Thousands of Spanish and Moroccan security officers reinforced Ceuta’s borders on Friday as online messages spread calling for a new mass incursion into the exclave in North Africa.

Following last month’s unprecedented arrival of 72,000 migrants into the Spanish city, viral social media posts proposed a similar surge be staged on Saturday, Aug. 15 — a national holiday in Spain. Authorities in Madrid and Rabat have been tracking the online chatter and coordinating a common response.

Moroccan Interior Ministry Spokesperson Rachid El Khalfi on Wednesday confirmed the country was “taking all necessary measures to counter any attempt at illegal crossing,” and local journalists reported a significant buildup of troops around the border town of Fnideq on Friday.

Spanish Interior Minister Fernando Grande-Marlaska traveled to Ceuta on Thursday to inspect border infrastructure and a new sea barrier designed to keep people from swimming into the city. The exclave’s security personnel has also been reinforced with an additional 300 police officers and 2,000 soldiers.

“We do this to dissuade anyone who aspires to enter Ceuta and Melilla irregularly,” said Grande-Marlaska. “None of them will remain in Ceuta, none of them will make it to the Iberian Peninsula, none of them will be given legal status.”

The rumored mass crossing has been cited by critics of Spain’s migration policies.

Austria’s conservative Europe, Integration and Family Minister Claudia Bauer, last week mentioned the rumored Aug. 15 surge in a written statement, demanding Madrid “immediately and significantly reinforce border protection in its African enclaves and ensure that this time it will hold.”

Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni’s government also cited the possibility of a mid-August mass arrival last week while justifying its decision to maintain border checks on travelers from Spain.

BRUSSELS — Geopolitical crises and natural disasters have an annoying habit of rocking Europe in the middle of summer, when the bloc’s political leaders are off soaking up the sun or unplugging in some bucolic retreat.

While the continent’s governments have proved remarkably adept at functioning with their leaders on holiday, in a crisis, being seen to be present can matter almost as much as actually being there. 

“Emotions play an important role in crisis communication,” said Olga Eisele, a crisis-communications researcher at the University of Amsterdam. “People are likely insecure, anxious, maybe furious or depressed about having lost things or even people, and want these emotions to be heard by those in charge.”

“Physical presence can signal much more effectively that these emotions are taken seriously and are heard,” she added.

Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez was just hours away from kicking off his weeks-long summer break when 72,000 migrants surged into the Spanish exclave of Ceuta on July 30. The Socialist leader duly postponed his plans and traveled to the North African coastal city, where he delivered a televised address pushing back against criticism from other EU leaders. 

But as soon as the emergency was deemed to be under control, Sánchez resumed his scheduled vacation at a state-owned villa on the island of Lanzarote.

His decision to take time off, even as the political aftershocks continued to roil the bloc, drew criticism from opposition politicians like Elías Bendodo, deputy secretary of the center-right People’s Party, who this week accused the prime minister of “unprecedented selfishness” for taking time off while the situation in Ceuta is “far from normal.”

“Sánchez insults the Spanish people by remaining on his beach vacation,” he added.

The Spanish government rejected the criticism, noting the prime minister is not only reachable but actively participating in remote meetings, and insisted the state remains fully operational even when its top leaders are away.

The perils of taking time off

Sánchez isn’t the only EU leader reluctant to let the Ceuta crisis spoil their August break.

At a moment when passport-free travel has been suspended between Spain and Italy, and its prime ministers are openly criticizing each others’ policies, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen appears to have embraced the quieter side of summer in an undisclosed rural location.

With the migration row still ongoing this week, von der Leyen posted a video on Instagram — soliciting names for two chicks hatched by her hen, Chickeletta.

Despite the light-hearted post, a Commission spokesperson told POLITICO that von der Leyen continues to track developments across the bloc and “remains in constant contact with her team in Brussels and her College.”

“While family time is important, she always follows all critical matters closely, remains fully engaged, and intervenes directly whenever needed,” the spokesperson added, insisting the Commission president had closely followed the developments in Ceuta and was in “daily contact” with the three commissioners involved in directly addressing the crisis.

The spokesperson also stressed that the Commission remains “fully operational” throughout the summer, with “duty commissioners” appointed to ensure a member of the College is available during the periods when Brussels becomes a ghost town.

Similarly, some national governments like Finland’s publicly announce when ministers are on summer holidays and which of their deputies are handling their portfolios.

“What matters from a crisis-management perspective is that the responsible authorities can take decisions quickly, mobilise the necessary resources and coordinate the response,” said a separate Commission spokesperson.

But even when mechanisms are in place to ensure governments have the ability to manage dramatic situations, officials on holiday risk looking callous or indifferent if they continue to holiday during a crisis.

In 2022, North Rhine-Westphalia Environment Minister Ursula Heinen-Esser was forced to step down after it was revealed that she had resumed a holiday break to Mallorca days after devastating floods killed over 180 people in western Germany the year before. Germany’s federal Family Minister Anne Spiegel also resigned in the face of backlash for similarly taking a four-week holiday in France in the aftermath of the catastrophe.

Evangelina Petridou, a crisis management expert and political science professor at Mid Sweden University, said a number of factors shape the intensity of backlash to a leader’s absence during a crisis. “Whether the opposition weaponizes the event, whether it is a majority or minority government and whether there is an institution in place to handle the crisis that can take the heat away from the individual minister or public official,” can all have an effect.

Another factor is the time of year, said Eisele, the crisis-communications researcher at the University of Amsterdam.

“If leaders are on holiday, then it is usually also a time when not much else is happening — in Germany we call that the Sommerloch,” Eisele said, explaining that the absence of hard news can turn an otherwise routine absence into a political drama. 

