The Government, that is, Pedro Sánchez, has already settled the war of versions between the Minister of Defense, Margarita Robles, and the head of the Interior portfolio, Fernando Grande-Marlaska. He has done so in favor of the latter.
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The press release from the Government delegation in Ceuta, flatly denying the version given by Margarita Robles in Congress, according to which the CNI had informed in due time and form of what was about to happen in the city, is a full-blown presidential slap to the minister. Let’s not forget that it is Sánchez who appoints and removes Government delegates, so it is not credible that the delegation acted on its own. Furthermore, the single command designated for Ceuta since the day before yesterday, the Minister of Territorial Policy and Democratic Memory, Ángel Víctor Torres, has also closed ranks with Grande-Marlaska. Clear as day.
The Government now points again to the CNI through Margarita Robles
Before Pedro Sánchez’s appearance, scheduled late and poorly for September 3, seven more ministers are yet to be heard in Congress from today until next Monday. But apart from the sectoral issues that concern each one, it is becoming clear that the official version that all of them must weave as opening acts for the president is that governmental unforeseeability did not exist. Simply because no one warned of anything and what happened could not be foreseen.
The dose of self-criticism that Margarita Robles introduced in her appearance also does not seem to be shared by the rest of her colleagues. What we are going to hear, in all probability, is that what could be executed quickly was done very well, and what required more time was also done well. And in addition, of course, the refrain that serves for all ills: the fault lies with the right and the far-right.
With this version, Spanish intelligence is once again thrown under the bus. It is not the first time this has happened this legislature. It happened with the Pegasus case, which politically resulted in the dismissal of the then director of the CNI, Paz Esteban, despite Moncloa being aware and taking advantage of the information obtained through access to the mobile phones of the spied Catalan politicians. The Government now points again, through Margarita Robles, to this institution dependent on the Ministry of Defense.
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The minister always has the wildcard of the necessary discretion and secrecy with which intelligence is obliged to work, which prevents her from telling everything she knows. But her appearance was not, in political terms and for her own interests, very successful.
Beyond the exercise of patriotism regarding Ceuta and Melilla and the pompous words that everyone did what they should and fulfilled their duty, she said that intelligence services had telephoned the Government delegate in Ceuta about the anomalous situation that was occurring with the increase in swimmers intending to cross the border. But for that, it was not necessary to call anyone, since everyone already knew it. It was enough to read newspapers and listen to the radio the days before the invasion. If so, that is not an intelligence service; it is a press summary service.
And given that the avalanche was defined by the president himself as a “violation of Spain’s territorial integrity,” impossible without the complicity of the Kingdom of Morocco, it is to be expected that Spanish intelligence, those twenty-five CNI operatives that the minister said she had in Ceuta, plus those in Melilla, plus those deployed in Morocco, as well as their sources, would provide information, analysis, and intelligence that went beyond what the media was already reporting. If better information was provided through more appropriate channels than that call, the minister is being sold out. But if all that was done is what the minister stated, it leaves much to be desired and someone should take responsibility.
Although the truth is that, with or without prior reports, the history of this mess makes it clear that there has been unforeseeability, if not governmental neglect. This week’s decisions are an example, as all of them could have been taken much more quickly. And it’s not that the president’s vacations have been sacred, as the most malicious voices insistently say. It simply happens that to act, one must know what one wants to do and how. So let’s add improvisation to the bill.
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