How Morocco humiliated Europe’s weakest prime minister

Published August 6, 2026 9:00am ET



The recent invasion by Moroccan illegal migrants of Spain’s autonomous cities of Ceuta and Melilla laid bare the debilitating institutional weaknesses of Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez’s Socialist Workers Party coalition government.

On July 29, what ended up being a force of over 60,000 military-age Moroccan men invaded Spain’s autonomous North African enclave city of Ceuta, terrorizing its 84,000 citizens. 

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