CEUTA, Spain – King Felipe VI has championed Spain’s sovereignty over Ceuta and defended that the migrants who entered on 30 and 31 July should return to Morocco, saying that those who entered the country irregularly must, as a matter of principle, return to their place of origin as soon as possible and through legally established channels. The King, accompanied by Queen Letizia, made the remarks before representatives of Ceutan society at the close of a historic first visit to the city, marked throughout the day by a massive welcome in the streets.
King Felipe VI And Queen Letizia Visit Ceuta
“Being in Ceuta today is not just anything,” he acknowledged, adding that both he and Letizia had experienced the visit with a singular emotion. The monarch recalled that the trip had been pending for some time and that 2026 was to be the year the Crown settled that debt, although the migration crisis ended up giving the visit a very different meaning. “Not a single day has passed without keeping the people of Ceuta in our thoughts,” he said, explaining that they had come to the city above all to convey an embrace full of affection and warmth on behalf of all Spanish society. “Ceuta is Spain,” Felipe VI repeated three times to affirm that both cities are an inalienable part of Spain’s political and national reality. “The sovereignty and territorial integrity of our country are not negotiable, they are indisputable,” he warned.
The King also called for institutions, administrations, the Crown and political forces to act without cracks, ambiguity or half-measures and to be capable of offering practical and tangible solutions. The monarch extended that message to the European sphere, recalling that Ceuta’s border is also an external border of the European Union and that therefore any threat it suffers affects the whole bloc, calling on community partners for solidarity and commitment in protecting that common frontier.
Felipe VI also referred to Morocco and defended a good-neighbourly relationship based on mutual trust and respect, though he warned that maintaining it requires good faith from both parties. The speech ended with a message of support for the city in which he thanked Ceutans for their mettle and courage and highlighted their daily coexistence above races, languages and religions. The message came at the end of a day the King and Queen themselves had defined as long-desired, with thousands of people receiving Felipe VI and Letizia since midday amid flags, cheers and banners, in a visit with which the Crown sought to convey its backing to a city still marked by the mass entry of migrants.
“There was a debt that we settle today while conveying the closeness and affection of all Spain,” they said on signing the City Council’s Book of Honour, in which they highlighted the commitment of the whole country to the future of Ceutans, which is the future of Spain. Expectations were high as it was the first official visit to the city by Felipe VI and Letizia, coming 19 years after the last by Juan Carlos I and Sofía in 2007 and two and a half months after the mass entry of migrants from Morocco. Ceutans gathered from early morning around Plaza de África and Gran Vía to greet the King and Queen, who took about half an hour to walk the less than 200 metres separating Plaza de la Constitución from the Assembly Palace.
Spanish flags covered the surroundings, where Ceutans waited with banners reading Welcome to your home, Your Majesties or Thank you for coming and chants of Long live the King and A caballa never gives up, with the bells of the sanctuary of Santa María de África ringing throughout the route. At the Assembly Palace, the King and Queen greeted members of the corporation and came out onto the main balcony alongside Ceuta president Juan Vivas and Territorial Policy Minister Ángel Víctor Torres, with Felipe VI, holding the baton of command, greeting the citizens gathered in the square once more. After greeting Assembly members, the King and Queen held a working meeting with representatives of Ceutan society and local government members, where Vivas took the opportunity to convey the situation Ceuta is going through, describing the city as a pressure cooker living the most difficult moment of its recent history.
“Ceuta resists, but does not resign itself,” Vivas said, defending the need to recover normality and warning of the consequences of the crisis on security, health, education and the economy. He also recalled that around 15,000 people of the more than 80,000 who entered on 30 and 31 July from Morocco remain in the city, a figure he reiterated represents 20 per cent of Ceuta’s entire population. The Ceutan president thanked the King and Queen for their backing and said their visit would help generate confidence where it is most needed and light the way out of the tunnel, also championing the city’s link with the rest of the country and defining it as Spanish to the core through and through.
After Vivas’s words, Felipe VI and Letizia received the Golden Key to the City of Ceuta and signed the City Council’s Book of Honour, where they said they had closely followed the difficult circumstances of recent months and conveyed to Ceutans the closeness and affection of all Spain. Before ending the morning’s agenda, they visited the sanctuary of Nuestra Señora de África, patron saint of Ceuta, next to the City Hall. In the afternoon, Felipe VI and Letizia travelled to the Manzanera neighbourhood, a low-income area outside the city walls with a predominantly Muslim population, where they were again received by hundreds of residents amid flags of Ceuta and Spain, applause and chants of Felipe, Felipe and You can tell, you can feel it, the King and Queen are present.
After walking one of its streets and stopping to greet and take photos with residents, they arrived at the Vicente Aleixandre public school, where 141 pupils aged between three and twelve study, a centre where 69 per cent of students profess Islam and 27 per cent Catholicism and which is committed to multicultural education and respect between different faiths. In a third-year primary classroom, the King and Queen learned about the MUS-E project, an educational and social initiative using the arts as a tool for integration and transformation, and then visited a nursery class with four- and five-year-olds, sitting with the children as they coloured, played with stickers and did crafts. The King, settled into one of the small classroom chairs, responded to one child’s curiosity about the baton he carried, explaining that it is a baton of command and belongs to the president, in reference to Juan Vivas. They also held a meeting in the library with parents, teachers and representatives of the educational community, and in the playground pupils approached to hand them letters and posed with them for a group photograph.
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From the school, the King and Queen moved to the Sidi Embarek Muslim cemetery in the Los Rosales neighbourhood to pay tribute to the migrants who died at sea during the mass entry, where around 90 of the victims are buried, many still unidentified. The first 18 bodies recovered rest beside a plaque placed by the city reading: Here rest those who lost their lives on 30 and 31 July 2026 off the coast of Ceuta, with another 72 buried later in an emergency extension of the cemetery. Felipe VI and Letizia observed a minute’s silence before the graves accompanied by representatives of the four faiths coexisting in Ceuta, Christian, Muslim, Jewish and Hindu, as well as Juan Vivas and Ángel Víctor Torres, with the Muslim community representative explaining the process followed to bury the victims, many of whose graves are identified only by numbers. On leaving, when they had already got into their vehicles to head to the Parador, the King and Queen got out again to greet the hundreds of residents waiting in Los Rosales, another majority-Muslim neighbourhood.
