Morocco behind the absence of the King of Spain's visit to Ceuta, according to the opposition

During a plenary session at the Assembly of Ceuta, the Finance Councillor, Kissy Chandiramani, regretted that, due to «diplomatic and geopolitical reasons», no royal visit to the autonomous city had been planned. She specified that the responsibility lies with the Spanish Government, which decides on all the king's trips, reports El Confidencial.

Julia Ferreras, a deputy from the local opposition party Ceuta Ya, explicitly pointed to Morocco as the reason behind this royal absence. She denounced the «discriminatory treatment» reserved for Ceuta by the Spanish monarch, Felipe VI, who has never visited the city in ten years of reign. The deputy insisted on the importance of this visit to affirm the «Spanishness» of Ceuta.

The memory of the 2007 visit by the royal couple, Juan Carlos and Sofía, which provoked a diplomatic crisis with Morocco, remains vivid. At that time, King Mohammed VI had recalled his ambassador to Madrid and firmly condemned this visit, calling it an «affront to the patriotic sentiments of the Moroccan people».

In February of the previous year, following a Spain-Morocco summit, Spanish President Pedro Sánchez declared that the two countries had committed to avoiding anything that could offend the other party in their speeches and political practices, particularly concerning their respective spheres of sovereignty. A visit by Felipe VI to Ceuta and Melilla, claimed by Rabat, would be seen as a violation of this commitment.

Finally, Vox MP Carlos Verdejo expressed his dissatisfaction with the decoration of Abdelkader Chaib Haddu by King Felipe VI on June 19th. Haddu, president of the Al Idrissi Cultural Association, received the Order of Civil Merit for his efforts in favor of coexistence and the integration of young people in Ceuta. A distinction that Verdejo did not fail to criticize, claiming that Haddu is a «symbol of Moroccan culture in Ceuta».