{"id":81622,"date":"2026-09-06T14:26:08","date_gmt":"2026-09-06T14:26:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/81622\/"},"modified":"2026-09-06T14:26:08","modified_gmt":"2026-09-06T14:26:08","slug":"the-invasion-of-ceuta-has-driven-spain-to-breaking-point","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/81622\/","title":{"rendered":"The invasion of Ceuta has driven Spain to breaking point"},"content":{"rendered":"

On Wednesday night, I was among an ocean of people who had descended on Madrid\u2019s ayuntamiento in the Plaza de Cibeles. It was part of huge nationwide protests sparked by the Ceuta fiasco<\/a> against the government of Pedro S\u00e1nchez. Various reports put the crowd somewhere between 50,000 and 150,000 people. In any event, the Plaza de Cibeles was full, people were flooding down Paseo del Prado, and, in the other direction, stretching to the iconic C\u00edrculo de Bellas Artes.<\/p>\n

The atmosphere was febrile. The first outbreak of hostility came when the state broadcaster, TVE, appeared. This was \u2013 pardon the pun \u2013 a red rag to a bull. Immediately, the cry went up, \u2018Traitors! Out!\u2019 and \u2018S\u00e1nchez for prison\u2019. When Madrid\u2019s mayor, Jos\u00e9 Luis Mart\u00ednez-Almeida, came on to the stage, the mood threatened to get even worse. The most telling point was when he used the term \u2018irregular migration\u2019. Tens of thousands of people shouted him down, crying out \u2018Es una invasi\u00f3n!\u2019 (It\u2019s an invasion). The official political discourse and what ordinary people think was badly out of step. <\/p>\n

This is the real damage that\u2019s being caused by S\u00e1nchez \u2013 who leads the Spanish Socialist Workers\u2019 Party (PSOE) \u2013 remaining in office. He has overseen a collapse in trust for state media, national police and almost every facet of the Spanish state. This is a corrosive poison that could take years to extract. You can\u2019t have a society when everyone distrusts everyone else. <\/p>\n

The march progressed towards the Palace of the Cortes, Spain\u2019s parliament. On arrival, you were greeted by another sea of people, stretching all the way down to Fuente de Neptuno. Here, ideas that would\u2019ve been considered beyond the pale 10 years ago were shouted out by everyday people: \u2018End the invasion! Spain is Christian, not Muslim!\u2019 Yes, there were elements of extreme groups at the protests. But many thousands of those at the event belting out this slogan were mothers with their children and little old ladies. I saw someone who looked like a meek librarian. <\/p>\n

Ceuta has been the story of the summer. In July, around 70,000 immigrants flooded the Spanish enclave on the north African coast. It was a stark reminder of the extent to which Spain\u2019s borders have disintegrated under S\u00e1nchez, who has overseen record levels of illegal immigration. The temperature was already high, particularly after S\u00e1nchez granted amnesty<\/a> to more than 500,000 illegal immigrants in February. Ceuta \u2013 despite the attempts by talking heads to play down the crisis \u2013 was the final straw. <\/p>\n

Enjoying spiked?<\/p>\n

Why not make an instant, one-off donation?<\/p>\n

We are funded by you. Thank you!<\/p>\n

\n \u00a35
\n \u00a310
\n \u00a320
\n \u00a350\n <\/p>\n

Choose an amount<\/p>\n

\n Donate now\n <\/p>\n

\n Please wait… <\/p>\n

For the people of Ceuta, the problem hasn\u2019t gone away. Economically, tourism to the coastal town has collapsed. More perniciously, schools have been kept closed until later in September, while the process of organising escort groups for children is underway. Playgrounds are off-limits after being taken over by the illegal immigrants, and reports of sexual assault have risen dramatically<\/a>. <\/p>\n

It is hard to overestimate the anger much of Spain feels towards S\u00e1nchez. Despite the Ceuta crisis, he remained on holiday for the entirety of August. In one of the most self-serving interviews of all time, shortly before the most recent protests, he stated that<\/a> \u2018some people think I shouldn\u2019t have a holiday\u2019. He also rehearsed all the dead-end liberal platitudes Spaniards have come to expect, such as \u2018Spain needs immigrants\u2019, as if there is any equivalence between legal economic migrants and thousands of men storming the border. S\u00e1nchez is a man who long ago lost touch with reality. <\/p>\n

Unsurprisingly, the Spanish people are now desperate for an election. With the left-wing partners of the governing PSOE reduced to just four to five per cent of the vote, and PSOE itself propped up only by a cadre of pensioners hoping their entitlement isn\u2019t cut before they shuffle off this mortal coil, there is no government in the future where the right-populist Vox is not the kingmaker. It seems the public has been radicalised by reality. <\/p>\n

Eventually, Madrid\u2019s police resorted to tear gas to quell the anger. If only Pedro S\u00e1nchez had defended the border with as much force as he was prepared to mete out against his people.<\/p>\n

Edward Anderson is a writer based in Spain.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"On Wednesday night, I was among an ocean of people who had descended on Madrid\u2019s ayuntamiento in the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":81623,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[826,17],"class_list":["post-81622","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-spain","tag-immigration","tag-spain"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/81622","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=81622"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/81622\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/81623"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=81622"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=81622"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=81622"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}