After the success of the NATO summit held in Madrid, the President of the Government, Pedro Sanchez, faces the less accommodating reality, from runaway inflation to the consequences of the tragedy that occurred at the Melilla fence, an event in which between 23 immigrants (official figure) and 37 (data disseminated by NGOs in the area) died. Everything in this serious incident has been unfortunate, from the “violent and organized” assault & rdquor; to the fence to the actions of the Spanish and Moroccan security forces through the subsequent statements that have tried to justify what happened.
Particularly unfortunate were Sánchez’s first words, in which he spoke of “well resolved problem & rdquor; and he praised the performance of the Spanish and Moroccan security forces. Faced with the justified indignation at such an unfocused comment, the President of the Government has made an effort to clarify and explain that when he did so he did not know the cruelty of the images, in which dozens of immigrants were seen piled up, crammed on the ground, many already dead or wounded, all this in the face of the passivity of the agents who not only did not help the victims, but on some occasions beat those who were already on the ground with batons.
Sánchez’s nuances, which are the least that could be demanded of him, do not repair in any case the imprudence of his words, pronounced, according to his version, when he had not seen the images. He has also never retracted his praise for the Moroccan security forces. The reason is obvious: not to make any gesture that could make the Moroccan monarchy uncomfortable after the pact by which diplomatic relations were normalized after the turn of Spanish policy on the Sahara. But ‘realpolitik’ should be compatible with criticism of excessive police forcefulness, more than evident in this case, and with respect for human rights.
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A chain of errors, from the lack of foresight and agents at first to the violation of many of the usual rules in a riot police charge -The bagging of protesters, the launching of tear gas–, caused the greatest drama with immigration at our borders, for which not only the mafias are responsible, as Sánchez and other members of the Government have also repeated. Although the assault was violent -some immigrants were armed with sticks, stones or shears and there were two hundred wounded, many of them agents-, the different treatment of these immigrants and the Ukrainian refugees or those from the ship Aquarius, welcomed with generosity by Sánchez at the beginning of his term.
Several parliamentary groups have requested the appearance in Congress of the Prime Minister. The PP and United We Can have requested an investigation, independent in the case of the government partners. It does not seem that there will be one because three others have already been launched: from Morocco, from the State Attorney General’s Office and the Ombudsman. In any case, the president must explain himself in a single session or in the next debate on the state of the nation and investigations must go to the end to clarify what happened and so that it does not happen again.