Muslim Morocco and Christian Spain Arm Wrestle Over Ceuta

Morocco’s new $1 billion Donald J. Trump Highway is one key to understanding last week’s dramatic videos of young Moroccan men pouring into the Spanish exclave city of Ceuta. One week later, most of the 72,000 border jumpers are back in Morocco, about 5,000 remain, 1,000 minors are to be sent to the Spanish mainland for processing, and almost 100 bodies will be sent home.Long after the numbers are forgotten, the shocking videos will endure. They will take on a political weight of their own. President Trump promises to make them “a talking point” in this fall’s midterms. “If we are not in office we will be invaded at levels that made Spain look small time,” he warned.The videos bolster anti-immigrant parties in Britain, France, Germany, Italy, and Spain. On Monday, for the first time, a pre-election poll in Germany indicated that Alternative for Germany, or AfD, is now the most popular party in long-liberal Berlin.The alarm in Europe is a measure of how attitudes towards migrants changed in the decade since Germany’s then-chancellor, Angela Merkel, welcomed 1 million Syrian migrants. In a measure of the turnaround, European journalists are abandoning self-censorship and researching the national origins of law breakers. Migrants run from police after crossing from Morocco into the Spanish enclave of Ceuta, July 31, 2026. AP/Antonio SempereIn country after country, from Finland to Spain, foreigners account for a disproportionate amount of crimes. To some young men, a trip to a liberal European society from a conservative Muslim one is seen as a ticket for a sexual safari.During last month’s World Cup, Moroccans at Amsterdam, Paris, and London rioted — after Morocco won, and after Morocco lost. By contrast, the game outcomes were greeted with well-contained parades at Rabat and Casablanca. With half of Morocco’s population under 35, this country of 38 million people endures what demographers call a “youth bulge.” Pushing young men to emigrate, youth unemployment is 34 percent. Using emigration as a societal escape valve, Morocco’s semi-authoritarian government reportedly plays catch and release, encouraging petty criminals to go north. Up to 3 million Moroccans live in Europe. Pulling migrants to Spain, the government of Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez announced last spring an amnesty for illegal migrants. The government expected 500,000 to sign up, largely visa overstayers from Spanish-speaking Latin America. Instead, when registration closed on June 30, some 1,174,978 people had signed up. Of these, roughly half were from North and Subsaharan Africa.Migrants cross from Morocco into the Spanish enclave of Ceuta, July 30, 2026. AP/Antonio SempereThere were other social, political, and geopolitical factors behind Morocco’s seemingly spontaneous invasion of Ceuta last weekend. For Spaniards who know their history — and there are many — it was chilling to see that Morocco could take over in a weekend a city that Spain has controlled for six centuries. This informal occupation echoed the 1975 “Green March” launched by Morocco’s then-king, Hassan II.In that event, Morocco’s king orchestrated the peaceful occupation of the northern fringe of Spanish Sahara, a mineral-rich coastal area the size of Nevada. This power play forced Spain to give up the area, increased Morocco’s size by 61 percent, and forced into guerrilla warfare local tribesmen who had planned to declare independence.In 2020, during Mr. Trump’s first term, the United States became the first country to formally recognize Morocco’s claim to the area. Six years later, this pax Americana allows the coastal section of the Western Sahara to boom with mineral investment and port construction. An American consulate is planned for the regional capital, Dakhla.Last month, Morocco’s reigning monarch, King Mohammed VI, named a new 660-mile, $1 billion highway through the new lands after Mr. Trump. “To honor this mark of friendship and peace, and as a personal expression of my deep appreciation, I have taken the decision to name one of the Kingdom’s most significant highways after you,” the King wrote Mr. Trump last month about renaming the new section of National Route 1.Migrants cross into the Spanish enclave of Ceuta from Morocco, July 30, 2026. AP/Antonio SempereIn response, Mr. Trump posted on Truth Social: “Thank you to Highly Respected Mohammed VI, the King of Morocco — Such a Great Honor! I look forward to traveling the entire length of this Great Highway someday, hopefully soon.”The guerrillas who control about a quarter of the old Spanish Sahara are armed and supported by Algeria, Morocco’s eastern neighbor and archrival. On July 20, Mr. Sánchez made his first visit to Algiers in four years. He announced plans to import more natural gas from Algeria. He called Algeria a country “amigo.”Ten days later, Moroccan traffic police waved truckloads of cheering Moroccan men up the road to Ceuta. At the border, Moroccan border guards either encouraged migrants to swim around a border breakwater or simply opened land border gates.Coincidentally or not, the big migration surge took place on July 30, Throne Day, a national holiday in Morocco. This celebrates the anniversary of King Mohammed ascending to the throne in 1999, following the death of his father, Hassan II. Coincidentally or not, King Mohammed and his entourage celebrated Throne Day at M’diq, a Mediterranean coastal town 10 miles south of Ceuta.Given tight security around royal events, it is hard to imagine that the King’s security agents did not notice the constant rumble of trucks, buses and taxis carrying 72,000 people through open road checkpoints to the Spanish border. Offering deniability, many migrants later told reporters that they read on social media — Facebook, WhatsApp, and Instagram — that a new Spanish Supreme Court ruling means that migrants who swim to Ceuta are to be processed as refugees. In what may be the first invasion by TikTok, it is unclear who was behind the myriad postings. Morocco’s Interior Ministry blamed the “exploitation of the digital sphere” and “the spread of misinformation.”Now that Morocco has demonstrated to Spain that it can swallow up its 7.5 square mile exclave in a weekend, King Mohammed does not seem inclined to follow the Green March tactic of his father. Taking over Ceuta would take away Moroccan leverage over Spain. Instead, by invading and then retreating, Morocco flexes its geopolitical muscles. It strengthens conservative opposition in Spain to Mr. Sánchez. It weakens his position in Europe.Spain is isolated in its liberal policy on immigration. Increasingly, European conservative leaders, often front runners in polls, react to Ceuta in the language of Mr. Trump. In France, the National Rally party’s likely candidate for president, Marine Le Pen, posted on X: “Faced with the massive and coordinated influx of migrants into Spain, encouraged by the Spanish government, France must without delay strengthen controls at its borders.” Italy’s prime minister, Giorgia Meloni, called for Spain’s membership in the Schengen area to be suspended. Finland’s interior minister, Mari Rantanen, accused Spain of “completely failing to protect the Schengen Area’s external border from infiltration.” In Britain, the Reform U.K. leader, Nigel Farage, posted a YouTube video warning: “Believe me, unless we get a Reform government, those scenes you’re seeing in Spain today, many of those young men, lots of them dangerous, will be heading toward Calais and coming to our country, too.” As a video of the immigrant invasion of Ceuta rolled in the background, he exclaimed: “It’s time to wake up.”

Muslim Morocco and Christian Spain Arm Wrestle Over Ceuta

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