{"id":461512,"date":"2026-07-31T09:42:05","date_gmt":"2026-07-31T07:42:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/2026\/07\/31\/scontro-italia-spagna-sui-migranti-madrid-convoca-lambasciatore\/"},"modified":"2026-07-31T10:46:59","modified_gmt":"2026-07-31T08:46:59","slug":"italy-and-spain-clash-over-migrants-madrid-summons-the-ambassador","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/2026\/07\/31\/italy-and-spain-clash-over-migrants-madrid-summons-the-ambassador\/","title":{"rendered":"Italy and Spain clash over migrants; Madrid summons the ambassador"},"content":{"rendered":"

Brussels \u2013 While there is no justification for closing the border with Slovenia<\/a>, there is now another border that authorities intend to seal: Italy is considering reinstating border controls with Spain, triggering a purely diplomatic row with Madrid. At the root of it all is the massive influx of migrants arriving en masse<\/a> from Morocco and Algeria to Ceuta, the Spanish exclave on North African territory. Thousands have arrived by sea in what is, in effect, European Union territory, producing an immediate domino effect. <\/p>\n

“The images from Ceuta are shocking and demonstrate, once again, that uncontrolled illegal immigration poses a real threat to the security of Europe\u2019s borders,<\/strong>” said Prime Minister, Giorgia Meloni<\/strong>, a view echoed by the Foreign Minister, Antonio Tajani<\/strong>: “I am in favour of closing the Schengen area with Spain,”<\/strong> he wrote on social media, where he openly criticised the Spanish government. \u201cThe images coming out of Ceuta show how the Madrid government\u2019s decision to grant Spanish \u2013 and therefore European \u2013 citizenship to over 500,000 irregular migrants is profoundly wrong and encourages human trafficking.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

I am in favour of closing the Schengen area with Spain and have every confidence in Minister Piantedosi\u2019s handling of the matter. Irregular and uncontrolled immigration poses a threat to national security. The images coming out of Ceuta show how the decision to\u2026<\/p>\n

\u2014 Antonio Tajani (@Antonio_Tajani) July 30, 2026<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The Spanish Foreign Minister, <\/span>Jos\u00e9 Manuel Albares<\/span><\/strong>, responded immediately: \u201cThis <\/span>message<\/span><\/strong> from the Foreign Minister of a friendly country and partner from whom we expect European solidarity rather than party-political demagoguery is <\/span>unworthy.<\/span><\/strong>\u201d In protest, Madrid has summoned the Italian ambassador to Spain, reflecting the current tensions between the two European Union member states.<\/span><\/p>\n

However, Italy pours more fuel on the fire when Nicola Procaccini<\/strong> \u2014 a Meloni ally and co\u2011chair of the Conservatives (ECR) group in the European Parliament \u2014 once again targets Pedro S\u00e1nchez\u2019s government<\/span>: \u201cWhen a government regularises illegal residence on a massive scale, it should come as no surprise if many more people come to the conclusion that reaching Europe illegally will ultimately be rewarded.\u201d<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

 Meanwhile, the local parliament in Ceuta has unanimously approved a motion calling for the temporary closure of the border with Morocco as an \u201curgent and unavoidable\u201d measure in response to what has been described as \u201cthe most serious crisis in recent years.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani has criticised the Sanchez government\u2019s decisions following the arrival of thousands of asylum seekers in Ceuta. Madrid: \u201cAn unworthy message\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":461502,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"episode_type":"","audio_file":"","podmotor_file_id":"","podmotor_episode_id":"","cover_image":"","cover_image_id":"","duration":"","filesize":"","filesize_raw":"","date_recorded":"","explicit":"","block":"","jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":{"format":"standard","override":[{"template":"1","parallax":"1","fullscreen":"1","layout":"right-sidebar","sidebar":"default-sidebar","second_sidebar":"default-sidebar","sticky_sidebar":"1","share_position":"top","share_float_style":"share-monocrhome","show_featured":"1","show_post_meta":"1","show_post_author":"1","show_post_author_image":"1","show_post_date":"1","post_date_format":"default","post_date_format_custom":"Y\/m\/d","show_post_category":"1","show_post_reading_time":"0","post_reading_time_wpm":"300","post_calculate_word_method":"str_word_count","show_zoom_button":"0","zoom_button_out_step":"2","zoom_button_in_step":"3","show_post_tag":"1","show_prev_next_post":"1","show_popup_post":"1","show_comment_section":"1","number_popup_post":"1","show_author_box":"0","show_post_related":"1","show_inline_post_related":"0"}],"image_override":[{"single_post_thumbnail_size":"crop-500","single_post_gallery_size":"crop-500"}],"trending_post_position":"meta","trending_post_label":"Trending","sponsored_post_label":"Sponsored by","disable_ad":"0","subtitle":""},"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_override_counter":{"view_counter_number":"0","share_counter_number":"0","like_counter_number":"0","dislike_counter_number":"0"},"footnotes":""},"categories":[25681],"tags":[26180,26005,29287,35144,26205,26755,26870],"class_list":["post-461512","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-politics","tag-antonio-tajani-en-2","tag-frontiere-and","tag-ceuta","tag-immigration-en-2","tag-nicola-procaccini-en","tag-spain-en"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/461512","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=461512"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/461512\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":461513,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/461512\/revisions\/461513"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/461502"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=461512"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=461512"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=461512"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}