Pedro Sánchez is exultant before a "historic" NATO summit in Madrid of which he is the host. “Spain has become the center of international politics right now, with good reason, with good reason. We are giving an extraordinary image”, underlined the President of the Government, this Wednesday in an interview in Ser.
At the same time, however, Sánchez faces the internal political controversy in the face of the humanitarian tragedy recorded last Friday at the Melilla border, where dozens of sub-Saharan migrants lost their lives, and avoids condemning the actions of the Moroccan authorities. “The Moroccan Gendarmerie helped the Civil Guard and the National Police to defend the border”, he highlighted.
“On feelings you cannot reason. To avoid tragedies like the one in Nador, we must work in Sudan”, explained Sánchez, referring to the country of origin of many of the migrants who, in his opinion, tried to attack the Melilla fence “in a violent way”. Thus, he has emphasized the Government's policy of aid to international cooperation. “The immigration policy cannot be just a security policy, to reinforce our borders. We have to work with the countries of origin and transit, in this case Morocco and Mauritania”, he defended.
"What we have seen in Nador is a tragedy, without a doubt, but it is also the last act of a drama that begins much earlier, many kilometers from Nador, in this case in Sudan", explained the Chief Executive. “Of course we have to be empathic, and put ourselves in the shoes of those migrants who have suffered and died. But I also ask that we put ourselves in the shoes, in the shoes, of the State security forces and bodies in Spain, 40 civil guards were injured as a result of this violent attack, and of the more than one hundred Moroccan gendarmes who have been injured and some of them dead”, Sánchez has justified, who has also used “the right that our compatriots in Ceuta and Melilla have to have their borders secure and to be able to live in peace”.
In any case, Sánchez has qualified his words last Friday from Brussels, when he stated that the assault on the Melilla fence had been "well resolved" by the Moroccan authorities. The president has argued that when he made such statements, highly criticized even by his government partners, he "had not seen the images" that show the Moroccan police action and in which the deaths of migrants are seen.
The Prime Minister has insisted that "it is clear that I regret the deaths that have occurred in Nador." But he has avoided condemning the actions of the Moroccan Gendarmerie. "We have to put ourselves in the shoes of each and every one of the actors in this tragedy," he reiterated. "The Moroccan authorities also have an irregular migration problem, and we have to help them manage the fight against the mafias in Morocco and control the irregular migration flows that reach our borders," he argued. “I am sorry for the loss of human lives, but I also ask that we put ourselves in the shoes of all the wounded of the State security forces and bodies, also of the Moroccan Gendarmerie, which helped the Civil Guard and the National Police to defend the borders," he stressed. Sánchez, likewise, has defended the right of Ceuta and Melilla to have "an orderly migration, and not be at the mercy of violent attacks."
Sánchez has highlighted that in the last twelve months "at least eight attacks have been attempted on the autonomous city of Melilla, violent attacks, organized by mafias, with people armed with hooks, with sticks, with knives, with axes." “I understand that they want to jump the fence, because they are looking for a better future. But the duty of the Government of Spain is to safeguard its territorial integrity”, he defended.
The head of the Executive has also warned that up to three investigations have already been opened into this event, by the Nador Prosecutor's Office, the State Attorney General's Office and the Ombudsman in Spain. And as for the requests to appear in Congress to explain these facts, Sánchez has shown himself willing to "give an account" during the debate on the state of the nation that will be held next July.
Sánchez, on the other hand, has held the meeting that he had yesterday with the president of the United States, Joe Biden, whom he has defined as "a very affable person." “We have updated and expanded our horizon of bilateral relations”, he has highlighted regarding the sealed joint declaration between Spain and the United States. Also in terms of defense and military collaboration, with the agreement to expand NATO's anti-missile shield with two other North American destroyers at the Rota base. An agreement that will have to be ratified, ultimately, by Congress. The head of the Executive has been shown in any case "convinced" that he will be able to gather a sufficient parliamentary majority to validate it. “The PP has changed its face but we continue with the same cross, which is an absolutely destructive and denialist opposition”, he criticized, after the replacement of Pablo Casado by Alberto Núñez Feijóo. “But I understand that there is not going to be a problem on this issue”, he pointed out, referring to the possible support of the PP in this regard.
And that Sánchez has once again used his speech against "hidden powers that have dark interests", which would have the PP as a political tentacle. "Four years ago, we changed the pace of the economic, political and media right in this country with a motion of censure, which they thought would not prosper, and later with an electoral victory in 2019," he warned. The head of the Executive has thus denounced that the PP is not an "autonomous" party, but that it would be folded to said "dark interests". And he has given as an example of this that Casado, after denouncing a case of corruption in his party, "in two days they struck him down, cut off his head and put another person", alluding to Feijóo. And he has framed in this situation that the PP blocks the renewal of the Constitutional Court and the General Council of the Judiciary. "The political right, after all, is a terminal of a series of dark and hidden interests," he has settled.
