Thousands of people took to the streets across Spain on Wednesday to protest the country’s government and Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez’s handling of the Ceuta immigration crisis.
The protests—called by the FEMP federation of municipalities, dominated by the main opposition conservative People’s Party (PP)—were a response to the ongoing border crisis.
Between July 30 and 31, thousands of people, mainly young men, crossed from Morocco into the tiny Spanish territory of Ceuta in an unprecedented surge at one of the European Union’s only two land borders with Africa.
Authorities have not yet released an official nationwide total of the number of people who attended the protests, but tens of thousands came out across different regions, waving Spanish flags, even calling for Sánchez to go to jail.
In Madrid, authorities said some 50,000 protesters turned out on Wednesday.
Delegación del Gobierno, the office that represents Spain’s central government in each autonomous community, estimated that there were 161,500 attendees across the Andalusia Region, which includes Málaga and Seville, Spanish news outlet ABC reported on Sept. 2
Authorities said about 20,000 people protested in Ceuta, which only has 84,000 residents, on Sept. 2.
However, Ceuta protest organizers told Spanish newspaper El Debate that they believed that the real number was higher.
In the protest that coincided with the annual Ceuta Day, one placard read: “SOS. Europe, save us from our traitor government,” while some demanded that authorities should “expel the invaders.”
“The response has been inadequate, late, and, to top it all, has involved a complete dereliction of duty on the part of the government. We cannot be second-class citizens, and our border must not be sidelined,” David Hernandez, a 45-year-old teacher, told Reuters.
On July 30, Spain deployed military units to Ceuta to reinforce security after thousands of illegal immigrants breached its border with Morocco.
The Spanish government’s current official estimate is that about 72,000 people crossed into Ceuta from Morocco over two days.
Authorities say between 5,000 and 8,000 people still remain in Ceuta. Spain confirmed that about 82 people were killed in the rush, and 14 more deaths were confirmed by Morocco.
Talking to the Spanish radio network Cadena SER on Monday, Sánchez, who is the leader of the Spanish Socialist Workers’ Party, claimed that research by the EU’s diplomatic service, EEAS, had indicated that Russia and Israel, as well as the far-right, had spread “disinformation” over Spain’s immigration policy.
This, he claimed, was motivated by Spain’s position on Ukraine, Israel, the West Bank, and Gaza.
An EU spokesman told The Epoch Times by email that “migration is a sensitive issue across Europe, and we have seen significant disinformation activity on social media seeking to exploit it, fuel divisions and increase polarisation.”
“However, we have no conclusive evidence to suggest that the crisis itself was triggered by disinformation from foreign state actors,” he said.
The spokesman added that in the case of Ceuta, it just “saw attempts by Russia to exploit the crisis online.”
Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar denied that Israel was spreading false information about the events in Ceuta.
“Continuing to spread defamatory lies will not divert attention from Sánchez’s shameful failure in managing his country’s affairs,” Sa’ar said in an Aug. 31 post on X.
Speaking in parliament on Sept. 3, Sánchez denied claims about the existence of a police report that suggested that Morocco allowed immigrants to overwhelm border controls.
“I can assure you that no institution—not the diplomatic service, nor the European Commission, nor any international body—has provided the Spanish government with any solid evidence that Morocco planned or carried out the incident. None whatsoever,” Sánchez said.
President Donald Trump recently weighed in, warning that “Spain will be a ruined country” if it fails to tackle the crisis.
“What’s happening there is very sad to watch. … Thousands of people just bum-rushing your country. I’ve never seen anything like it,” he said, speaking to GB News, which was highlighted by the White House’s Rapid Response 47 account in a Sept. 3 post on X.
Reuters and The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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