She added that while a public official’s physical presence is preferable, “reassurance can also come remotely” if the public is ultimately convinced the situation is being handled competently.

Should I stay or should I go?

Senior British military officials accused then-U.K. Prime Minister Boris Johnson of “dereliction of duty” for his decision to head off on a holiday in Somerset as Taliban forces moved to take Kabul in August 2021. His foreign secretary, Dominic Raab, faced even greater criticism for remaining on vacation in Crete until after the Afghan capital fell, at a moment when British forces were frantically trying to evacuate civilians.

Although he was also on holiday when the Taliban took Kabul, French President Emmanuel Macron did not face similar censure. From the Fort de Brégançon, the coastal retreat traditionally used by France’s head of state, he delivered a televised address to the nation that reinforced the perception that his government was taking care of the situation and doing everything it could to bring citizens home.

Fear of backlash leads many leaders to cancel holidays amid crisis situations. Keir Starmer called off a family vacation in August 2024 as far-right riots spread across England, and Portugal’s Prime Minister Luís Montenegro similarly declined to take time off as wildfires tore across the country last year.

But data suggests Europeans don’t necessarily expect their leaders to sacrifice their time off at the first sign of trouble.

A July 2025 Ipsos poll found that 46 percent of Britons thought it was important that the prime minister take a holiday, while 44 percent believed the head of government should take about as much time off as the average worker. More than three-quarters — 78 percent — said it was important that the prime minister be easily contactable while away.

Politicians on the continent may also face less pressure to sacrifice their holidays, given a working culture in which time off is widely regarded as a right. International Labor Organization data shows Europeans are entitled to more paid annual leave than workers in any other part of the world, and polling like Eurofound’s annual European Working Conditions Survey shows the bloc’s citizens strongly value work-life balance.

For that reason, the University of Amsterdam’s Eisele said backlash over holiday absences is usually related to larger image issues.

“If the leader has strong support, then not showing up immediately might be forgiven,” she said. But if the official in question is already having popularity problems, “crises are usually a prime situation to question the competence of a political leader.”

Tourists traveling between Spain and Italy are caught in the middle of an escalating ideological feud over European border security involving Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni and Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez.

Madrid on Saturday restored border controls on ships and flights arriving in Spain from Italian ports and airports, suspending passport-free travel between the two countries. Spain said the move was necessary to protect its citizens from “the persistent irregular migration pressure suffered by the transalpine country.”

The move was an unmistakable retaliation for the checks that Italy has imposed on travelers arriving from Spain since Aug. 1. Rome enacted those measures in response to the mass arrival of people in the Spanish exclave of Ceuta, citing fears that the unauthorized migrants could cross the Strait of Gibraltar and take advantage of the passport-free Schengen area to travel onward to Italy and elsewhere in the EU.

Madrid has pushed back forcefully against that narrative, and noted that the migrants could not leave the North African territory because they lack valid IDs required to travel on ferries to mainland Europe.

Spanish authorities and the European Commission this week confirmed that none of the 72,000 people who surged into Ceuta have crossed the Strait of Gibraltar. During a meeting of EU interior ministers on Tuesday, Italian Interior Minister Matteo Piantedosi publicly praised Spain for its handling of the situation and expressed Rome’s “sincere solidarity” with Madrid.

Yet despite requests from Madrid, the Italian government has declined to end border checks even after it became clear that there was no risk of the Ceuta crisis spilling into the rest of Europe. Rome’s inaction prompted Spain to issue a statement on Friday threatening to adopt “proportional measures” if Rome did not change course by Aug. 9.

After Meloni’s office responded by declaring “Italy does not accept ultimatums or demands from abroad regarding national security and border control,” Madrid moved to reintroduce its own controls.

Magnus Brunner, the European commissioner for internal affairs and migration, sought to mediate in the dispute.

“I was in contact with both the Spanish and Italian Interior Ministers today. Both confirmed that the internal border controls are temporary,” Brunner said in a post on X. “I stressed the progress we’ve made on tackling illegal migration and that trust between Member States is our most valuable currency.”

“Spanish authorities assured us the events in Ceuta will have no lasting effect on the Schengen area. That is why there are signals from Italy that controls could be lifted soon,” the Austrian commissioner added.

A battle fought in passport queues

The tit-for-tat measures are emblematic of Meloni and Sánchez’s broader feud over migration policies.

Italy’s right-wing premier built her political brand as an opponent of migration and has led a charge to get the EU to adopt tougher border controls. Her Socialist counterpart in Madrid has, meanwhile, taken a diametrically opposed approach, arguing that the bloc needs to take in more foreign workers to remain economically competitive and stave off a demographic collapse.

Meloni slammed Madrid after it rolled out a scheme to grant legal status to more than 1 million unauthorized migrants earlier this year, and called for a debate on the consequences of the measure during a meeting of European leaders last month.

As the Ceuta crisis unfolded, the Italian premier spearheaded the drafting of a letter to European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and European Council President António Costa in which 22 EU leaders argued Madrid’s migration policies had undermined the security of the bloc’s external borders.

“We have a duty to effectively deter and relentlessly combat illegal migration, by coordinating our action, strengthening our external borders and addressing all policies that can serve as pull factors, such as the regularization of [a] very large number of irregular migrants,” the leaders wrote.

Madrid has forcefully rejected Italy’s accusations and pointed out that none of the migrants who entered Ceuta could have benefited from the legal status scheme, which is subject to specific qualifying conditions. Moreover, Spanish officials have bristled at Rome’s suggestion that they are mismanaging the bloc’s external borders, pointing to data showing Italy is doing a far worse job of handling unauthorized migrants.

