Pedro Sánchez boasts of ‘absolute transparency,’ yet it took him 74 days to admit that Moroccan warships unlawfully entered the waters off Ceuta during the migrant surge crisis. The Prime Minister has now acknowledged a military incursions into Spanish sovereign waters after it was reported by El País, though he chose to downplay its severity, dismissing it as an ‘isolated’ episode that, he maintains, was resolved through contacts between both navies.
The incursion was serious enough for the Spanish Navy to deploy a frigate to stop the entry of Moroccan Navy vessels. However, Sánchez avoided clarifying why those incursions took place, what motivated them, and what explanation Rabat provided. Rather than clearing up the lingering questions surrounding the Moroccan warships’ presence, Sánchez chose to downplay the incident and praise the strong relationship with Rabat during an informal conversation with reporters at the Royal Palace reception.
