Anti-immigrant, far-right campaigners were set to hold a rally on Sunday in Ceuta, Spain, demanding the expulsion of all remaining migrants who had entered the Spanish territory from Morocco last week.
Although most of the migrants have returned to Morocco, Ceuta was still grappling with the aftermath of at least 50,000 people, most of whom were young Moroccan men, crossing into it late last week and overwhelming the city of 84,000 residents.
Santiago Abascal, the leader of the far-right Vox party, was scheduled to arrive on Sunday morning after lashing out at the influx and blaming the Spanish government.
“It is an invasion,” Mr. Abascal wrote on social media on Thursday. “And Pedro Sánchez is its chief promoter and is responsible for all its consequences,” he said, referring to Spain’s prime minister. Mr. Abascal added that if the government did not expel the migrants, “Spaniards should.”
On Saturday night, soldiers searched alleys and plazas for young men who were hiding, while small groups on the outskirts of the city made for the hills surrounding Ceuta. A few hundred men from sub-Saharan Africa were holed up on a beach and vowed not to return, even as they were running out of food. In the city center, some businesses cautiously reopened, and families returned to the streets and beaches.
But as the immediate crisis began to ease, the political fallout was only beginning. Opposition leaders and far-right politicians arrived in Ceuta, portraying the influx as proof that Mr. Sánchez had lost control of the country’s borders and turning the crisis into a broader battle over immigration and national identity.
Alberto Núñez Feijóo, the leader of the main conservative opposition People’s Party, traveled to Ceuta on Saturday and blamed Mr. Sánchez for what he called the “occupation” of the city. But far-right figures were increasingly setting the more extreme tone of the political debate, presenting the crisis as evidence of what they described as the dangers of Spain’s immigration policies.
The arrival of far-right activists and politicians in the city has provoked an angry reaction from some residents, many of them of Moroccan descent.
On Saturday evening, Alvise Pérez, a far-right Spanish politician and a member of the European Parliament who demanded the expulsion of the migrants, faced off against a crowd of residents who accused him of conflating migrants with Muslims and exploiting the crisis to advance his political career. As the crowd grew angrier, Mr. Pérez was forced to seek shelter in a bar and residents pounded on the windows. The police later escorted him away, drawing cheers from the crowd.
“Ceuta united,” they chanted, “will never be divided!”
Other far-right figures blamed the confrontation on “immigrants,” whom he accused of invading Spain. Vito Quiles, a prominent far-right commentator who was expected to arrive on Sunday in Ceuta to hold a demonstration in the evening, said he would not allow “migrants” to drive him out of the city.
“A few of Mohammed VI’s fifth columnists are not going to be able to drive Spaniards out of their own land,” Mr. Quiles wrote Saturday on social media. “See you tomorrow to demand the expulsion of the invaders and Pedro Sánchez from Spain.”
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