Thousands of people demonstrated across Spain yesterday, 2 September, in a nationwide show of support for Ceuta. What began as an expression of solidarity with the Spanish city increasingly became a wider display of political discontent, with calls for Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez to resign heard at demonstrations across the country.
Spain took to the streets for Ceuta yesterday.
Spain Expat Press Editorial Team
From Madrid to Seville, Valencia, Barcelona and the Canary Islands, demonstrations and gatherings were held across the country on Wednesday, 2 September, as Spaniards showed their support for Ceuta amid the continuing crisis facing the North African city.
Spanish and Ceuta flags dominated many of the gatherings, alongside a message repeated throughout the day: “Ceuta no se vende, Ceuta se defiende” — “Ceuta is not for sale, Ceuta must be defended.”
But yesterday’s demonstrations did not remain solely an expression of solidarity.
At a number of gatherings, frustration was directed squarely at the Spanish Government and its handling of the crisis. Chants of “Pedro Sánchez, dimisión” — “Pedro Sánchez, resign” could be heard among protesters in several cities.
The demonstrations therefore became about considerably more than Ceuta alone.
Madrid at the centre of the protests
Some of the most striking scenes yesterday came from the Spanish capital.
Madrid’s Plaza de Cibeles was packed with demonstrators carrying Spanish and Ceuta flags.
As so often happens with large political demonstrations in Spain, estimates of attendance differed considerably. The Government Delegation put the number at approximately 50,000, while Madrid City Council estimated that as many as 150,000 people had attended.
Calls for Sánchez’s resignation were repeatedly heard among sections of the crowd.
Senior opposition politicians were also present, including People’s Party leader Alberto Núñez Feijóo, Vox leader Santiago Abascal, Madrid regional president Isabel Díaz Ayuso and the capital’s mayor, José Luis Martínez-Almeida.
Yet Madrid represented only one part of yesterday’s mobilisation.
Demonstrations and gatherings were held across Spain.
In the Canary Islands, more than 10,000 people reportedly attended events in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria and Santa Cruz de Tenerife. Thousands also gathered in Palma, where calls for the Prime Minister’s resignation could be heard.
In Pamplona, the square outside the town hall was unable to accommodate the entire crowd, with demonstrators spilling into neighbouring streets.
Police estimates in Ciudad Real put attendance at around 8,000.
Gatherings were also reported in Seville, Zaragoza, Valencia, Barcelona, Logroño and numerous smaller towns and cities throughout the country.
Thousands take to the streets in Ceuta
The most symbolic scenes inevitably came from Ceuta itself.
Coinciding with the city’s official Día de Ceuta, thousands of residents took to the streets.
Initial estimates placed attendance at more than 20,000 people — a remarkable figure in a city with a population of around 80,000.
The crisis that began at the end of July has profoundly changed the political and social atmosphere in the Spanish enclave.
What initially emerged as a migration and humanitarian emergency has increasingly developed into a political crisis with national implications.
For weeks, residents have voiced concerns that Ceuta has been left to cope with an extraordinary situation without sufficient support from Madrid.
Yesterday, however, Ceuta was very clearly not alone.
Support for Ceuta — but not every protester was calling for Sánchez to go
There is an important distinction to make when interpreting yesterday’s demonstrations.
The official purpose of the gatherings was to show support for Ceuta. Not everybody who attended was demanding the resignation of Pedro Sánchez.
The Spanish Federation of Municipalities and Provinces (FEMP) had called for gatherings outside town halls across Spain at 8pm.
The PP and Vox strongly backed the initiative, while the governing Socialist Party criticised the way in which it had been organised and accused the PP of politically exploiting the institution.
Some municipalities governed by the PSOE and the left-wing IU held their own events in solidarity with Ceuta without formally joining the FEMP initiative.
That distinction is important.
Yesterday’s crowds included people motivated by very different concerns: some simply wanted to express solidarity with Ceuta; others demanded an immediate solution to the crisis; and others used the demonstrations to express their anger with Sánchez and his government.
In many places, those messages ultimately converged.
A message Madrid cannot simply ignore
The Government may dispute attendance figures and accuse its political opponents of exploiting the crisis. The opposition, meanwhile, will inevitably use yesterday’s images as evidence of mounting pressure on Pedro Sánchez.
Yet one fact is difficult to dismiss.
Ceuta mobilised thousands of people across Spain yesterday.
Only weeks ago, many residents of the city feared that once the most dramatic images disappeared from television screens and newspaper front pages, the rest of Spain would gradually lose interest.
Wednesday’s demonstrations suggested otherwise.
From Madrid and Andalusia to the Canary and Balearic Islands, Navarra, Castilla-La Mancha and beyond, the events of 2 September showed that the situation in Ceuta is no longer being regarded simply as a local problem on Spain’s southern frontier.
Ceuta has become a national political issue.
Alongside the demonstrations of solidarity, another message was impossible to miss: a significant section of those protesting yesterday holds the Spanish Government responsible for its handling of the crisis and wants political consequences.
The images of a packed Plaza de Cibeles, crowded squares across the country and thousands marching through Ceuta itself have transformed the crisis into something the Government will find increasingly difficult to contain politically.
Spain took to the streets for Ceuta yesterday. And in many of those streets, the message directed at Madrid was unmistakable: “Pedro Sánchez, resign.”
