Sánchez rebukes Spain's king over absence during Ceuta migration crisis

Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez used a radio interview on Monday to openly criticize King Felipe VI for staying away from Ceuta throughout the ongoing migration crisis, telling Cadena SER there were more than enough reasons for the head of state to visit both Ceuta and Melilla. Such public criticism of the monarchy from within the Spanish government is rare.

Sánchez noted he has visited Ceuta four times since taking office eight years ago, while the king — whom he said had reigned for 20 years — had never gone. That comparison was technically inaccurate, since Felipe VI has only reigned since 2014; Sánchez appeared to be referencing former King Juan Carlos I's 2007 visit to the city, the last by any Spanish head of state. Sánchez said he had recommended the king travel to Ceuta and that a visit would eventually happen, though he gave no timeline.

According to the government, the king was asked to call Morocco's King Mohammed VI shortly after the crisis erupted but declined. Unlike Juan Carlos I, who had a close personal bond with Morocco's late King Hassan II and often mediated Spanish-Moroccan disputes, Felipe VI has no similarly close relationship with the current Moroccan monarch.

Crisis still unresolved

While officials had earlier said nearly all of the roughly 72,000 migrants who entered Ceuta a month ago had returned to Morocco, Sánchez said Monday that about 5,000 remain. Clashes have broken out in the city over the past week, with several migrants arrested for attacking military personnel, and police intervening after local residents set fire to improvised shelters on a beach.

Sánchez expressed solidarity with Ceuta's residents and voiced confidence normality would return soon, comparing the situation to prior migrant surges into the Canary Islands in 2020 and 2021. He said around 1,200 unaccompanied minors would be relocated to shelters on the Spanish mainland in coming weeks, while most other migrants face deportation since they entered for economic rather than asylum reasons.

The prime minister avoided blaming Morocco directly, instead pointing to human-smuggling networks and online disinformation campaigns he attributed to Russia, Israel and a far-right international group. He also pushed back on claims his government ignored intelligence warnings, acknowledging services had flagged rising illegal crossings beforehand but said none predicted the scale of the surge.