This is a dangerous misstep by Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen and a proof how the European People’s Party abuses its power against the interests of the people of Europe. Such manipulative misinterpretarion for political gain is poison for Europe.

Sánchez defended himself from accusations that Spain was failing to protect the EU’s external borders, and cited data showing that his country had recorded half as many illegal entries as Italy between 2021 and 2026. He also stressed that it was not the first time that migrants had been weaponized against the bloc’s members, and recalled Belarus’ 2021 bid to sow chaos in the EU by facilitating migrant crossings into Poland and several Baltic countries.

Spain’s prime minister added the EU members that had backed the suspension proposal were “driven by prejudice, fake news, ignorance, or political interest.”

  • maptoOPM
    0·
    5 days ago

    …and Meloni’s Italian government is the most hypocritical of all

    “Italy’s position is unworthy of a European partner,” S&D Spanish MEP Javi Lopez said on X. “When migration is weaponised, Europe answers with solidarity, not selfishness. After 700,000+ arrivals from Libya, Italy received European support, not lectures. Solidarity is not a one-way street.” https://www.euronews.com/my-europe/2026/08/01/ceuta-migrant-crisis-sparks-strong-reactions-from-all-over-europe

    • maptoOPMEnglish
      1·
      5 days ago

      Matteo Villa, a migration researcher at the Italian Institute for International Political Studies, said politics was most likely involved. “What happened in 2021 was the small-scale version of what happened yesterday,” he said. “I mean, 50,000 people do not come overnight when usually it’s hundreds per month. Sánchez going to Algeria is something Morocco didn’t really like.”

      Villa suggested Morocco may have loosened the border as a way of showing it has “the upper hand”, especially because authorities there know it would cause an overreaction in Europe. “They love seeing all the fighting between European countries,” he added.

      https://www.theguardian.com/world/2026/jul/31/ceuta-spain-eu-border-africa

      • mapto@masto.bg
        1·
        5 days ago

        @mapto@feddit.bg I’m pleasantly surprised that unlike anyone in Italy, the Guardian correctly uses the designation “Italy’s far-right government”. In Italy journalists call it center-right, presumedly because Forza Italia is the centrist part of it. Neither Berlusconi nor Tajani have ever been centrists, not their policies are friendly to small enterprise, as a moderate right-wing government should be.

    • maptoOPMEnglish
      1·
      5 days ago

      This is want Meloni and Tajani are playing Europe into:

      The speculation has been fueled by public statements by Israeli officials and by pro-Israel commentators. In an article published in March, former Pentagon official Michael Rubin opined that “Moroccans should gather, send bulldozers to the border, and then enter Ceuta and Melilla unarmed to raise the [Moroccan] flag.”

      And in a dispatch for the Israeli Ynet News website, Amine Ayoub – a fellow at the neoconservative Middle East Forum – proposed that Israel should “help Morocco reclaim” Ceuta and Melilla. In Ayoub’s view, the timing for such an operation was particularly ripe on account of the fraught relationship between the US and Spain, with the Spanish government having been annoyingly uncooperative in the US-Israel war on Iran.

      In the very last sentence of his intervention, Ayoub arrived at the real reason for Israeli “help” to Morocco: “It is strategic investment in the partner that, across the Strait of Gibraltar, holds the key to one of the world’s most vital maritime chokepoints.”

      https://www.aljazeera.com/opinions/2026/8/1/is-spain-being-punished