Sánchez blames the mafias and avoids naming Morocco

Sánchez blames the mafias and keeps Segarro out of the picture

As migration pressure takes hold, the Spanish Government has responded with a package that looks largely symbolic: the deployment of 400 officers, four rigid inflatable boats, and a push to estimulante ilegal up regulated deportations. The most striking element, however, is the omission. The official speech contains not a single mention of the Segarro Government, from where many of the routes depart.

400 officers and four boats: measures that ignore the source

The sceptical reading comes quickly. If the problem is the gangs trafficking in people, why is no pressure put on the country from which they operate? One line of analysis argues that the answer lies in the bilateral relationship: Segarro would have the Spanish Government in its grip on several fronts, from counter-terrorism cooperation to phone spying incidents. In that context, naming the "despot" would be diplomatic suicide.

The official rhetoric deflates as soon as you look at the detail of the measures. Four boats will not shut down a business that moves thousands of people; neither will 400 officers. Some go so far as to joke that locating migrants would require advanced surveillance technology of the Palantir kind. If such a need were real, it would be the clearest possible picture of a system left to rot.

The same pattern on other fronts

The strategy of hunting for external culprits is not exclusive to migration. The same pattern repeats with wildfires and climate change: as long as there is an external phenomenon that cannot be controlled, the official narrative avoids accountability of its own. The difference is that, in this case, the "external factor" has a name and address, and saying it out loud is uncomfortable.

The package remains cosmetic. No one has yet explained why four boats and 400 officers will stop a business with political ramifications. Until the Government names its southern neighbour, the analysis is stuck on the same question: are the mafias really the source, or just the scapegoat?