The Minister of the Interior is going through the most difficult moment since he entered politics. The Prosecutor’s Office, the Ombudsman, the NGOs, his government partner, parliamentary allies and the opposition surround Fernando Grande-Marlaska for his management of the migration crisis at the Melilla fence that ended with the death of at least 23 people. Forced to appear again in Congress to give more explanations, the figure of Marlaska begins to show signs of political wear and tear from which he does not escape from behind closed doors. This week several colleagues from the Council of Ministers came out in a rush to support him, surely the most reliable sign that he is facing his lowest hours.
In public, the Executive’s slogan is not to give the PP the possibility of collecting any political piece, and hence the call to praise the work of the head of the Interior in the face of the daily request of those of Núñez Feijóo that he resign or be dismissed. “Absolutely,” Pedro Sánchez replied to the question of whether he continued to support Marlaska in an interview on Thursday on laSexta in which he also denied that he was going to fire him. Before, ministers like Félix Bolaños, María Jesús Montero, Reyes Maroto or José Manuel Albares had also shown their encouragement. But in Moncloa they are not unaware that the tragedy in Melilla has ended up translating into a severe weakening of the figure of its minister, who already had many ballots to leave the Executive in the profound remodeling carried out by Pedro Sánchez in July 2021 and from which, finally, he ended up getting rid of.
Within the socialist part of the Executive, Fernando Grande-Marlaska is considered one of the ministers with the most conservative profile and one of those who arouses the least sympathy among the left. A profile carved during a judicial path always close to the orbit of the PP. Appointed in his day as a member of the General Council of the Judiciary at the proposal of the popular, his name also emerged as a candidate for State Attorney General from the right. Although he ended up being a PSOE minister.
The experience of the legislature shows that Moncloa is in favor of treading carefully in a particularly delicate department due to the management of security forces and bodies. However, no one is capable of ruling out that if the government crisis that should turn ministers Carolina Darias and Reyes Maroto into municipal candidates is somewhat deeper, Marlaska could be relieved. “If he has displayed anything, it is strict compliance with the law and his empathy with the human dimension of migration,” Sánchez limited himself to commenting on laSexta.
The images
But the migratory drama of last June 24 in Melilla is still far from ceasing to be a headache for the Minister of the Interior. Four months after the tragedy, the official recordings have not yet been released in full despite criticism of the Interior’s management on the fence and after published information that contradicts the version of Marlaska and the Spanish security forces.
This same week, the Prosecutor’s Office gave it a new setback and indicated that the images sent were not complete after detecting temporary jumps in the video, some of them at “relevant” moments and that prevent a clear view of what happened, for which reason the sending all of them to be able to carry out the research work. From the department of Marlaska they have responded to the Public Ministry that “all the audiovisual material” collected about the events had already been sent. “The material they don’t have is simply because it doesn’t exist,” they say.
The investigations opened in the Prosecutor’s Office began with the objective of clarifying and seeking possible responsibilities for what happened at the border on June 24. The case was born with difficulties to prosper since Spanish prosecutors cannot investigate events that occurred in another country and, although there are doubts about the place where part of the avalanche occurred, all the lifeless bodies of the victims are in Morocco. However, the prosecutor could decide to prosecute him, which would increase the ability to learn more details about how and where the deaths occurred.
There are several key issues pending to be resolved regarding what happened on June 24 on the Spanish side of the border. And its clarification tests the image of Marlaska, who has defended from the beginning that all the “important” events of the tragedy occurred in Morocco. But the full broadcast of the images can clarify whether a part of the deadly avalanche, in which several people lost their lives, took place on Spanish soil.
The lack of health care for the migrants, most of them Sudanese refugees, who were on top of each other, forming a funnel, at the gate that connects Morocco with Spain is another aspect that must be analyzed in the official recordings. According to the media that have had access to these videos (El País and Cadena SER), part of the events that led to the deaths took place on Melilla soil and the Spanish authorities did not provide health care to people at risk. Inside denies it.
Criticism of the deputies
Although Fernando Grande-Marlaska insists that “no tragic event” occurred on Spanish soil during that massive leap, most members of the Interior Commission who traveled to Melilla this week believe the opposite. “The avalanche occurred in Spanish territory when the access gate controlled by the Spanish authorities was broken. We have seen in the images people and bodies on the ground, we do not know if they are dead or injured, but in Spanish territory”, says the deputy of EH Bildu, Jon Iñarritu, after the trip to the border. “The Government cannot continue to act like the ostrich, the parties that support the Government must facilitate the creation of an investigation commission to find out why this tragedy occurred and to take measures so that something like this cannot happen again” he adds. A position supported by other partners such as Unidas Podemos, ERC, Compromís or Más País.