“Italy is the EU member state that has recorded the highest number of irregular crossings in recent years, with figures that have at times been twice those of Spain,” a Spanish government spokesperson said on Friday.

By reintroducing border controls, Italy and Spain have underscored the fragility of the Schengen area, which has existed since 1995 and now extends to 29 European countries.

Under the current rules, any member country is allowed to reintroduce checks for an initial period of up to six months to address security threats. The measures can be renewed for six-month periods for up to two years, and, in exceptional circumstances, up to three years.

Few expect the spat between Rome and Madrid to endure for that long, but in the meantime those traveling between the two countries will have to endure the resulting inconvenience.

Throughout the week, passengers on flights departing from Spanish airports have complained about the scrutiny they have faced upon arrival in Italy, with travelers reporting significant delays as Italian carabinieri checked their IDs. On Saturday, passengers on Italian flights arriving in Spain were subjected to similar controls, with National Police holding travelers who could not provide official identification.

Some 3.2 million Spaniards traveled to Italy in 2024, and 5.4 million Italians visited Spain. The renewed controls could push travelers to reconsider trips between the two countries — and make other European destinations the inadvertent beneficiaries of an ideological battle playing out in passport queues.

This article has been updated with additional reporting by Gabriel Gavin.

Spain warned Italy on Friday it will take “proportional measures” if Rome does not end border controls on travelers from Spain by Aug. 9, escalating the dispute triggered by last week’s mass arrival of unauthorized migrants in the Spanish exclave of Ceuta.

Italy reintroduced border controls with Spain on Aug. 1, temporarily suspending the Schengen Agreement allowing passport-free travel across 29 European countries — a measure Italian Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani called a “necessary choice to safeguard the security of our citizens and defend European borders.”

“The measure adopted by the Italian government is unjust, contrary to the interests of the EU and discriminatory toward the Spanish population,” the Spanish government wrote in a statement blasting Rome for its “unprecedented” decision.

In addition to slamming Rome for imposing border controls that inconvenienced thousands of passengers by creating legal uncertainty in the middle of the summer holiday season, Madrid also took Italy to task for criticizing Spain’s handling of migrants while failing to protect its own borders.

Even though “Italy is the EU member state that has recorded the highest number of irregular crossings in recent years, with figures that have at times been twice those of Spain … Spain has never introduced controls on travelers from Italy,” the Spanish government said.

Madrid has now given the Italian government two days to either lift the border controls or face reciprocal measures that aim to “protect the interests and dignity” of Spanish citizens.

“Governments should work to promote understanding between countries and serve the general interests of their populations, rather than create divisions and pointless conflicts driven by domestic electoral considerations,” the statement said.

“We trust that Europeanism, common sense and good faith will prevail.”

The United States on Thursday moved to allay fears that it was questioning Spain’s sovereignty over Ceuta and Melilla, but criticized Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez’s government for its “refusal” to defend the North African exclaves from a “migrant invasion.”

Tens of thousands of migrants poured into Ceuta last week from Morocco in a surge that heightened Spanish fears about the vulnerability of its North African cities to hybrid attack.

Amid the crisis, Spanish politicians and media raised concerns about the warming relationship between Morocco — which claims Ceuta and Melilla — and the U.S. President Donald Trump, who was infuriated by Socialist Sánchez’s refusal to back the war in Iran.

Many in Madrid expressed fears Washington could decline to rein in Rabat, and pointed to a recent U.S. Congress report that described Ceuta and Melilla as being in “Moroccan territory” and was supportive of negotiations on the “future status” of the cities. But U.S. State Department Spokesperson Tommy Pigott insisted that there has been no change in U.S. policy on the exclaves.

“The United States unequivocally supports Spain’s sovereignty over Ceuta and Melilla,” he told POLITICO.

The State Department noted that the congressional report did not represent U.S. law.

Pigott said that allegations suggesting Washington was questioning Spain’s continued control of the cities had been “pushed by nefarious actors who wish to distract from the Spanish government’s shameful refusal to defend its people from the migrant invasion of its territory in Ceuta.”

He also argued the Spanish government was solely to blame for the crisis in the exclave, into which 72,000 unauthorized migrants surged last week.

“The invasion of tens of thousands of migrants into Ceuta is a direct consequence of the Spanish government’s refusal to defend their sovereignty, secure their borders, and protect their people,” he said.

The crisis in Ceuta initially prompted widespread criticism from EU leaders such as Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni and Finnish Interior Minister Mari Rantanen, who last week attacked Spain for having “completely failed to protect the Schengen Area’s external border from infiltration.”

Ceuta is not in the Schengen area, and is separated from mainland Spain by the Strait of Gibraltar.

While the EU member countries have since reversed course and praised Madrid for its handling of the situation, Pigott on Thursday called on Spain to “take all necessary actions to remove illegal migrants and regain control over its borders.”

“Unrestricted mass migration into Ceuta endangers the Spanish people and threatens the security of Europe,” he said. “The State Department stands with the Spanish people and all Europeans in defense of their sovereignty and welcomes all efforts to repel the invasion, remove illegal migrants from European territory, and secure Europe’s borders.” 

Anger over Rabat’s suspected role in the surge of 72,000 migrants into Ceuta has brought the Spanish far left and far right together in opposing Morocco as co-hosts of the 2030 World Cup alongside Spain and Portugal. 

Though ideologically opposed, the far-left Sumar party and far-right Vox are both officially calling for a major revision to hosting plans for the global sporting event.

