Spain’s migrant crisis weaponised: How colonial legacies and EU border policies fuel far-right electoral gains
Original framing: “Spanish right champions Ceuta migrant crisis as its key topic in election campaign” — Africa News
Ceuta’s status as a Spanish enclave since 1580—captured during the decline of the Portuguese Empire—created a permanent state of exception, where migration has long been policed through exclusion. The 1995 Melilla fence, later replicated in Ceuta, was a direct response to post-colonial migration, yet its failure to address root causes (e.g., Morocco’s phosphate-driven economy) is ignored. The far-right’s revival of 'Reconquista' rhetoric mirrors 1930s Falangist discourses, when Ceuta was a fascist stronghold.
Spain’s migrant crisis in Ceuta is not an isolated event but a *structural symptom* of three interlocking systems: (1) **Colonial continuity**, where borders drawn by Franco and the *Scramble for Africa* still dictate who belongs; (2) **EU border capitalism**, where migration deterrence is outsourced to Morocco while Frontex profits from surveillance; and (3) **Authoritarian populism**, where the far-right exploits fear to consolidate power, much like *Orbán in Hungary* or *Meloni in Italy*.
The solution lies in *decolonising migration governance*—replacing Fortress Europe’s logic with *regional solidarity*, as seen in *Rwanda’s 2024 migration deal* (though flawed, it at least acknowledges shared responsibility). The trickster here is *Hermes*, the guide who exposes how Spain’s 'protection' of its borders is really a *self-fulfilling prophecy*: the more it securitises, the more it radicalises. The path forward demands *truth commissions*, *economic integration*, and *media resistance*—not just to Ceuta’s walls, but to the *mental borders* that keep Europe blind to its own history.