Sánchez's ministers clash over whether Spain's intelligence warned of Ceuta migrant crisis

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Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez’s efforts to quell concerns over his government’s handling of the migration crisis in Ceuta fell flat on Tuesday after two of his top ministers publicly clashed over whether vital intelligence warnings were ignored.

At the end of July, some 72,000 migrants poured into the Spanish exclave in North Africa, raising major questions about whether Spain’s intelligence services failed to detect the unusually large number of people gathering over the border — something that would have enabled the authorities to deploy more guards.

During an emergency hearing in the Spanish parliament on Tuesday, Defense Minister Margarita Robles insisted the National Intelligence Center, which handles both foreign and domestic intelligence and counterintelligence, had issued a warning to the national authorities on July 30, before thousands of migrants started flooding into the exclave.

“Our armed forces, intelligence services, and, of course, the National Intelligence Center carried out the work that was and is required of them, and shared and analyzed this information with the state security forces and the staff of the government delegation,” the minister told lawmakers, defending the work of the agents she oversees.

Robles’ statement directly contradicts the Interior Minister Fernando Grande-Marlaska’s version of events. For weeks, he has insisted the national government did not reinforce the border in Ceuta because it had no way of anticipating the sudden migrant surge.

The minister underscored this point during an extraordinary meeting of the bloc’s interior ministers on Aug. 4, in the aftermath of the influx, where he emphasized Spain’s status as a “strong, reliable partner.”

On Tuesday, Grande-Marlaska hit back directly at Robles’ statement during a press conference, insisting that neither Spain’s intelligence services nor any foreign intelligence agents had detected or warned of anything unusual near Ceuta.

“There was no report that foreshadowed what ultimately transpired on July 30,” he said, adding that it was a matter of “common sense” that any warning would have been taken seriously and handled accordingly.

After lawmakers informed Robles that Grande-Marlaska had denied her statement, the defense minister doubled down and said the country’s intelligence services had warned authorities on July 29, a day earlier than she had originally stated, adding that it was “common knowledge, public knowledge, that people were swimming into Ceuta.”

But she conceded that her agents might have informed national authorities “verbally.”

“Intelligence services operate in many ways,” she said. “Often, handwritten reports aren’t necessary.”

Detrimental divisions

The finger-pointing between two such senior ministers is embarrassing for Sánchez.

Nearly a month after the surge, thousands of unauthorized migrants remain in the exclave, and the prime minister is under pressure to prove his government is capable of not only resolving the immediate crisis, but guaranteeing the longer-term security of Spain’s North African exclaves .

Sánchez hoped to assuage public fears by convening an emergency meeting of his National Security Council on Tuesday, during which he selected Territorial Policy Minister Ángel Víctor Torres to manage the ongoing response to the crisis. But the attempt to present a united governmental front was upended by Robles and Grande-Marlaska.

While infighting within the cabinet is always problematic, the spectacle of two of Sánchez’s longest-serving ministers publicly contradicting each other over what the government knew — and when it knew it — is potentially devastating for a government already under pressure to explain how the crisis was allowed to unfold.

Opposition lawmakers seized on the divisions on Tuesday to accuse Sánchez’s executive of attempting to cover up its botched handling of the crisis.

“Marlaska and Robles aren’t even bothering to hide their attempts to accuse one another of lying about the Ceuta crisis,” said Miguel Tellado, secretary-general of the center-right People’s Party.

“Spain has been attacked and the prime minister’s response has been to go sunbathing and leave his ministers to fight one another to avoid taking the blame.”

Alberto Asarta, lawmaker for the far-right Vox party, went even further and announced he would request Spain’s parliament invoke Article 102 of the constitution, which allows for the prosecution of members of the government.

“80,000 people don’t congregate near the border without the intelligence services of Spain and Morocco being aware of it,” Asarta said, adding that the ministers’ failure to protect the exclave “constitutes the crime of treason against the security of Spain.”