesday stated that there had been prior communications from the CNI, although not sufficiently precise or urgent.