Spain's PM exonerates Morocco in Ceuta crisis, blames Russia and Israel for disinformation

At the end of July, roughly 70,000 people—men, women, and children—surged across the border into Ceuta, Spain's small enclave on the North African coast. As many as 141 of them died in the attempt. The crossing unleashed a political firestorm at home, a humanitarian catastrophe on the ground, and reopened old wounds within Europe over how to handle migration. Now, weeks later, Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez has offered his explanation for what happened—and it is not what many in Spain wanted to hear.

Sánchez has flatly rejected the theory that Morocco's government orchestrated the breach. In an interview with Cadena Ser radio, he stated plainly that no intelligence agency had produced evidence of Moroccan involvement. The suspicion had been widespread: that Rabat had engineered the crossing as retaliation for Spain's warming ties with Algeria, Morocco's regional rival. But Sánchez insisted the opposite was true. "Cooperation with Morocco is frankly positive," he said, arguing that trust in the relationship was essential to resolving the crisis, not a luxury Spain could afford to abandon.

Instead, Sánchez pointed the finger elsewhere. He blamed criminal gangs for orchestrating the crossing, and he accused Israel and Russia—along with far-right actors—of weaponizing the event on social media. These accounts, he said, had spread a false claim that a Spanish supreme court ruling meant migrants who swam into Ceuta could not be deported. The disinformation, in his telling, had fueled the rush.

The accusation landed hard. Israel's foreign minister, Gideon Sa'ar, called it a "brazen lie" and turned the criticism back on Sánchez, suggesting the prime minister was using the charge to distract from his own failures in managing the crisis. The Kremlin, through the RBC daily, denied any connection to the events in Ceuta. The denials came swiftly and with heat.

Meanwhile, the human aftermath persists. Although most of the 70,000 who crossed have since returned to Morocco, at least 5,000 remain in Ceuta, including 1,200 minors. They are sleeping on streets and beaches. Some have had their belongings burned while they slept. Clashes have erupted between residents and police, and on one Saturday, four Moroccan migrants were arrested after throwing stones at Spanish soldiers. Sánchez promised that accommodation would soon be available for all those still stranded in the enclave.

The political opposition has seized on the government's handling of the crisis. Spain's conservative People's Party accused Sánchez of doing nothing to prevent the crossing and nothing to restore order afterward. "It did nothing to avoid the invasion on 30 July and it's doing nothing to stop the public order crisis that's getting worse every day," said Alberto Núñez Feijóo, the party's leader. Santiago Abascal of the far-right Vox party went further, calling the crossing "an invasion and an act of war promoted by Morocco and allowed by Sánchez, who is incapable of responding because he is subservient to Morocco."

Sánchez's exoneration of Morocco and his pivot toward blaming foreign disinformation campaigns reflect a calculation: that maintaining the relationship with Rabat is more important than satisfying domestic critics who want someone held accountable. Whether that gamble holds depends partly on whether the remaining migrants can be absorbed and moved out of Ceuta's streets, and partly on whether the public accepts his account of what happened and who was responsible.