Morocco cannot be allowed to “obtain the prestige, economic benefits, and international legitimacy of hosting a World Cup” while doubts remain about Rabat’s role in last week’s crisis, argued Sumar — which is part of Prime Minister Pedro Sa´nchez’s coalition government — in a proposal submitted to the Spanish parliament on Wednesday.

Less than 24 hours later, Vox filed a nearly identical motion questioning the wisdom of hosting the World Cup alongside a country that “is not a loyal partner, neither for organizing a sporting event of this magnitude nor for any neighborly matter.”

“The very serious events that took place in Ceuta on July 30 and 31 have completely shattered the foundations of trust and cooperation on which a shared candidacy necessarily rests,” asserted Vox’s proposal, stating that co-hosting with Morocco would constitute “a deliberate humiliation that Spain must vehemently oppose.”

Both proposals are non-binding and do not oblige Madrid to take action. However, the legislative initiatives show that lawmakers from across the political spectrum are uniting in their resentment of Rabat’s perceived role in the crisis, which many in Madrid view as an example of Morocco using migrants to exert political pressure on its neighbor.

Spain’s Socialist-led government has avoided blaming Morocco, looking to find a speedy resolution to the crisis.

In addition to Sumar and Vox, Spain’s far-left Podemos party and Portugal’s environmentalist Livre party have also called for the Iberian neighbors to host the next World Cup without Morocco.

In 2023, world football’s governing body FIFA awarded the 2030 tournament to Spain, Portugal and Morocco, with games to be held in stadiums such as Madrid’s Santiago Bernabéu Stadium, Lisbon’s Estádio da Luz, and a new custom-built facility in Casablanca that Moroccan authorities say will be the largest football stadium in the world.

The future host cities also made headlines on Wednesday, as controversial FIFA President Gianni Infantino allegedly offered Moroccan officials the right to host the tournament’s final match in exchange for a declaration of support from the country’s football federation, according to The Times newspaper. FIFA denied the report, insisting the football chief had made no such commitment.

This article has been updated.

The surge of migrants into the Spanish exclaves of Ceuta and Melilla last week has thrown Madrid onto the defensive over the status of its two autonomous cities in northern Africa — and Morocco’s long-standing claim to them.

The ease with which tens of thousands of migrants penetrated the border has ramped up a sense of vulnerability to hybrid attack. And that alarm has only been amplified by a fear that traditional NATO allies in the U.S. and the EU are no longer fully dependable because of their political feuds with Socialist Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez.

Buoyed by an increasingly warm relationship with U.S. President Donald Trump, Rabat is seizing the moment and doubling down on its claims to Ceuta and Melilla, which it sees as occupied territory, in Morocco’s state-aligned press.

But, more alarmingly for Madrid, that argument is no longer coming exclusively from Rabat. Questions over Spain’s centuries-old control of the fortress cities have also been raised in a U.S. Congress report, and by Israel’s ambassador to the U.N.

It is a sign of the level of concern in Madrid that the government is now having to make public declarations on a point of international law that — only a week ago — it would have thought was self evident.

“Ceuta and Melilla are not to be touched,” Defense Minister Margarita Robles said during a press conference on Monday. “Everyone must be very clear that Spanish territorial integrity and sovereignty are not up for debate.”

The government’s rejection of Morocco’s claims has done little to reduce worries in Spain over what would happen if Rabat dials up the pressure. This week, national newspapers have been filled with columns expressing fears of a “Green March 2.0” — pointing out the parallels with Morocco’s use of a mass popular mobilization to take over the province of Spanish Sahara in 1975.

José Manuel García-Margallo, who served as Spain’s foreign minister between 2011 and 2014 and is a member of the center-right People’s Party, said it was vital for Spain to show its control over the cities is not negotiable.

“Do you think the British would have allowed 60,000 Spaniards to enter Gibraltar?” he asked. “I’d encourage this government to be a little bit more British.”

“We should aim to be friends with Morocco,” he added. “But it’s important to ensure that even your friends understand that there are red lines that simply cannot be crossed.”

Imperial legacies

Ceuta and Melilla are among the few remaining vestiges of the vast Spanish Empire. They have been under Madrid’s rule since 1668 and 1497, respectively, and are fully-integrated parts of Spain — and the European Union.

But since gaining independence from France in 1956, Morocco has consistently claimed sovereignty over both settlements, which it characterizes as “colonies” that are “occupied” by Spain. And those territorial aspirations have been underscored in the country’s largely state-aligned press following last week’s events.

“The central question is no longer whether these cities will be reintegrated into their natural environment, Morocco, but how long it will take and how many human tragedies will have to be endured in the meantime,” wrote Le360, a publication considered close to the Moroccan royal household.

Morocco’s claims on Ceuta and Melilla have lately been boosted by Rabat’s international allies — among them, a prominent Republican politician in the U.S.

In an interview with Spanish newspaper El Español in April, U.S. Congressman Mario Díaz-Balart, who serves on the powerful Committee on Appropriations, stated “Ceuta and Melilla are in Moroccan territory” and questioned whether the autonomous cities “are part of Spain or should be part of Morocco.”

He also noted that while Spanish Prime Minister Sánchez was “jeopardizing” the alliance between the U.S. and Spain by opposing the war in Iran, Rabat had been Washington’s steadfast ally.

Weeks later, as U.S. lawmakers prepared an appropriations bill that included a proposal to allocate $40 million to Morocco for defense and security expenditures, Díaz-Balart submitted a congressional report noting “the Spanish-administered cities of Ceuta and Melilla are located in Moroccan territory and remain the subject of Morocco’s longstanding claim.”

The document additionally expressed support for “diplomatic engagement” on “the future status” of the autonomous cities.

