Defense Minister Margarita Robles avoided applauding on Thursday, unlike the rest of the Government bench, in Congress when Pedro Sánchez announced that his Executive would publish the reports from the Police and Spanish intelligence about the prior warnings before the massive entry of migrants into Ceuta.
The scene took place in the Lower House during the president’s first intervention to report on the Government’s management of the Ceuta crisis that began on July 30 with the entry of more than 70,000 people, most swimming through the El Tarajal breakwater.
After the head of the Executive announced that to prove the Government “has nothing to hide” he had ordered the publication of a dossier with “all the reports” so that the media and the public could examine them, the Government bench applauded the president but the Defense Minister did not, revealing the discomfort over the Executive’s decision.
However, Robles did applaud Pedro Sánchez at the end of his speech but more discreetly than the other ministers. While her colleagues maintained their standing and enthusiastic ovation when the president sat down in his seat, Robles was already seated and not applauding (this scene is the one shown in the image illustrating this information).
In her appearance in Congress last week, the Defense Minister defended that the CNI agents did their job in the days prior to the massive entry and warned the security forces and the Government Delegation. She even said that the day before there was an alert about a massive gathering on July 30, due to the Moroccan throne festival. Sánchez, on the other hand, maintains that no one warned about what happened on July 30 and that the alerts received were within normality for a border like Ceuta’s.
The ERC spokesperson in Congress, Gabriel Rufián, in his turn referred to the scene to warn the Prime Minister that “he has a big problem.” “Almost everyone on this bench applauded here, except one person, Mrs. Robles. You have a serious problem. And I don’t need to keep explaining why here,” he said with his usual sarcasm.
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The Secretary General of Podemos, Ione Belarra, without referring to the scene, also reproached the president for the “farce” between ministers Fernando Grande Marlaska (Interior) and Robles regarding the reports and warnings about the border situation and demanded that the Spanish people “deserve to know the truth.”
For his part, UPN deputy Alberto Catalán, after criticizing the Interior and Foreign ministers for their management in Ceuta, advised Robles that “it would be better to leave this Government with your head held high than to remain submissive and, above all, despised by your colleagues.”
