CEUTA, 17 May. (EUROPA PRESS) –
The national president of the PP, Alberto Núñez Feijóo, visited Ceuta for the first time on Tuesday as opposition leader to “commit” his party to the need to guarantee “strict compliance with the Constitution and international treaties and laws” to shielding its Spanishness, as well as the need to “rethink” the bilateral relationship with Morocco based on mutual “respect” and as the “priority” partner that “has been, is and will continue to be”.
In statements to the media together with the president of Ceuta, Juan Vivas (PP), he described his “joy” as “incomplete” for the reopening this midnight of the land borders between Spain and Morocco of the two autonomous cities, an advance towards “normality” which, in his opinion, should not have occurred “until there were legal guarantees and full security, adequate border infrastructure, commercial customs and the human and material resources needed by the National Police and the Civil Guard.”
“It is not a complete celebration,” said Feijóo, who has opted to require “visas or similar documents” from all Moroccans who want to enter North African Spanish towns and “contracts” from cross-border workers. “We have not advanced in a substantial revision of the Schengen Treaty”, lamented the leader of the PP, who has imputed “lack of foresight” to the Ministry of the Interior.
The former president of the Xunta has been especially critical of the “rupture of the consensus that we had maintained for decades on foreign policy with Morocco, Algeria, the Sahara and the United Nations.” “The PP is a responsible and loyal party with the State, but the Government must be told that it is a temporary tenant, that it cannot negotiate what belongs to everyone, break basic consensus or make diplomatic lurches behind the backs of the Cortes because that it weakens us,” he added.
Feijóo has also considered it urgent to launch “an economic plan against inflation and the increase in debt and the public deficit” that he understands must go through “essentially lowering taxes, executing European funds and rationalizing bureaucratic spending, something unpostponable”.
In this framework, he has advocated “improving” the Economic and Fiscal Regime (REF) of Ceuta, to invest in the port, reduce transport costs to the peninsula, promote the city as a tourist destination and increase the quality of public services. “Investing in Ceuta, the southernmost border of the European Union, is doing it in Spain”, Feijóo summarized, presenting the city as “the most plural territory of the Spanish nation”. “This is a crossroads of cultures, prayers and religions whose Spanishness cannot be questioned as it is an almost perfect symbiosis” of different ones, he praised.
Vivas has “thanked” the national president of the PP for his “affection” and his “commitment to the inalienable and non-negotiable defense of the Spanishness of the city”, as well as “his support for a land of encounter, respect and coexistence between different creeds and origins” .
“A year ago we had our souls on edge, but with the dissuasive action and diplomacy of the State we were able to stop the coup, although the matter is not settled: we need an additional effort from the State, an energetic and determined plan to improve services fundamental publics and promote a more stable economic model”, has claimed the leader of the regional Executive, who has once again positioned himself in favor of requesting the entry of the city into the European Customs Union, for the opening of a commercial customs on the border of the Tarajal and for the elimination of the exceptionality that until 2020 allowed Moroccans residing in the province of Tetuán, more than one million, to enter Ceuta without a visa.
“We are convinced that Ceuta is going to get ahead and that we will have the support to achieve it from the PP with its president at the helm,” concluded Vivas.
3
