Following two consecutive large-scale assaults on the Spanish border at the city of Melilla, VOX has submitted a statement at the nation’s Congress condemning the illegal entry of migrants with the complicity of Moroccan authorities, and asking Congress to issue a declaration concerning the irrevocably Spanish character of Spain’s two African enclaves, Ceuta and Melilla. According to La Gaceta de la Iberosfera, the statement reads:
Spain’s presence in Africa is not owing to colonialism, but stems from a long history. Ceuta and Melilla have never been Moroccan cities and the sultans of Morocco never exercised any sovereignty there; Ceuta has been Spanish since 1415, seventy-seven years before the discovery of America (1492) and Melilla since 1496, two hundred and eighty years before the birth of the United States of America (1776) … additionally, Spanish sovereignty over Ceuta and Melilla has been recognized in a series of treaties during the 18th and 19th centuries, such as the Treaty of Peace and Friendship of the 26th of April 1860, as well as by the joint Spanish-Moroccan Declaration of 7 April 1956, of independence for Morocco.
These remarks could have hearkened farther back, recalling that the territory on which these cities was founded constituted a north African appendage to the Roman diocese of Hispania, and that they were also under Visigothic rule when the latter reigned over a united Iberian peninsula.
The document goes on:
However, Morocco disregards International Law, ignores these irrefutable historical facts, stubbornly claims sovereignty over Ceuta and Melilla in international forums and in its Parliament (for example, on the 10th of June 2021, the Moroccan House of Representatives referred to Ceuta as an occupied Moroccan city) and encourages the massive and violent entry of immigrants who violate our borders.
VOX’s congressional delegation concluded by asking that Spain deploy its armed forces and commit sufficient resources to the southern border.
This statement must be put to a vote, requiring a unanimous approval on the part of members of Congress. The purpose is not so much to enforce a policy as it is to force the ruling socialist party (PSOE) into an awkward position. In theory, the PSOE can hardly disagree that a territory of the country it governs is, indeed, under the state’s jurisdiction, and that the government has a responsibility to furnish proper resources to defend that territory. However, ruling in coalition with separatist and far-left factions, and owing to its own past pronouncements, it can likewise hardly vote in favor of such a statement, especially one being formulated by VOX, a party it has constantly condemned.
VOX’s gambit is also that whenever the southern border is assaulted and migration becomes a newsworthy topic, it will be able to point to the statement it produced, and refer to those parties that abstained or chose to vote against it as culpable, having foregone the chance to present a united front to Morocco and assign adequate resources to the security of Ceuta and Melilla.