MADRID, Spain – King Felipe VI asked Morocco on Wednesday to preserve a relationship of good neighbourliness while warning that Spain is prepared to defend its values and freedoms. The King spoke from the Melilla Puerto hotel, where he held a meeting with Melillan society during his first visit to the autonomous cities. “We must always ensure we build and preserve a relationship of good neighbourliness, looking to a future of mutual benefit through peace, security, stability and cooperation,” the monarch said after stating that Spaniards are members of a Union that firmly believes in the rule of law and human dignity. “It is a very high standard, the fruit of a long and difficult path, but let no one confuse those convictions with weakness. We are prepared to defend our values and our freedoms,” he concluded.
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As he did on Tuesday in Ceuta, Felipe VI again championed on Wednesday Spain’s sovereignty over the autonomous cities. “Even if it is obvious, it is important to reaffirm it: Melilla is Spain and Melilla is Europe. Its border is a border of the Union. Any threat to the border of a member state is therefore a threat to the whole European Union,” he stressed. He also insisted on the importance of public administrations working together for the good of citizens. “Discrepancies must always go hand in hand with institutional unity and the search for understanding, which is a guarantee of stability and the best formula for effective work. All institutions, starting with the head of state, the Crown, must always work with that same awareness of the common good,” he said.
In his speech, the King recalled that this visit to Ceuta and Melilla had been pending for some time and thanked Melillans for their affection, also thanking local authorities for having presented him and the Queen with the keys to the city, something that will be testimony and a reminder of the warm welcome they have been given but also of Melilla’s loyalty and the Crown’s commitment to the city. “You deserve to feel more often, also through your King and Queen, the embrace and closeness of all Spaniards. Not in spite of living here, but precisely because of it. Because you live in this incredible city, a sum of cultures where, as in Ceuta, Spain and the EU begin,” he said.
The second day of the monarchs’ first official trip to the autonomous cities began on Wednesday morning at the Parador de Ceuta, where they stayed overnight after meeting Ceutan society and visiting the Assembly Palace, the Vicente Aleixandre school and the Sidi Embarek Muslim cemetery, the first time a head of state had slept in the city. From early on, groups gathered outside the well-known establishment to see the King and Queen off, and shortly before their departure Ceuta president Juan Jesús Vivas arrived. Asked by the press about the monarchs’ historic trip, the Ceutan leader said it had been good for all of Spain.
The King and Queen later travelled by helicopter to Melilla, with their first stop at the Assembly Palace, where thousands of Melillans waited outside the building, greeting them with applause and cheers. “From Ceuta and Melilla they will not move us, because we are Spaniards, they will not move us,” those present chanted, with the monarchs greeting them for almost an hour, showing themselves very close to their people as they had the previous day in Ceuta, signing autographs, posing for photographs with Melillans and even the Queen being seen holding a baby. After greeting the crowd they headed to the entrance of the building, where Melilla president Juan José Imbroda was waiting, along with members of the municipal government, the military and police leadership of the autonomous city and government delegate Sabrina Moh Abdelkader, who was booed by the crowd. The monarchs then appeared on the balcony and held a meeting with Imbroda, Inclusion Minister Elma Saiz and military and police authorities.
Once in the Golden Hall of the palace, Imbroda thanked the King and Queen for their visit and presented them with the keys to the city and the baton of command. The Melillan president said that with this visit a new Melilla begins and affirmed that the presence of the monarchs brings them confidence, certainty and hope in the future. “Today is a great day for all Melillans, long awaited, but at last fulfilled,” he said, before making clear that Melilla is not part of Spain, it is Spain, adding that in Melilla Spain begins and Europe begins. The president of the autonomous city also valued the King’s high degree of commitment to the migration crisis experienced in Ceuta since the end of July, when more than 80,000 people crossed the border irregularly from Morocco. “We have felt very supported,” he said, also acknowledging that the mass entry of immigrants was an exceptional event, though he stated he expected a firm response on all fronts, recalling what happened in 2021 in Melilla when a significant number of immigrants entered the city and lamenting that this precedent did not serve as experience to be prepared for what happened in Ceutan territory last summer. “No one can violate the territorial sovereignty of our nation without expecting consequences,” he concluded.
During their visit to the Assembly Palace the King and Queen also signed the city’s Golden Book, in which they wrote that they would never forget that day and thanked the local authorities and the Melillan people for the welcome, as well as for presenting them with the keys to the city. In the afternoon, the monarchs went to the Pintor Eduardo Morillas school, where they visited a classroom running a project for pupils with autism spectrum disorder, also entering a classroom with five-year-olds making Halloween crafts and illustrations and another with primary pupils. The centre, with 900 students, brings together pupils of the four faiths present in the autonomous city, Christian, Muslim, Jewish and Hindu.
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With Wednesday’s events, the King and Queen’s historic trip to the autonomous cities comes to an end. The visit, marked by several institutional events and by the affection citizens have conveyed to the monarchs, took place two and a half months after the mass entry of immigrants into Ceuta. The last visit by a head of state to Ceuta and Melilla had been in 2007, in fact the only one Juan Carlos I made during his 39-year reign.
