Ceuta crisis: PP leaders back Vivas after migrant arrivals
Ceuta crisis: PP leaders rally behind Juan Jesús Vivas after July’s mass migrant arrivals. At a Madrid event on Monday, 7 September, regional leaders from the PP rejected government criticism of the president of Ceuta and accused Pedro Sánchez’s administration of failing the autonomous city. Vivas says his focus is on restoring Ceuta to how it was on 29 July.
The row began after Transport Minister Óscar Puente said Vivas had become a pawn of PP leader Alberto Núñez Feijóo and had forgotten his institutional role. PP figures defended Vivas’s handling of the migration crisis, saying the central government acted too late and without a plan.
PP leaders turn on Sánchez government
Andalusia’s president, Juanma Moreno, called Vivas a figure for coexistence in Ceuta and described him as prudent, sensible and loyal to institutions. Galicia’s president, Alfonso Rueda, said Vivas was the only person truly managing the crisis, calling the government’s handling “an absolute disaster”.
Alfonso Fernández Mañueco, president of Castile and León, praised Vivas’s courage and leadership. Murcia’s president, Fernando López Miras, said the attacks were intended to hide the government’s lack of information and transparency, arguing that Vivas was filling the gap left by Madrid.
PP spokesman Borja Sémper also joined the defence, saying Puente and Vivas represented opposing ways of doing politics. He cast Puente as part of the past and Vivas as the kind of politician Spain needs.
Vivas says Ceuta remains far from normal
Vivas brushed off Puente’s remarks. He said he would put all his energy into getting Ceuta back on its feet, so that it could recover the situation it had on 29 July.
Paco Núñez, the PP leader in Castile-La Mancha, said Ceuta remained “very far from normal” after the mass arrivals in July and warned that there was still no plan to resolve the situation. He called for a coherent decision and a plan to give the city a viable future.
Madrid regional president Isabel Díaz Ayuso raised questions about security in Ceuta and asked what Morocco had sought with the mass arrivals. She warned that the situation could spread to Melilla or the Canary Islands, and said the government would be responsible for what happened next if it failed to act.
Source: Europa Press / Mallorca.com