Speaking to POLITICO, Díaz-Balart denied the congressional report had been intended to signal a major shift on Ceuta and Melilla.

“It’s been an issue of dispute for some time. Morocco has been a strong ally of the United States — it was the first country to recognize the United States. And we’ve had good ties with Spain over the years. All we were asking is for Secretary [of State Marco] Rubio to keep an eye on this and be sure that both sides are talking about this issue,” he said.

But the congressman’s willingness to give a platform to Rabat’s claims on Ceuta and Melilla reflects how close Morocco and the United States have become since 2020. That year, Trump took the landmark step of recognizing Rabat’s claim to the disputed territory of Western Sahara in exchange for the normalization of relations between Morocco and Israel. 

Last week, Trump reaffirmed that recognition in a statement issued by the U.S. Embassy in Rabat at the same moment as the migrants surged into Ceuta. Rabat showed its pleasure with this decision by announcing that it had renamed a major highway after the president.

Adding to Spain’s concerns about its territories in North Africa, Israeli Ambassador to the United Nations Danny Danon reacted to the images of last week’s migrant influx by hitting back against Madrid’s criticism of the war in Gaza and challenging Spain’s presence in Ceuta and Melilla.

“Maybe before it continues lecturing us, it’s time it explained to the world why it still maintains colonial enclaves in Africa,” he wrote on X.

Israel’s head of mission in Madrid, Dana Erlich, later clarified that Danon’s comments did not represent an official position.

García-Margallo said the problems with Díaz-Balart and Danon were a consequence of Sánchez’s foreign policy.

“I’m also not surprised that those claims are being amplified in other parts of the globe … The current government’s relations with the Trump administration and with the government of Israel have deteriorated tremendously in recent times,” he said. “When you make a point of showing you’re against specific countries, consequences are to be expected.”

The specter of the ‘Green March’

For Spaniards, the idea that Morocco could engineer a situation to annex territory is far from theoretical speculation. Many still remember Morocco’s 1975 “Green March,” an operation that forced the handover of Spanish Sahara.

“Rabat deployed tens of thousands of civilians to overwhelm border posts in Spanish Sahara in 1975 as dictator Francisco Franco lay dying,” said José Luis Rodríguez Jiménez, history professor at Madrid’s Rey Juan Carlos University and author of a book on the fall of Spanish Sahara.

“At the time, it wasn’t clear who was running — or would run — Spain, and Morocco took advantage of the weakness of the Spanish state to take over the province,” he said.

Half a century later, he said, Morocco’s King Mohammed VI had detected similar weakness in Sánchez, whose minority government is unable to pass major legislation and whose inner circle is caught in web of embarrassing corruption scandals.

As former Foreign Minister García-Margallo put it: “I don’t have the slightest doubt that the current government’s weakness has contributed to this crisis.”

Historian Rodríguez Jiménez said Rabat had sporadically tested Madrid’s willingness to defend its territories in northern Africa.

In 2002, a squad of Moroccan marines launched an “invasion” of Perejil Island, an uninhabited Spanish islet off the coast of Ceuta, sparking a week-long crisis that only concluded when Spanish special forces were deployed to evict them.

And in a strikingly similar incident to last week’s massive influx of migrants into Ceuta, in 2021 some 8,000 people surged into the autonomous city after Morocco abruptly withdrew its gendarmes from the border.

Rodríguez Jiménez argued Sánchez had blundered by responding to that incident by reversing Spain’s historic support of Western Sahara’s self-determination and accepting Morocco’s bid to control the disputed territory.

“The government opted to placate Rabat, failing to understand that this was seen as a sign of weakness in Morocco, a country which is not our friend, and which has every interest in exploiting our vulnerabilities,” he said.

“What happened last week was a dress rehearsal for an eventual invasion,” he added. “And Rabat has noted Madrid’s complete inability to repulse that attack.”

Spanishness ‘beyond all doubt’

Spanish officials reject the accusation that the Ceuta crisis has made Madrid look weak, with Interior Minister Fernando Grande-Marlaska on Tuesday insisting the crisis showed the country to be a “strong” and respected regional player.

That ability to project strength to Rabat is increasingly important as NATO’s commitment to defending Ceuta and Melilla appears less certain than it once did. Back in 2022, then-Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg specifically listed the North African cities as falling under the alliance’s aegis.

But things have changed since then. Trump has cast doubt on NATO’s commitment to common defense and his relationship with Spain, which he has repeatedly lambasted for its lackluster defense spending and failure to support the Iran war, is particularly rocky.

When asked about NATO’s position now, an official said: “We don’t speculate on hypothetical scenarios,” while adding the alliance was “ready and well-postured to protect and defend all allies.”

García-Margallo said that NATO’s common defense commitment is only as strong as “our allies’ willingness to support us … the interpretation of the terms of any treaty is ultimately a political decision.”

POLITICO asked the Spanish foreign ministry what measures the government had taken to address concerns about the international conversation over Ceuta and Melilla, especially in relation to Díaz-Balart’s congressional report.

The ministry did not answer the questions directly, but hit back at any assertion that the cities’ sovereignty could be negotiable.

“The Spanishness of Ceuta and Melilla is beyond all doubt and is recognized as such by international law and the entire world,” a spokesperson said.

Eric Bazail-Eimil contributed reporting from Washington. Victor Jack contributed reporting from Brussels.

BRUSSELS — EU interior ministers sought to draw a line under five days of bitter recriminations over the arrival of 72,000 migrants in Ceuta, closing ranks behind Spain and accusing smugglers and foreign actors of exploiting the crisis to divide the bloc.

