Column by Faiza Rhoul

The resolution on Ceuta refers to “hybrid warfare,” calls for Morocco’s cooperation and rebukes the Spanish government, but it does not accuse the Moroccan state in any way. That did not stop Spain’s People’s Party, its allies in the European Parliament and some Spanish media outlets from portraying a decidedly relative “victory” in spectacular terms—a reading that hardly survives close scrutiny of the document itself.

Italian member of the European Parliament Ilaria Salis denied that Ceuta is Spanish or European, describing it as a “remnant of European colonialism.” Her intervention disrupted the course of a debate that Spanish political parties had brought to Strasbourg to demand solidarity, funding and pressure on Morocco, but which ultimately opened a far more uncomfortable discussion about the history and significance of Europe’s presence on African soil.

By adopting a bill granting Spanish nationality to people originating from the Sahara and their descendants, Spain’s Congress of Deputies is reviving the Franco-era legacy in the name of so-called “reparation.” This unilateral measure carries within it one final contradiction: claiming to erase the traces of the past with the instruments inherited from that very past, offering a European passport while interfering in a particularly sensitive geopolitical balance.

The highly anticipated documents on Ceuta had barely been released before they were already fueling two opposing narratives: one implicating Morocco, the other targeting Pedro Sánchez’s handling of the crisis. The Spanish government quickly stepped in to set the record straight. The CNI had indeed detected calls circulating on social media, but it never warned of a mass arrival or estimated that 180,000 people might take part.

Members of Ultras Sur burned a Moroccan flag near the Santiago Bernabéu before Real Madrid’s Champions League match against Inter Milan, just six days after far-right leaders tore up the Kingdom’s flag outside Spain’s Congress of Deputies.

Spain will begin releasing intelligence reports on the July 30-31 Ceuta crossings on Wednesday. The documents may answer who knew what and when—but claims that Morocco organized the influx have already traveled much further than the evidence.

Spain sells almost as much to Morocco as it does to the United States. As the PP turns up the heat over Ceuta, Carlos Cuerpo is urging “extreme caution” before blaming Rabat without evidence.

The incident outside Spain’s Congress came as protests continued over the July migrant arrivals. In Ceuta, a Moroccan man was stabbed to death and a 17-year-old with severe diabetes died at a reception center in two separate cases.

Refusing to bow to opposition pressure, the Spanish prime minister recalled that Europe’s leading powers support Morocco’s autonomy proposal. Pedro Sánchez defended a good-neighbor policy grounded in realism and ruled out any diplomatic confrontation with one of Spain’s strategic partners.