For the PP, which does not seem willing to support this commission of inquiry, there are, on the other hand, plenty of reasons for Marslaka to leave the ministry. “Marlaska must leave for dignity today better than tomorrow and, if she does not, Sánchez must stop him immediately,” said the popular spokesperson for the Interior, Ana Belén Vázquez, this week. Those of Feijóo have demanded a new appearance from the minister because, in his opinion, he “lied in parliamentary headquarters” during his appearance in September, as well as that he make available to the deputies the security images of that fateful day.
The Ombudsman and NGOs
Less than a month ago it was the Ombudsman, Ángel Gabilondo, who gave Marlaska a severe blow. In a report made public on October 23rd, it was preliminarily concluded that the Ministry of the Interior failed to comply with the law in the 470 returns made by the Civil Guard during the jump over the Melilla fence. That day, the migrants held on the Spanish side of the fence were returned by the agents in an action defended by the Minister of the Interior. Ángel Gabilondo’s team reminded the Executive that “border rejections”, known as hot returns, must follow an individualized procedure. According to what a dozen survivors of the tragedy told elDiario.es, among the returned people, the majority of whom were Sudanese refugees, there were injured and minors.
The agency continues to investigate what happened at the border and, like the Prosecutor’s Office, asked the Secretary of State for Security for more official recordings of the tragedy, considering that the images provided contained temporary jumps. Its future conclusions, although they are not binding, may also shed light on the contradictions between the Interior version and the latest information published.
The criticism has been joined by a group of renowned organizations -among which are the Spanish Coordinator of ONGD for Development, Amnesty International, Neighborhood Coordinator or the Spanish Commission for Refugee Aid (CEAR)-, which this week they have sent a letter to the President of the Government to demand an “independent investigation” of the Melilla tragedy. “The fact that the operations on the border have been carried out by the security forces of the two countries should not hinder the necessary accountability and attribution of responsibilities,” the letter states.
The Ceuta investigation
Not only the case of the Melilla tragedy has placed Grande-Marlaska at the center of criticism for the abuses linked to its immigration policy. Although Pedro Sánchez, upon his arrival at Moncloa, used a series of measures on immigration -the reception of the rescue ship Aquarius, the supposed recovery of universal health care and the removal of the concertinas from the barbed wire fences- as a coup de effect for attempting to convey a change from the policies of the past, the heavy hand soon returned to border management. The turn in the focus of these policies, led by the Interior, began to be noticeable at each peak of arrivals of migrants and refugees -except in the case of Ukrainians-. From the Interior, the same hot returns that the PSOE had promised to eradicate were practiced and defended. Gone is the exemplary humanitarian device activated in Valencia to receive those rescued from the ship of the NGO Doctors Without Borders when, two years later, the migrants disembarked in the Canary Islands were received in the so-called “camp of shame” in the port of Arguineguín. in unsanitary conditions.
But if Marlaska was already touched by the tragedy in Melilla due to his response to the migration crisis in Ceuta, when more than 10,000 people entered Spain without encountering opposition from the Moroccan authorities. The operation for the expulsion of minors from the city in August 2021 is another of the great scandals that still weighs on the minister. A Ceuta court is investigating the former government delegate, Salvadora Mateos; and to the vice president of the city, Mabel Deu, for a possible crime of continued prevarication for not complying with the provisions of the Immigration Law in the return device, agreed between the Interior and Morocco to return minors who arrived in the autonomous city in May 2021.
The kids were expelled without any procedure and without addressing their possible vulnerabilities. The minister strongly defended the expulsion of these minors, although he has tried to remove all responsibility for the application of the operation, which violated the guarantees of the children’s regulations. According to the Interior, the Ministry limited itself to agreeing on the return of the minors and points out that the Government Delegation -which depends on the Interior- and the City Executive were the ones who put it into practice.
However, from the statements collected by the Prosecutor’s Office it is clear that the Ministry, through the Secretary of State for Security, was aware of the decisions related to the expulsions and was warned of the irregularity of any return of a minor who did not comply with the Aliens Law.
