{"id":461948,"date":"2026-08-06T17:33:30","date_gmt":"2026-08-06T15:33:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/2026\/08\/06\/ceuta-la-riunione-straordinaria-in-parlamento-ue-sullimmigrazione-finisce-in-una-rissa-tra-destra-e-sinistra\/"},"modified":"2026-08-06T18:09:37","modified_gmt":"2026-08-06T16:09:37","slug":"ceuta-the-extraordinary-meeting-of-the-european-parliament-on-immigration-ends-in-a-brawl-between-the-right-and-the-left","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/2026\/08\/06\/ceuta-the-extraordinary-meeting-of-the-european-parliament-on-immigration-ends-in-a-brawl-between-the-right-and-the-left\/","title":{"rendered":"Ceuta: the extraordinary meeting of the European Parliament on immigration ends in a brawl between the right and the left"},"content":{"rendered":"

Brussels \u2013 In the end, everything is discussed except immigration. The extraordinary meeting of the Civil Liberties Committee<\/a> of the European Parliament, convened to discuss the migration crisis<\/a> in Ceuta, overlooks the migrants in favour of an “everyone against everyone” clash. The Spanish right is pitted against Pedro S\u00e1nchez\u2019s Socialist government, which is also under attack from non-Spanish right-wing figures. The Socialists and the Greens are attacking everyone\u2014leaders, ministers and right-wing parties\u2014for failing to show solidarity with Spain, and even among the liberals some are subtly criticising the Meloni government. Holding the stage from the outset, however, is the absence of the two members of the S\u00e1nchez government who were invited to attend, Fernando Grande-Marlaska G\u00f3mez<\/strong> (Home Affairs) and Elma Saiz Delgado <\/strong>(Immigration and Inclusion). \u201cIt is regrettable that both ministers declined the invitation at a time when the European Parliament is demonstrating its commitment,\u201d criticises the chair of the parliamentary committee, the Spaniard Javier Zarzalejos <\/strong>(PP\/EPP). \u201cIn the face of a mass breach of the European Union\u2019s borders and with over 100 victims, it would have been appropriate for them to attend,\u201d he insists.<\/p>\n

Scheduling issues and the need to manage the migration crisis, which has not yet been fully resolved, were the reasons given by the Spanish ministers for not attending the video conference, given that the European Parliament is closed for the summer recess. The absence of members of the S\u00e1nchez government therefore has an impact on the debate, which begins with criticism from the People\u2019s Party, this time the European one. \u201cNot being here is a choice,\u201d was the rebuke from Lena Dupont<\/strong> (EPP) directed at the absent ministers. \u201cIf they wanted to make their voices heard, this was the place to do so,\u201d she pressed. Similar criticism came from Fabrice Leggeri of the sovereigntists (PFE). But in the sovereignists\u2019 benches, there are also those, such as the Spaniard Jorge Buxad\u00e9<\/strong> (PFE), who attack Rabat: \u201cIt is the Moroccan authorities who have orchestrated all this on social media.\u201d<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/div>\n
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From the Socialist benches, Juan Fernando Lopez Aguilar<\/strong> (PSOE\/S&D), also Spanish, defends S\u00e1nchez against attacks from all sides, while attacking everyone in turn: \u201cSpain has shown solidarity with the Baltic states and Poland in the face of threats from Russia, while the EU has not done the same\u201d in response to the situation in Ceuta and the arrival of around 80,000 people who have flooded into the Spanish city on the border with Morocco. \u201cWe need compulsory solidarity<\/strong>,\u201d he declares loudly.<\/div>\n
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“There has been solidarity from the European Commission and, I might add, from the Member States as well,” says the Commissioner for Migration, Magnus Brunner,<\/strong> in an attempt to steer a debate that has already gone off the rails back onto the right track. The reassurances from the EU executive lasted only a few seconds, just long enough for the Conservative (ECR) MEP, Assita Kanko<\/strong>, to take the floor and resume her attacks: \u201cWhat has happened is serious. The <\/strong>Spanish government must stop creating pull factors<\/strong>” for foreign nationals. Then came a barrage of new attacks on Morocco: \u201cThere are serious indications that Moroccan border guards allowed migrants to cross and, in some cases, encouraged them to do so.\u201d And then, she insists, \u201cwe must investigate the role of social media and disinformation,\u201d including the Russian one<\/a>. <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/div>\n
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Criticism of the Meloni government comes from the Liberals: “In 2024, Italy was under pressure from migration, and we all recognised that solidarity was needed<\/strong>,” says Fabienne Keller (RE), in what sounds like a rebuke to the Italian government for the way it responded to the crisis in Ceuta. Tieneke Strik<\/strong> of the Greens adds to the criticism: \u201cReinstating border controls is illegal<\/strong>,\u201d she states, referring to Italy\u2019s notification that it is suspending the Schengen rules on free movement. This is also because, as her colleague Saskia Bricmont<\/strong> (Greens) echoes, \u201cthe EU as such has not suffered from migration crises.\u201d Therefore, she argues, the Ceuta issue, combined with the extraordinary parliamentary sitting, \u201ccreates situations that play into the hands of the right.\u201d This is a rebuke directed at the political exploitation of the issue by other groups.<\/div>\n
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The debate, convened in a great hurry, only serves to create confusion\u2014a political row that Brunner attempts to quell by promising greater commitment from the Commission. \u201cMost people have returned to Morocco, and this shows that our measures are working. This does not mean we cannot do better<\/strong>.\u201d Then a reminder, which seems directed at Italy: \u201cClosing borders should be used as a last resort and must be proportionate.\u201d<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The EPP, ECR and PfE have criticised S\u00e1nchez and Morocco; the Liberals are against Meloni\u2019s Italy; the Greens and Socialists have criticised the lack of solidarity: in the Civil Liberties Committee, it\u2019s “everyone against everyone”, and there is no mention of migrants<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":494,"featured_media":461942,"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":[25712,25681],"tags":[35144,25755,26205,31368],"class_list":["post-461948","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-general-news","category-politics","tag-ceuta","tag-news-parliament-en","tag-immigration-en-2","tag-magnus-brown-and"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/461948","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\/494"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=461948"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/461948\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":461949,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/461948\/revisions\/461949"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/461942"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=461948"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=461948"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=461948"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}