Spanish Think Tank Warns Against Concessions on Ceuta and Melilla Sovereignty

In a report entitled "The role of Ceuta and Melilla in the global agenda", which will be presented on Wednesday, the think tank is sounding the alarm against Morocco’s continued claims on the two autonomous cities, and also against former Spanish political leaders, including the former Socialist minister María Antonia Trujillo, who question the Spanish sovereignty of the two presidios, reports Vozpopuli.

"The constant winks at Morocco by former political figures with interests in Morocco, such as the former Socialist Housing Minister María Antonia Trujillo, do not allow us to guarantee that the attention paid to Ceuta and Melilla will diminish in the immediate future," the think tank says, recalling Morocco’s incessant claims in recent times, after Pedro Sanchez’s support for Morocco’s autonomy plan for the Sahara.

Trujillo has repeatedly stated that "Ceuta and Melilla and the rocks and islets are vestiges of the past and threaten the territorial integrity of Morocco" and that the Moroccan claim on the autonomous cities "is fully justified". In an interview last January, the former Socialist minister had called on the Spanish government to change its position on Ceuta and Melilla and the Chafarinas Islands, as it had done for the Sahara.

After the tragedy at the end of June at the Melilla fence, which left more than twenty dead, Omar Zniber, Morocco’s ambassador to the UN in Geneva, in a letter to the UN Human Rights Council, stated that "Morocco has no land border with Spain" and that "Melilla continues to be an occupied presidio", recalls Europa Ciudadana in its report, calling on the Spanish and European authorities to continue to "defend the Spanishness and Europeanness of the two autonomous cities".