How Spain's migrant crisis is emboldening the hard right
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What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
This is a global production.
The extraordinary images that we saw over the course of the weekend with 50 to 60,000 migrants storming the Spanish enclave of Ceuta has shaken and sent shockwaves across the EU itself.
Spain recently passed a law which makes it essentially more difficult to send back returning migrants.
More than anything, as we can see in terms of the reaction to this, it is a political problem.
When I saw what happened in Spain, I said, you know, we had a version of that.
Why did tens of thousands of migrants storm Ceuta and what happened in the first hours?
This is really where this all takes us. For the parties of the far right and the hard right to say Europe doesn't understand immigration.
This summer I have prepared a playlist with some of the songs that I am listening to the most this year. The first is the song by Quevedo, El Baifo. The second is Spring Summer 26 by Charlie XCX.
That is the Spanish Prime Minister. Pedro Sanchez, wishing everyone a happy summer and taking us through his summer playlist on Spotify. He may very well be regretting that video now because he finds himself isolated by many of the European countries over what is happening on Spain's border with Morocco and Thousands, tens of thousands of migrants coming through Africa into the Spanish enclave of Ceuta and Spain not doing enough to control it. Welcome to The News Agents.
The News Agents.
It's me, Liz.
It's Lewis. And so those extraordinary images, the videos that just went everywhere on social media at the weekend of between 50 to 60,000 people storming the Spanish enclave of Ceuta has shaken and sent shockwaves across the EU itself and has led to we're saying at the top there, this war of words really between different European governments, many of which focusing their fire firmly on Pedro Sanchez's socialist Spanish government, EU holding an urgent meeting of interior ministers today amid those divisions. Basically, this is all about whether everyone can agree within the EU, and this is a recurring theme over the years in European migration policy, Everyone agrees that a fundamental pillar of the European project is freedom of movement within the bloc.
But what does that mean for its external border? Because, of course, once you're in and you're into the Schengen area, the passport area, free travel zone, which Ceuta is not in, but obviously Spain itself is, then that puts tremendous pressure if you have one of these migratory waves, which we saw obviously on a much bigger scale about 10 years ago after the Syrian civil war and all of the pressures that put on the EU. But basically, the governments from across Europe being led by Giorgio Maloney's Italian government, blaming internal Spanish immigration policy, including a sort of amnesty that they've given to hundreds of thousands of irregular migrants, illegal migrants over the past 12 months, blaming them for, in effect, attracting these sorts of migratory waves, which, of course, once you're in, as I say, you don't necessarily have to stay in Spain.
You can go elsewhere in the block.
Yeah, and I think this incident, the Ceuta incident, is probably the first major test of the EU's migration pact. That started in June, just a couple of months ago, after years, really, of negotiations aimed at creating these common migration rules and sort of stronger unions, solidarity between the member states. And just to go back a step, if you're wondering why on earth we're talking about Spain in Africa... It's something that actually takes you back 500 years or so.
How does Spain’s recent law on returns affect its ability to send migrants back?
There are these two enclaves on the sort of northeastern tip of Morocco, Ceuta and Melilla, and they have belonged to Spain since the sort of, you know, 1500, since the colonial days. They actually predate modern Morocco. And they are kind of extraordinary because, as you say, Lewis, they're this, in a sense, they're a gateway to the rest of Europe, but very firmly on the African mainland. And so they've become this sort of magnet for people, not just Moroccans, but anyone traveling up through sub-Saharan Africa, thinking that if they can just get access,
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Chapters
4 chapters
1
What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
0:02–0:34
2
Why did tens of thousands of migrants storm Ceuta and what happened in the first hours?
0:34–3:59
3
How does Spain’s recent law on returns affect its ability to send migrants back?
3:59–22:00
4
Why are Ceuta and Melilla strategically important and how do their borders work?
22:00–32:13