Spain to reproach in Brussels the European reaction to the Ceuta crisis
The tone of the pre-summit Interior meeting was more constructive than a few days ago, but serious political differences between partners persist.
It may be hyperbole to qualify migration as a weapon of mass destruction; perhaps the people of Ceuta didn't see it that way last weekend. But it's no rhetorical excess to argue that migration policy is today the most thorny issue in the EU, with the far right taking aim and the right, and even Scandinavian center-left, joining that wave that has little to do with the values that Europe claims to defend.
One of the great exceptions is Spain, which is applying regularization for hundreds of thousands of migrants and open policies that explain, in part, a GDP advance far above European metrics. But more than 60,000 people have irregularly crossed Spanish borders - which are Europe's - just hours ago, triggering a major crisis, and have reaffirmed Spain's solitude on that highly controversial agenda.
Up to 22 countries, led by an Italian populist, Giorgia Meloni, and the Danish social democrat, Mette Frederiksen, strongly charged against Spain under Pedro Sánchez after the Ceuta influx with a strange mix of alternative facts and amnesia of European values. The icy reaction of European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen gave fuel to those attacks, although on Monday - with the crisis on its way to being solved - the German changed tack and adopted a more conciliatory tone.
The Spanish government, despite mistakes, solved the bulk of the problem in 48 hours. And on Tuesday it's their turn: Spain, according to sources consulted, will demand solidarity from partners at the interior ministers' summit and will rebuke the toughest ones for what Pedro Sánchez has described as an "egoistic, polarizing and illegal" reaction, guided by "prejudice, fake news, ignorance or political interest".
Translated by urgent.news. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.
