Rabat – Spain’s far-right Vox party is seeking to take the government’s handling of the recent migration crisis in Ceuta to the country’s highest court, accusing Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez and members of his cabinet of failing in their responsibility to protect national security.
Vox leader Santiago Abascal said Saturday that his party would seek to invoke Article 102 of Spain’s Constitution, a rarely used mechanism that allows the criminal responsibility of the prime minister and other government members to be examined by the Supreme Court.
Abascal claims the government may have known in advance about the mass movement toward Ceuta and argues that the circumstances warrant a judicial investigation.
“The betrayal of Pedro Sánchez towards the Spanish people must be brought before the courts,” Abascal wrote on X, citing what he described as the government’s prior knowledge of the “planned” mass crossing into Ceuta.
The Vox leader also alleged that there are indications of possible crimes related to treason and national security. He did not provide detailed evidence to support those allegations.
The initiative would face a substantial parliamentary obstacle. Article 102 requires at least one-quarter of Congress to formally initiate the process, followed by approval from an absolute majority of lawmakers. Vox lacks the numbers to meet that threshold on its own.
The party has therefore appealed to other parliamentary groups, saying its lawmakers are ready to support any joint initiative aimed at activating the constitutional procedure.
The move adds a new political dimension to the fallout from the mass migration episode in Ceuta, which has triggered renewed debate in Spain over border security, government preparedness, and relations with Morocco.
For Vox, the episode offers grounds for a broader challenge to Sánchez’s migration policy. The party has repeatedly accused the government of losing control of Spain’s borders and has sought to turn migration into a central issue of its opposition campaign.
Vox is now taking advantage of the Ceuta crisis to fuel an anti-Moroccan narrative, using the mass crossings to portray Morocco as a threat rather than a key partner in Spain’s efforts to manage migration.
That narrative, however, sits uneasily with the broader reality of Spain-Morocco relations. Far-right parties in Spain and elsewhere in Europe have seized on the Ceuta episode to revive hostile rhetoric toward Morocco, often framing migration as evidence of a wider confrontation between the two countries. Such claims overlook the extensive security and migration cooperation that has defined Rabat-Madrid ties in recent years.
Spain itself has repeatedly described Morocco as a key partner and has highlighted the results of joint efforts against irregular migration and the criminal networks that facilitate it.
The recent crisis also points to the practical importance of that cooperation. Spanish and European officials have acknowledged Morocco’s role in helping contain the movement and return those who crossed into Ceuta.