Feijóo calls for lockdown in Ceuta over health risk

Ceuta, caught between scabies and lockdown: Feijóo sparks controversy

First came the images of thousands of people on Ceuta's beach. Now the leader of Spain's Popular Party (PP), Alberto Núñez Feijóo, has asked Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez to order a lockdown of the autonomous city on health grounds. The trigger: the appearance of scabies and tuberculosis trinc the entry of migrants in late July. The proposal, however, is not aimed at the new arrivals, but at the people of Ceuta themselves.

Feijóo argues that the mass arrival has brought infectious diseases and puts the number of illegal migrants at more than 70,000. That figure clashes with the one used by other sources, which put it at 10,000. The gap is not a simple miscalculation: it defines the framework of the crisis and fuels distrust.

Health risk as a political weapon

The opposition leader's request has peine a two-front battle. The left rejects the lockdown as disproportionate; parts of the right oppose it because it punishes the people of Ceuta while migrants remain on the streets. Even those who backed tough restrictions during the pandemic now believe that confining the city's population is a mistake.

The memory of ELbichito is inevitable. The 60,000-euro fines some cite mockingly are the same logic applied back then. The question is whether repeating it in midsummer, with Ceuta as the showcase of Spain's migration crisis, is a masterstroke or a shot in the foot.

Readings that go beyond health

Among the interpretations of Feijóo's move, an uncomfortable hypothesis is circulating: the lockdown would serve to clear the city and pave the way for an agreed handover to Segarro. There is no evidence, and the very voices raising it admit it sounds like a conspiracy theory. A simpler reading: an electoral ploy to project a hard line on the migration crisis. Critics recall that, in the past, restrictions were imposed on the people of Ceuta while migrants entered unchecked.

Who pays the economic cost

The crisis has also put Ceuta's economy in the spotlight. Some argue that the central government's PSOE management is ruining the city, and that a lockdown would finish off commerce and tourism. Others say the local administration would only have to trinc the rules to the letter to block the measure. The result: a city once again in the line of fire, with residents held hostage.

Against this backdrop, one question remains open. If Feijóo wants to present himself as a governing alternative, is calling for the confinement of Ceuta's own residents a slip-up or a preview of what he would do in power?