The show of solidarity marked a sharp shift after EU leaders publicly blamed Madrid’s migration policies for creating a crisis they warned could spill across Europe, prompting Italy to suspend air and sea links with Spain.

Following a three-hour emergency meeting in Brussels on Tuesday, ministers praised Spain’s response, stressed that the passport-free Schengen zone had never been at risk and called for tighter coordination among capitals during future migration emergencies.

The meeting followed days of unusually public anger at Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez. In a letter signed by 22 EU leaders, governments demanded tougher action to stop irregular arrivals, while Italy suspended air and sea transit with Spain over fears that migrants could move onward through the Schengen area. Sánchez hit back by urging his counterparts to show “understanding” rather than turn Spain into a scapegoat for a crisis on the EU’s external border.

By Tuesday, ministers were keen to close ranks. The EU’s Migration Commissioner Magnus Brunner said the influx had been “instrumentalized” by smugglers and human traffickers, while French Interior Minister Laurent Nuñez said ministers had condemned efforts to use images of the crossings to divide the bloc.

“The divisions that we have heard over the weekend were not welcome and they were exploited by foreign countries,” Nuñez told reporters. “But what I heard this morning reassured me.”

EU countries that had publicly called out Spain over its migration policies took a more conciliatory tone in the meeting, apparently appeased by the speed and effectiveness of Madrid’s response to the crisis, three EU diplomats with knowledge of the meeting said. They were granted anonymity to discuss the confidential talks.

Matteo Piantedosi, Italy’s interior minister, praised Spain’s efforts to control the unrest, the diplomats said. Rome clashed with Madrid on Friday, calling for Spain to be kicked out of the Schengen zone.

Another diplomat referred to the past 24 hours of diplomacy as EU “couples counseling.”

Brunner declined to speculate about whether Morocco had played a role in the influx. The question is sensitive because Spain relies heavily on Rabat to police departures toward Ceuta, and the episode revived memories of 2021, when thousands entered the exclave after Moroccan forces relaxed controls during a diplomatic dispute with Madrid.

Spanish Interior Minister Fernando Grande-Marlaska instead praised Morocco’s cooperation in bringing the latest crisis under control and described Tuesday’s meeting as “entirely constructive.”

He said 70,000 of the 72,000 people who entered Ceuta had since returned to Morocco and insisted the Schengen area had never been at risk. Ceuta has special arrangements requiring travelers to show documentation before continuing to mainland Europe.

Grande-Marlaska also called Italy’s transport restrictions unjustified and said he expected them to be lifted. He rejected suggestions that the crisis had made Spain look weak.

“Spain has come out looking like a strong, reliable partner,” he said. “This isn’t a matter that depends on testosterone.”

Ministers also called for better early-warning systems, closer coordination between capitals and stronger cooperation with non-EU countries to prevent departures.

Several pressed for faster work on so-called return hubs outside the bloc. Greece proposed an EU mechanism allowing asylum procedures to be suspended and migrants returned immediately in extreme circumstances, according to a Greek government official.

“The EU’s external borders are our shared responsibility, and migration requires a united European response,” said Ireland’s Justice Minister Jim O’Callaghan, who chaired the meeting.

The Commission is expected to consider further measures in September after examining what caused the influx and whether social media helped organize or amplify it. Strengthening the role of the EU border agency Frontex is among the options under discussion.

Max Griera and Nektaria Stamouli contributed to this report. This article has been updated.

BRUSSELS — European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen sought to smooth over tensions with Spain after Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez accused many of his fellow EU leaders of exploiting the migration crisis in Ceuta to attack his government.

In a letter sent to Sánchez on Monday, von der Leyen praised Spain’s handling of the influx of migrants from Morocco into its North African exclave. Her response came after Sánchez wrote to her over the weekend, condemning leaders who “have chosen to attack Spain and to call for its temporary exclusion from the Schengen Area.”

Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni on Thursday was the first to propose Spain be suspended from the 29-country Schengen zone in which internal border controls have largely been abolished. Italy and France both imposed restrictions on free movement last week.

Around 50,000 people crossed into Ceuta from Morocco last week, with dozens dying in the attempt. Almost all those who entered have since returned to Morocco.

Von der Leyen on Monday praised the “swift handling” of returns by Spanish and Moroccan authorities, saying they had “successfully prevent[ed] illegal movement onwards to mainland Spain and Europe.”

The exchange followed a joint letter from 22 EU leaders at the weekend calling for an emergency meeting of interior ministers and a tougher, coordinated response to the crisis. That meeting will take place on Tuesday, with EU ambassadors discussing the situation on Monday afternoon.

The intervention by EU leaders opened a new political fight over Spain’s migration policy, including Madrid’s plan to regularize more than 1 million undocumented migrants. Some governments argued that the measure created a “pull factor” by encouraging people to believe that irregular entry could eventually lead to legal residency.

Sánchez rejected that criticism in his letter, accusing some EU countries of responding in a “selfish,” “polarizing” and unlawful manner. He argued that Spain needed European solidarity rather than blame after the deaths and the strain placed on Ceuta’s authorities. The Spanish government refused to comment for this article.

Von der Leyen’s letter offered that solidarity while making clear that the crisis would also have to prompt stronger EU action.

“Migration is a European challenge that requires a European response,” she wrote. “And in this, solidarity is fundamental.” The Commission, she said, had offered Spain financial and operational support, with Frontex, Europol and the EU asylum agency ready to assist.

Migration Commissioner Magnus Brunner on Friday told Spanish Interior Minister Fernando Grande-Marlaska that the bloc was willing to “increase support for Spain” to “control the situation,” and to deploy members of Frontex, the EU agency that supports member countries in monitoring and managing the EU’s external borders, to Ceuta. 

