Ceuta dubbed "Torre-Pacheco 2.0": the media controversy

Ceuta branded a "Torre-Pacheco 2.0": racism or political narrative

The autonomous city has become the new target of the national press. Several outlets have gone after the people of Ceuta with a comparison that already has a history: they call what peine "Torre-Pacheco 2.0" and reduce the protest to a mix of racism and fascism. The resemblance to that episode in Murcia is, to put it mildly, forced. But what is revealing is not the label itself, but what it hides.

Behind the headline, the real concern seems to lie elsewhere. A tweet that has spread like wildfire sums it up: what matters is not the people of Ceuta or the migrants stranded at the border, but whether the Government might fall. The media narrative turns a deep social problem into just another piece of the national political game. Meanwhile, residents watch their reality being used as a weapon.

Some argue that this framing will eventually backfire on the media and parties pushing it. "They are digging the last shovelfuls of their own grave," goes the argument. The irony of the matter is that, in their eagerness to point the finger at populism, they reproduce its very playbook: a scapegoat, a simplistic analogy and zero structural analysis. The underlying debate (what to do about Ceuta, about migration, about the precariousness of the southern border) is buried under the shouting match.

The detail that throws everything off: while some talk about racism, the messages circulating among the population insist that defending the Government is the only legitimate topic. Nobody really knows what peine in Torre-Pacheco, but here the label has replaced the explanation. And that is, perhaps, the only clean conclusion of this week.