Spain’s king said his country’s control of exclaves in Africa was “non-negotiable,” after the cities became flashpoints in territorial disputes with Morocco and Europe’s anti-immigration debate. Ceuta rose to international prominence in July, when more than 70,000 people swept into the tiny exclave in a matter of hours. Most have returned to Morocco, which Spain’s prime minister accused of entering its territorial waters during the crisis.
But European far-right parties have seized on the crisis as evidence that Madrid’s welcoming stance toward foreigners — it previously vowed to regularize hundreds of thousands of undocumented migrants — has backfired: “The future of Europe is being decided in Ceuta,” the leader of France’s hard-right National Rally party said while visiting the Spanish territory.