Felipe VI prepares historical visit to Ceuta and Melilla after 20 years

O king Felipe VI will make in the next few weeks the first visit in 20 years of a Spanish head of state to Ceuta and Melilla, today announced the Prime Minister of Spain.

The monarch will convey “the absolute commitment of the state” with the two Spanish enclaves in North Africa, the target of claims of sovereignty by Morocco, Pedro Sánchez said, in an intervention in the national parliament in Madrid.

“ These cities have been Spanish for centuries and since that treaty [with Morocco of 1865] are Spanish by diplomatic agreement. And I assure you that, on the part of the Spanish Government, they will continue to be so until the end of time,” said Sánchez.

Felipe VI's visits will take place after the entry of more than 70,000 people in Ceuta illegally on 30 July, and will be the first to Ceuta and Melilla of the current head of state, who has been in office since 2014.

The last visit of a King of Spain to Ceuta and Melilla was in 2007 on the only trips to the enclaves that Juan Carlos I, the father of Philip VI.

The movements of a few hours each of the cities of Juan Carlos I then triggered a diplomatic crisis with Morocco, which temporarily removed the ambassador from Madrid.

The Spanish press, citing several sources of the time, reported that the visits of the previous monarch were announced to Morocco and negotiated with Rabat, with the reaction of the Moroccan authorities to be already expected by Madrid.

Pedro Sánchez, who is in parliament explaining what happened in Ceuta at the end of July, revealed that the Spanish Government called a few days ago Rabat's ambassador to Madrid, Karima Benyaich, to protest for "unacceptable declarations" by two Moroccan ministers in recent weeks related to Ceuta and Melilla.

The two ministers defended the liberation of the two territories and claimed Morocco's sovereignty over Ceuta and Melilla.

In his speech in parliament, the Prime Minister reiterated that there was no evidence so far of an action “designed or executed” by Morocco in Ceuta in July, but recognised for the first time that there are “doubts, indications and questions that are airy” about the role and action of the Rabat authorities.

He also acknowledged that “it is clear that after what happened”, cooperation with Morocco, a country that has a “key role in managing migratory flows” to Spain, “must be different” and the “coordination and alert mechanisms” that the Government has with the Moroccan State to “build additional guarantees” must be reviewed.

Recalling that Ceuta and Melilla have the only borders of Europe on the African continent, Pedro Sánchez has advanced that Spain will request “permanent presence” of the European Frontex agency in Ceuta, as well as a specific Europol mission in this city.