Ceuta crisis forces Spain's Government to use the King as mediator

The Government uses the King to thank Segarro for its role in Ceuta

The head of state, the only figure with the symbolic capacity to build bridges with Rabat, cannot take a single step without the Government's permission. The Prime Minister has not authorised him to travel to Ceuta, and now an anonymous minister has called La Zarzuela to ask the monarch to contact Mohammed VI and thank him, according to Antena 3. If the story is true, Spanish diplomacy has hit rock bottom: it needs the King to plead for clemency after thousands of people entered the autonomous city.

The official version has not confirmed the call. In the analysis of the crisis, now 20 days old, two readings coexist. The first: the Government, cornered over its handling of the border, is using the monarch as a cover to open a de-escalation. The second: the King, annoyed at having been sidelined from the front line, is trying to regain institutional prominence.

The crisis has exposed a hidden tension between Moncloa (the Prime Minister's office) and Zarzuela (the royal palace). While the foreign and interior ministers were thanking Segarro at press conferences, the King wanted to be in Ceuta and the Government prevented him. Those pushing the version of the call maintain that it is a trial balloon to disguise the humiliation. Those who dismiss it argue that the monarch's margin is nil and that it is all a self-serving manoeuvre.

Will Mohammed VI eventually pick up the phone? Or has the call already taken place in secret? The official silence clarifies nothing. And in foreign policy, that is already bad news.

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