For the Minister of the Interior, Fernando Grande-Marlaska, nothing has changed since he appeared in the Congress of Deputies on September 21 to give explanations about the tragedy in Melilla. Today he has appeared again, after several journalistic reports have questioned the official version in the last month. With almost the entire chamber —with the exception of the PSOE— against him, he has recounted "the same facts" that he narrated in his previous appearance "because there are no others," he said, "no matter how much it annoys those who, from his bias and their preconceived truth, they would want another truth.”
Calm, with full confidence in the actions of the Civil Guard and convinced that he has no reason to resign - as reported to La Vanguardia from his environment - the Minister of the Interior has risen to the plenary rostrum. From there, she has repeated that the massive jump over the Melilla fence that has brought her back to Congress was "a violent attack on our border" in which the loss of human life and damage suffered by 55 members of the Institute were to be lamented. Armed. Some events, he has insisted for the umpteenth time, that took place "mainly outside" Spanish territory. And, above all, "we did not have to regret any tragic event in our country" for which "the Civil Guard had no responsibility."
As a novelty, the head of the Interior has had words of reproach for the deputies who made available all the videos recorded during the jump last Friday, as they had requested. “They did not see fit to view them in their entirety. In fact, they did not get to see even a third of them […] they considered that on their particular agenda for a working day there were more important issues than viewing them in their entirety”, the minister snapped.
But without a doubt, the harshest words have fallen on the bench of the Popular Party. The press conference offered yesterday by the Institutional Vice-Secretary, Esteban González Pons, after the publication of a new report caused outrage in the Interior. Today the minister has reproduced the words of Pons in which he affirmed that "it is very serious that injuries and deaths are hidden in national territory, that aid and care are denied to those who are dying in our country, that Moroccan gendarmes are allowed to enter Spain and take away the wounded and dead”.
The minister's response to these words? He has announced that he has given instructions for the Ministry of the Interior to take charge of the defense of any civil guard who may be affected by these statements, in which the Popular Party accuses the Civil Guard "of committing various crimes of extraordinary gravity ”. "Given these serious accusations against the Civil Guard, they are going to have me in front of me," he assured, stressing that it is "irresponsible to affirm that health care was not given to migrants who needed it." Marlaska has listed the health care given to 11 injured immigrants.
Regarding the controversy as to whether there were immigrants who died in national territory, Marlaska has once again shown himself completely sure that "no tragic event" took place in Spain. "I said it and I repeat it: we are talking about some tragic events that happen outside our country." And this is so, according to the minister's version, which is different from the journalistic information disseminated, "because the limits between countries have been perfectly clear for more than 30 years", as confirmed by the actions of the Governments of Spain and Morocco and international law confirms it. He has also cited the National Court itself, where he was a magistrate, to resort to his jurisprudence when he affirms that "the scope of action of the Spanish Administration is limited to the scope of Spanish sovereignty."
The Minister of the Interior has once again offered the account of what happened on June 24. A group of 1,700 people – coming from Mount Gurugú, where migrants usually wait in Moroccan territory for their turn to try to cross into Spain – entered the Barro border crossing “in a violent and organized manner” carrying offensive objects such as sticks, mallets or stones. The migrants were divided into two groups: one dedicated to containing the gendarmes; another broke open the security doors with axes, maces, and radials.
Although the head of the Interior did not expressly mention it, it was at the moment when the Moroccan agents entered the patio where the migrants had gathered when the doors they forced open, causing the human avalanche that left dozens of people crushed on the ground. Interior continues to estimate the number of people who managed to access Spain at 134 and are dispersed throughout Melilla.
Another large group of immigrants who manages to jump over the fence is surrounded by agents of the Civil Guard. This action, as explained by the minister, managed "little by little" to reduce "the aggressiveness of the assailants". Once the situation was controlled, the returns were carried out on the fly, with the help of Moroccan agents, despite the fact that the head of the Interior did not specify this detail during his appearance. What he did want to make clear is that these rejections at the border were made respecting international protection and confirming the "absence of especially vulnerable personnel in the group." Marlaska has not specified how many returns were made. The Ombudsman figures them at 470.
To the opposition, the immovable speech of the former magistrate of the National Court has not served him. The deputy of the Popular Party Ana Vázquez has truffled her intervention with insults to the minister - miserable, cowardly, liar - with his usual fuss. Something that has earned him a call to attention from the president of Congress. The popular one has used more than twenty times the formula "you are aware that you have lied to the Spanish" to reprimand the head of the Interior, whom she has accused of hiding behind the Civil Guard. "Minister Marlaska is naked no matter how much his clappers say that he is dressed," she said.
With a discourse very similar to the Popular Party, the extreme right has stated that it does not understand the controversy over whether there were deaths —or not— on national soil. “And if there were deaths in Spanish territory, what? Is it that we are responsible if our agents make legitimate use of violence ”, asked the deputy of Vox Javier Ortega Smith.
For those of Santiago Abascal, the violent jump in June that left at least 23 dead was an "assault" on national sovereignty "like what happened in Catalonia in 2017." In addition, as he was already in charge of disseminating last Friday, he has verbalized that there were "resurrected immigrants"; in reference —according to his speech without any probative basis— to the fact that migrants “played dead” so as to mislead the agents and thus be able to cross into Spain.
Unidas Podemos has focused its intervention on demanding that the law be changed to avoid this type of avalanche and this, in its opinion, involves facilitating the processing of refugee and asylum applications before entering Spain. "Let's make the legal reforms so that no one has to jump a fence." Meanwhile, the government's usual parliamentary partners have harshly reprimanded the minister, as has the opposition. From ERC, María Dantas has predicted that if the deceased people were white, Marlaska would not continue to be Minister of the Interior. "They have not left anyone without injuries," said the Republican deputy: "Those who were not, were tortured, while the Civil Guard was returning hot."
"It is incomprehensible that he continues to be locked in the face of obvious evidence" —in reference to journalistic information and cadastral data—, has lamented the deputy of EH Bildu Jon Iñarritu. The Basque deputy does not believe that the Civil Guard found out what was happening in the border area until one in the afternoon. But above all, Iñarritu has summoned the minister to clarify “where Spain begins”. From Bildu they have demanded that all the groups support an investigation commission so that what really happened is confronted with "real transparency".
