Ceuta is not just an invasion – it is a betrayal and a surrender | World | News
The footage from Ceuta and Melilla, Spanish enclaves in North Africa where thousands of illegal migrants have rushed past the Spanish borders, ought to be of grave concern to all patriotic or sovereignty-minded people in Europe and beyond. The scale and pace of this mass violation of the Spanish, and therefore of the EU, border is suggestive not of what the EU prefers to term ‘irregular migration’ or of ‘humanitarian need’ but of an invasion. Despite the pleas of local officials, the Spanish state has sat back whilst tens of thousands of Moroccan residents blatantly violate all norms and laws of national sovereignty in what appears to be a coordinated attempt to render these Spanish territories unviable as Spanish.
Even if law and order is restored on these territories, the legal architecture of European institutions will mean that there is little prospect of the illegal arrivals ever being returned. This is both a national and a continental catastrophe – but it is one that has been invited by both Spanish and European progressive elites.
In Spain, the government of Pedro Sanchez has taken every possible step to undermine Spanish sovereignty. Not only does Sanchez prefer to draw his authority from international institutions rather than the Spanish people, but he has deliberately undermined the very existence of Spain as a sovereign entity. His mass amnesty for illegal migrants, which by some accounts will now number some 2 million people, has called into question the very concept of Spain’s border integrity and the integrity of the Spanish people.
It has also called into question the key elements of the European Union. Not for the first time, countries are openly questioning the wisdom of free movement within the EU. While some European elites are wary of Sanchez’s actions, and recognise how desperately he acts to distract and protect himself from the spiralling allegations of corruption concerning him and his political and personal family, Sanchez is only enacting on a grand scale the practises of globalist elites.
The European institutions have overseen the creation of a vast legal and bureaucratic system which undermines sovereignty and border integrity at every turn. The tangled web of Strasbourg, Luxembourg and national courts has made serious attempts to control the border effectively impossible, and rendered equally unlikely serious attempts to return those who have no right to be in Europe. Let us remember: the most significant EU action in relation to borders was not to defend them, but to penalise financially the Hungarian government which attempted to protect its borders.
Thus, whatever qualities this influx has as an invasion, it is far better understood as a surrender. This collapse of the integrity of Spanish territory is the logical consequence of a political elite who have surrendered any attachment to national sovereignty. Surrendering sovereignty is logically equivalent to the surrender of territory.
At the same time, it is not a totally national surrender but more like a betrayal. The Spanish people, on the whole, still possess a strong attachment to their sovereignty. It is the Spanish political elite who have, metaphorically speaking, unlocked the gates to the city while the populace sleep. The Spanish elites have betrayed their own people. They are long-overdue a political reckoning, and the only positive from this debacle might be that the patriotic forces in Spain receive a shot-in-the-arm from this episode.
And despite some welcome measures in the European Parliament to attempt to provide some legal routes for the removal of illegal or criminal migrants, the EU as a whole looks set to further invite more of the scenes we have seen in Ceuta. The EU has been accelerating its plans for a “Pact for the Mediterranean” which aims to bring many more of these “young people” to Europe for “cultural and educational exchange”.
Time and again, European elites show greater affinity for the “young people” of North Africa than their own populations, especially the young people of Europe who bear the brunt of the economic downturn and the EU’s repeated moves to drive down the cost of labour via the importation of foreigners.
We must also save a word for international observers from America and Israel who appear to be reacting with glee to the scenes of this mass violation of Spanish sovereignty. It is true that the government of Pedro Sanchez displays an affection for anti-American and anti-Israel rhetoric, and openly supports the enemies of the West.
Yet Pedro Sanchez is not Spain. It seems as if many from America and Israel believe this illegal border violation is somehow a divine punishment on the Spanish people for having elected him. Not only does this violate all ideas of justice, but it is also deeply counterproductive.
To see commentators and senior politicians invoke the language of anti-colonial struggle to justify a Moroccan takeover of these Spanish territories not only alienates the conservative populations of Europe – who should be natural allies of MAGA Americans or Israeli patriots – but it legitimates the same language which can be easily applied to America and Israel.
The grim lesson of what we have witnessed here – and what we have witnessed year after year on the shores of Europe – is that without a forthright attachment to sovereignty, nothing can be done to protect our countries. It is high time that a movement of European patriots take substantive action to take borders seriously.
This will involve confrontation with the EU, globalist NGOs, and perhaps with countries on our borders. But the time for this is long due. From now on, sovereignty must be the rallying cry of all European patriots.
John O’Brien is the Head of Communications at the MCC Brussels think tank