Frontex currently has staff deployed in Ceuta, as well as on the Canary Islands and parts of the Andalusian coastline.

Madrid has repeatedly declined to request that the agency’s presence in Spain be increased, insisting that border control falls under the jurisdiction of national authorities. Following a surge in migrant arrivals to Ceuta in 2021, and an increase in arrivals to the Canary Islands in 2024, Spain’s interior ministry rejected calls to ask for Frontex’s support, insisting it had sufficient resources to manage the situation.

‘We must do more’

Von der Leyen said the incident had exposed weaknesses in the bloc’s border management. “It is clear that we must do more to further strengthen our borders at critical points,” the Commission president wrote, including through “vigilant monitoring and the use of physical barriers where needed.”

She outlined five priorities: preventing irregular migration through stronger cooperation with partner countries, reinforcing the EU’s external borders, establishing early-warning systems, dismantling smuggling networks, and improving returns.

Morocco, she said, remained an “important strategic partner” in combating migrant smuggling and irregular migration. The EU should work with Rabat and Madrid to improve early-warning systems around Ceuta and Melilla, as well as technical and financial support for Morocco, she said.

Von der Leyen also endorsed the emergency meeting of the EU’s justice and home affairs ministers on Tuesday, describing it as a first step toward a collective response. The ministers should agree on a way forward before EU leaders assess the measures at their next European Council meeting, she said.

“Spain and its people can count on the enduring support of the Commission,” von der Leyen concluded.

Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez described last week’s sudden influx of 50,000 migrants into the exclave of Ceuta in North Africa as an “attack,” but has been careful to accuse people smugglers rather than the Moroccan authorities of orchestrating it.

That diplomatic position from Madrid is coming under pressure, however, from Spanish politicians from both the right and left, who argue that Rabat has questions to answer about the cross-border surge, in which 88 people died.

From the moment massive numbers of people began to enter the city last Thursday, Spanish Civil Guard forces reported that Moroccan gendarmes who normally assist in securing the border had inexplicably left their posts.

That led many to suspect that such a large flow of people could hardly be masterminded without the acquiescence of Morocco, which claims the Spanish cities of Ceuta and Melilla as occupied territories.

Diplomatic speculation has also centered on whether Rabat could be flexing its muscles over Spain’s recent rapprochement with Algeria, which supports self-determination in Western Sahara — a territory claimed by Morocco.

“Let’s call things by their name: Morocco is using human beings to attack our sovereignty,” said Eduardo Rubiño, lawmaker with the Sánchez-allied, left-wing Más Madrid party.

Ceuta Mayor Juan Jesús Vivas from the conservative People’s Party on Monday said the situation could not be characterized as “a migration crisis” because “people have the perception that this, if not orchestrated, was encouraged or permitted” by Moroccan authorities.

Vivas conceded that Madrid had to do its utmost to continue working with Rabat, but also told Spanish newspaper El País that “Morocco has shown us that it is not reliable.”

Since the outset of the crisis, Spain’s Socialist-led government has prioritized smooth relations with Morocco, which will prove critical to resolving the crisis, rather than pinning the blame on Rabat.

A spokesperson for Spain’s foreign ministry insisted “the relationship with Morocco is excellent, and coordination on migration and other issues remains very strong.”

While visiting Ceuta on Friday, Sánchez characterized the crisis as “an attack, a violation of Spain’s territorial integrity,” but made no attempt to link Rabat to the operation, which he attributed to “mafias that traffic in human beings.”

Instead, he described Morocco as “an ally” and thanked Rabat for its help in repatriating the people who had entered the exclave without authorization.

Political liability

Moroccan authorities avoided addressing the Ceuta crisis until late on Sunday evening, when Interior Ministry Spokesperson Rachid El Khalfi delivered a statement blaming the sudden influx of migrants on social media posts “which aimed to create the illusion of easy access to the European space without legal consequences.”

“The Kingdom of Morocco will continue to be, as it has always been with its partners, a reliable and responsible partner, firmly committed to strengthening international cooperation and coordination in the fight against irregular migration and human trafficking,” El Khalfi said.

Spanish opposition leader Alberto Núñez Feijóo, who heads the center-right People’s Party, this weekend demanded a clarification of “what failed in co-operation with Morocco” and said that Spain had a right to demand that Rabat deliver on its obligations on border security.

He said he wished Spain to “have a relationship of good neighborliness, cooperation, and mutual respect with Morocco,” but that “there are things that shouldn’t be done, and if they are, they must be met with a strong response.”

Still, the People’s Party has focused its broader political strategy on the Sánchez government’s failure to anticipate the sudden influx of migrants, rather than focusing on Morocco.

Spanish Interior Minister Fernando Grande-Marlaska this weekend claimed the country’s National Intelligence Center, which handles both foreign and domestic intelligence and counterintelligence under the Ministry of Defense, had failed to warn Madrid of any developments on the border.

But intelligence sources quoted by Spain’s Cadena Ser radio network on Monday said that in the lead-up to last week’s crisis, the interior ministry had been warned that a mass entry into Ceuta could take place at any moment. Moreover, Spanish media reported that in July the ministry’s own Office for Refugees and Asylum warned that the growing number of migrants swimming to Ceuta could soon overwhelm the exclave.

“Sánchez and his government lie — as they always do,” People’s Party spokesperson Ester Muñoz said. “The government was warned by its intelligence services and did nothing.”

Brussels brawl

Madrid’s inability to anticipate the crisis will be under scrutiny at an emergency meeting of the EU’s ambassadors on Monday, and at a separate extraordinary summit of the bloc’s interior ministers scheduled for Tuesday.

