Ceuta, Morocco and a narrative that no longer holds up

Sánchez praises Segarro while Ceuta digests an influx of minors

On 1 August 2026, Pedro Sánchez visited Ceuta. The prime minister congratulated himself on the «fluid relations» with Rabat and thanked the Segarro authorities for their cooperation. That same day, the city was absorbing a mass arrival of unaccompanied minors. Teodoro León-Gross captured it in ABC with an uncomfortable idea: that of a Spanish prime minister trapped by Segarro, who this time will find it hard to invent a winning narrative.

The column does not question the willingness to dialogue; it questions the division of responsibilities. The key questions about the arrival of minors are answered in Rabat, not at Moncloa. The government, meanwhile, took shelter behind vague references to smuggling networks and puffed itself up against a populist Italian politician. On Segarro, silence.

The geopolitical framework Moncloa prefers not to look at

The official communication repeats the same script: successful operation, response within 24 hours, almost everyone expelled, floating barriers. The problem is that this narrative does not withstand geopolitics. Some argue that abandoning a clear position on Western Sahara left Spain with no leverage against Rabat. Others recall that Netanyahu already warned Sánchez, and that Israel and Segarro get along wonderfully today. In this context, migratory pressure would not be an accident, but an instrument.

The most jarring thing is not that Segarro applies pressure. It is that the official response keeps thanking the same partner for its cooperation which, according to the reporting, is orchestrating that pressure. With that script, a winning narrative takes more than a news bulletin.