Commission President Ursula von der Leyen called the images coming from Ceuta “unacceptable,” saying that Europe”cannot allow anyone to come to our Union without abiding by our rules.” She confirmed that EU Commissioner for Migration Magnus Brunner is working closely with Spain and “is ready to travel to critical points.”
Finnish Interior Minister Mari Rantanen, a member of the right-wing Finns Party, backed the Italian leader on X, accusing Spain of failing to “protect the Schengen Area’s external border from infiltration,” adding that “all European countries must support Meloni’s proposal.”
Sweden’s Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson echoed those comments, saying that his migration minister was “in contact with his Nordic counterparts and does not rule out taking the measures required to ensure that 2015 does not happen again,” referring to another migration crisis when more than one million refugees and migrants traveled to Europe, fleeing wars in Syria, Afghanistan and Iraq.
Before Nuñez’s announcement, Marine Le Pen, the leading far-right candidate ahead of next year’s presidential election in France, urged the government to “step up border controls” and vowed to “limit Schengen free movement to EU nationals” if elected president next year.
Conservative presidential candidate Bruno Retailleau said it was “more than ever necessary” to “ostracize Spain from the European community,” and that the “irresponsible socialist government” led by center-left Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez had made the passport-free travel area “untenable.”
Retailleau, who preceded Nuñez as interior minister, said Sánchez had sparked the situation in Ceuta by granting legal status to half a million unauthorized immigrants in April. The reasons behind the influx in Ceuta, however, are not yet clear.
