For several hours, Spanish politics was thrown into turmoil over a supposed report directly implicating Moroccan security forces in the entries into Ceuta on July 30 and 31. The information, published Tuesday evening by El Español, immediately triggered an offensive against Morocco and Pedro Sánchez’s government.
For some, the document could not have come at a better time. It appeared finally to provide police backing for a narrative that had been pushed for several weeks. There was no need to wait to read the report or verify what it actually contained. Calls for resignations, early elections and diplomatic sanctions came immediately.
The People’s Party called for the resignation of Interior Minister Fernando Grande-Marlaska, as well as early elections. Podemos accused the government of “continuing to defend” Morocco and likewise demanded the minister’s resignation. Sumar, Izquierda Unida and Vox called for explanations or measures against Rabat.
The revelation, however, did not hold up for long. A few hours later, the leadership of Spain’s National Police denied its central claim. Its director general, Francisco Pardo, informed Marlaska that no report attributed “the planning or execution” of the events in Ceuta to Moroccan security forces, according to the official statement.
What the Police Actually Say
Francisco Pardo does not deny that documents were submitted to the Audiencia Nacional. What he does deny is that a report from the National Center for Immigration and Borders accuses Moroccan gendarmes of having organized and directed the entries, as El Español claimed.
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Judge María Tardón had requested information from the police to determine whether there were grounds to open an investigation before the Audiencia Nacional. She had also ordered investigators not to communicate anything to their superiors. Francisco Pardo therefore did not know the contents of the case file.
On Wednesday, once authorized to brief their superiors, the investigators were heard by the director general of the police. Following that meeting, Pardo confirmed to Marlaska that no report held Morocco responsible for organizing the entries.
The police also clarified the scope of the warning issued by CENIF on July 29. Contrary to what had been claimed, it was not an alert warning of the massive influx that would occur the following day but a routine risk advisory that made no mention of an influx on such a scale.
The two main accusations leveled against the government that morning were thus stripped of their foundation. The police had not officially implicated Morocco, and the Interior Ministry had received no specific warning about what was going to happen.
A Newspaper That Had Already Chosen Its Conclusion
The source of the information is far from incidental. The exclusive came from El Español, whose hostile positions toward Morocco are longstanding and openly assumed. The newspaper regularly portrays relations between Madrid and Rabat through the prism of threats, blackmail or Pedro Sánchez’s supposed concessions.
Its reading of the crisis had already been settled before it even became aware of the documents submitted to the Audiencia Nacional. As early as July 31, the newspaper was speaking of a “coordinated invasion” and claiming that it could not have occurred without Morocco’s complicity.
On August 3, it published an editorial titled “Ceuta at Morocco’s Mercy, Sánchez Must Reshuffle His Government or Call Elections.” Nearly a month before the supposed leak, El Español was therefore already calling for the same measures as the PP.
The September 1 article did not change the newspaper’s position. It simply allowed it to present its own reading of events as a police conclusion.
A Leak That Comes at Just the Right Time
The supposed revelation was published 24 hours before Pedro Sánchez’s appearance before Congress. Without making the document public or having its contents confirmed, El Español turned an interpretation into a serious accusation against Morocco.
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The story immediately swept across radio and television. Experts who had not read the report nevertheless seemed to know every detail. The conditional mood rapidly disappeared from the debate and, within hours, an unverified claim became established fact.
By the time the denial came, the damage had already been done. Marlaska had become the minister who lies, Sánchez the prime minister who protects Morocco, and Rabat the designated culprit behind an operation against Spain. It remains to be seen whether the police clarification will receive the same media coverage.
Each Party Has Its Own Crisis
The PP waited for neither the full report nor official confirmation. Its secretary general, Miguel Tellado, accused Marlaska of having lied for a month, demanded his resignation and called on Sánchez to dissolve the Cortes.
Party officials also claimed that the government knew about Morocco’s supposed “active role” and had chosen to conceal it. They even revived the Pegasus affair to suggest that Pedro Sánchez could be held hostage by the contents of his phone.
No public evidence supported these accusations. Francisco Pardo’s response shows above all that no report contained the conclusions put forward by the newspaper.
The proximity between the PP’s reaction and the line championed by El Español is striking. The demand for elections did not arise from the discovery of the report. It had already appeared in a newspaper headline published on August 3.
The political exploitation was not limited to the right. Podemos took Morocco’s responsibility as a given and called for Marlaska’s resignation before any verification. Its spokesman, Pablo Fernández, described Morocco’s actions as a “hostile act” and accused the government of lying to defend Rabat.
Fernández also linked the crisis to the deaths of 140 people. That figure is his and must remain strictly attributed to him. Podemos thus presented as self-evident something that the director general of the police would deny only a few hours later.
The PP and Podemos therefore found themselves calling for the head of the same minister, albeit for different reasons. The former used the affair to demand elections. The latter used it to attack cooperation with Morocco.
The same narrative ultimately gave opposing camps a shared opportunity to intensify the pressure on Pedro Sánchez.
An Ever More Divided Spain
Even the gatherings organized on September 2 in support of Ceuta ultimately split along political lines. The Spanish Federation of Municipalities and Provinces, chaired by the PP, called for demonstrations across the country. Municipalities governed by the PSOE and Izquierda Unida organized their own gatherings to denounce partisan exploitation of the issue.
The crisis now extends far beyond Ceuta. Immigration has become an electoral weapon, and relations with Morocco are too often reduced to slogans, suspicions and accusations.
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In this climate, the legitimate demand for explanations is being eclipsed by racist rhetoric targeting migrants and growing hostility toward Morocco. Families, minors and young people who crossed the border are sometimes portrayed as an enemy mass. The entire complexity of the Spanish-Moroccan relationship is then reduced to three words: “invasion,” “betrayal” and “blackmail.”
Such language does nothing to establish the facts. It fuels fear, hardens positions and turns a human, institutional and diplomatic crisis into an electoral argument.
Pedro Sánchez’s appearance before Congress should provide answers about the handling of the crisis. But the debate has already been distorted by a claim denied by the police, one that was enough to trigger calls for resignations and reignite attacks against Morocco.
The episode is revealing. A few conclusions falsely attributed to a police report were enough to upend Spain’s political agenda. The denial came afterward, when calls for resignations and elections had already been launched, divisions had deepened and migrants, once again, had been cast as a threat and Morocco as a target.
