The tragedy of the Melilla fence besieges Minister Marlaska

The fire revived in the Ministry of the Interior due to the tragedy of the Melilla fence continues to be active.

Thomas Osborne
Thomas Osborne
09 November 2022 Wednesday 21:31
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The tragedy of the Melilla fence besieges Minister Marlaska

The fire revived in the Ministry of the Interior due to the tragedy of the Melilla fence continues to be active. After the BBC lit the flame with a documentary in which it was assured that there were deaths in Spanish territory, the parties to the right and to the left of the parliamentary arch continue to pour gasoline to which the public ministry joined last night asking for more information from the Civil Guard on these facts. The request is not minor, if there were deaths in Spanish territory, the Prosecutor's Office will have to open an investigation.

The opposition and the partner of the coalition government have redoubled the pressure to surround the head of the Interior, Fernando Grande-Marlaska, who is being demanded to give explanations again.

The Popular Party continues to walk a very tight wire on this issue. Its president, Alberto Núñez Feijóo asked the minister for "responsibilities", but did not clarify whether they will support the investigation commission that is intended to be promoted in Congress. The popular ones seek to wear down the minister, but they find that he has closed ranks around the action of the Civil Guard that day. The associations of the Armed Institute, this time, are not against Marlaska. Thus, the Popular Party knows that if it presses the button of the commission – its green light will depend on them – that calls into question the Civil Guard, the police unions will revolt against the conservatives.

For this reason, the leader of the right put the focus on Marlaska. "If the minister persists in the opacity and concealment of the facts, and does not want to give the explanations that Spanish citizens deserve, Pedro Sánchez has to make a decision." The President of the Government, last Friday when the controversy had already been reactivated, publicly supported Marlaska, of whom he said that "he is a great Minister of the Interior who performs and has performed his duties in strict compliance with the law."

The mantra to repeat to try to collect the most precious political prize for the right and the extreme right is that the head of the Interior has lied. This was stated yesterday by the PP coordinator, Elías Bendodo, affirming that the minister "has lied to all citizens." Interior challenges those of Feijóo to prove the alleged falsehoods that he has been able to affirm during these months. And it is that ministerial sources insist that from the first moment it has maintained that there were no deaths on the Spanish side of the border, in addition to defending the "proportional" action of the Civil Guard in the face of what it has always been calling a "violent attack" .

La Vanguardia has had access to the videos that a Civil Guard helicopter recorded that tragic day. They show how the courtyard of the Chinatown border crossing became a mousetrap when dozens of people broke the metal gate that gave access to an open-air area between the two perimeters of the border crossing. These videos are some fragments of the unedited video that the Interior will make available to the deputies – still without a set date – so that they can be reviewed. They will analyze them with "light and stenographers" from United We Can. Its president of the parliamentary group, Jaume Asens, asked the PSOE to unblock the commission because, in his opinion, "opacity cannot be a scenario of impunity." More lukewarm was the companion of the Council of Ministers of Marlaska, Yolanda Díaz, who limited herself to requesting "a deep investigation", without further additions.