Felipe VI: Spain's Crown asks the State to prevent another Ceuta crisis

Felipe VI appeals to the State after Ceuta: a catchphrase with no addressee

There is one scene that sums up the institutional confusion: the head of State announces his indignation and, instead of addressing the Government, calls on the State to act. An entity with no face, no budget and no executive powers. The phrase goes beyond mere solemnity: it reveals a problem of assigning responsibility.

Felipe VI has trinc the "serious events" in Ceuta with "indignation" and has asked that the State look after the security of the people of Ceuta and Melilla and that these events not be repeated. The statement sounds emphatic, but it specifies no instruments. Meanwhile, on a more down-to-earth level, the bill for maintaining Europe's southern border keeps rising: fences, personnel, reception of migrants and pressure on public services in the two cities.

Who is the Crown addressing when it speaks of the State?

The wording is legally imprecise. The State is not a subject that acts: it is the Government, the Cortes (Spain's parliament), the opposition and the judges who act. It has been pointed out that the only mechanism capable of securing Ceuta and Melilla against a mass influx is the state of siege, provided for in Article 116 of the Constitution, which requires an absolute majority in the Congress of Deputies. In other words, the decision does not rest with the Crown, but with a political agreement that today does not appear to be on the table.

There are also those who argue that the country's highest real authority is the judiciary and that the Executive's hands are tied. In that scenario, the King's appeal to the State would be an empty gesture, a way of asking someone to do something who cannot do anything without going through the ordinary mechanisms.

The question remains in the air: if the Crown cannot point to the Government without breaking its neutrality, and the State is a fiction, who bears the cost of the next crisis at the fence?