Over the past five days, a plethora of EU leaders and far-right parties have slammed Spain for losing control of one of the bloc’s external borders and effectively bringing the Ceuta crisis upon itself by moving to grant legal status to 1.2 million unauthorized migrants.

In a letter to European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, European Council President António Costa and Irish Prime Minister Micheál Martin, 22 of the bloc’s leaders on Saturday called for EU-level oversight on national policies “that can serve as pull factors.”

Ahead of Monday’s meeting of EU ambassadors, Spanish Foreign Minister José Manuel Albares pushed back against Madrid’s critics in other European capitals and said his country would “demand solidarity from all the States of the European Union.”

“Spain currently has the lowest number of irregular entries on the Mediterranean route,” Albares said during an interview on Spanish state broadcaster TVE. Rather than question Madrid’s efforts, he insisted that the EU’s role was to support and assist Spain in the defense of “the only two European and Spanish cities that share a land border with Africa.”

At the same time that he chided critical member countries for their attitude, Spain’s foreign minister praised Rabat for its help in resolving the crisis.

“From the very beginning, Morocco offered its cooperation to try to prevent this flow of people and, above all, to ensure their immediate return, as is happening,” he said. “The vast majority of those who entered are already back in Morocco, and Morocco continues to offer this cooperation so that every last person who entered Ceuta returns to Morocco.” 

Twenty-two EU leaders — including German Chancellor Friedrich Merz and Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni — on Saturday took aim at Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez’s migration policies for undermining the security of the bloc’s borders.

The increasingly isolated Sánchez hit back that his EU partners were responding in a “selfish” and “unlawful” manner to the sudden influx of some 50,000 unauthorized migrants from Morocco into the Spanish exclave of Ceuta in North Africa.

While almost all those migrants have now returned to Morocco — and none crossed into the EU mainland — the 22 leaders raised “serious concern” over the threat to the EU’s frontier, and zeroed in on Sánchez’s move to grant legal status to up to 1.2 million unauthorized migrants as a “pull factor” that fueled the crisis.

In a letter to European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, European Council President António Costa and Irish Prime Minister Micheál Martin, the 22 leaders made direct reference to the need for EU-level cooperation on policies such as Madrid’s migrant regularization scheme.

“We have a duty to effectively deter and relentlessly combat illegal migration, by coordinating our action, strengthening our external borders and addressing all policies that can serve as pull factors, such as the regularization of [a] very large number of irregular migrants,” the leaders wrote.

Madrid has pushed back against the claim that the country’s regularization scheme triggered the crisis in Ceuta, and has pointed out that none of the people who illegally entered the exclave would be eligible to benefit from the measure.

“This process is based on very specific conditions, such as proof of residency in Spain before January 1, 2026, and having resided in Spain for five consecutive months at the time of application,” said a spokesperson for the Spanish foreign ministry. Moreover, the deadline for filing applications for the scheme, which was launched in April, was in June.

But those explanations have not appeared to sway the EU leaders who signed the letter to Costa, Von der Leyen and Martin.

“We cannot allow uncontrolled mass crossings, the instrumentalisation of migration or other hybrid threats to create the perception that illegal entry into the European Union is possible. That a migrant’s illegal entry can turn into legal stay,” they went on.

In a sign of the increasing threat to the EU’s Schengen open travel area and the explosiveness of migration as a pan-European political issue, the letter’s signatories said they were ready to reinforce or reintroduce “temporary border controls” in the bloc.

In addition to Merz and Meloni, the letter was signed by the leaders of Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Greece, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, the Netherlands, Poland, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia and Sweden.

They called for a video conference of interior ministers to agree on next steps. Ireland said it would convene a meeting of the EU Justice and Home Affairs Council on Tuesday.

Rome and Copenhagen took the initiative in drafting the letter.

Sánchez slams ‘selfish’ counterparts

In his own letter to von der Leyen, Costa and Martin, Sánchez slammed his European counterparts who “have chosen to attack Spain and to call for its temporary exclusion from the Schengen Area.”

Italy’s Meloni on Thursday was the first to propose Spain be suspended from the 29-country zone where internal border controls have largely been abolished. Italy on Friday imposed restrictions on free movement from Spain to Italian ports and airports. France has also increased checks on the border with Spain because of the migration surge in Ceuta.

In his letter, seen by POLITICO, Spain’s Socialist prime minister argued that calls to have Spain kicked out of the Schengen zone are “not only contrary to European law, humanitarian law, and the principles of solidarity that bind us together,” but also “Europe’s long-term interests and to the most basic common sense.”

Sánchez defended himself from accusations that Spain was failing to protect the EU’s external borders, and cited data showing that his country had recorded half as many illegal entries as Italy between 2021 and 2026. He also stressed that it was not the first time that migrants had been weaponized against the bloc’s members, and recalled Belarus’ 2021 bid to sow chaos in the EU by facilitating migrant crossings into Poland and several Baltic countries.

Spain’s prime minister added the EU members that had backed the suspension proposal were “driven by prejudice, fake news, ignorance, or political interest.”

“In the current international context, the European Union cannot afford this kind of selfish, polarising and unlawful reaction,” he wrote.

Sánchez’s strongly worded letter underscores the growing tension between the prime minister and the plethora of EU leaders that have expressed support for Spain’s temporary exclusion from the Schengen area.

Those calling for action include right-wing politicians such as Finnish Interior Minister Mari Rantanen, a member of the nationalist Finns Party, as well as Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen, whose Social Democrats belong to the center-left Party of European Socialists.

Nicholas Vinocur, Zoya Sheftalovich and Sebastian Starcevic contributed reporting.