Thousands of migrants crossed into the Spanish enclave of Ceuta on Thursday, prompting Spain's Interior Ministry to declare a national emergency and deploy troops to restore order. The surge has reignited a fierce political battle across Europe over migration policy, with right-wing leaders blaming Madrid's mass regularisation programme for attracting new arrivals.
Manfred Weber, leader of the centre-right European People's Party (EPP), wrote on X that the images from Ceuta were “the direct consequence of the pull factor of massive regularisation doubled with instrumentalisation of illegal migration.” Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni went further, proposing the suspension of the Schengen area with Spain and announcing extraordinary measures to protect Italy's borders. “On illegal immigration, we will not yield an inch,” she posted.
The “pull factor” argument holds that generous reception conditions and permissive policies make a country more attractive to migrants. However, academic research suggests that migration is driven primarily by “push” factors such as war, persecution, and economic collapse, while pull factors are often linked to labour markets and welfare systems rather than regularisation schemes.
Spain has stood out in a Europe that has shifted rightward on migration. The government of Pedro Sánchez launched an extraordinary regularisation programme that drew over one million applications, a move that has drawn sharp criticism from conservative and far-right politicians across the continent. Italian Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani said the decision to grant Spanish and European citizenship to over 500,000 irregular immigrants was “profoundly wrong and encourages human trafficking.”
Right-wing leaders argue that Spain has a duty to defend the EU's external borders, since migrants who enter through Ceuta often move on to other member states. Alice Weidel, co-leader of the far-right Alternative for Germany, claimed that 50,000 illegal crossings had been recorded in Ceuta and that “Germany must prepare itself: borders must be secured and rejections rigorously enforced.” In France, Jordan Bardella, president of the Patriots for Europe group in the European Parliament, sent a letter to Parliament President Roberta Metsola requesting an urgent debate on the Ceuta developments and the “failure of the European Union's migration policies.”
Left-wing pushback
Left-wing politicians in Spain and beyond see the attacks as opportunistic. They argue that the Ceuta crisis provides a convenient excuse to undermine the only progressive migration policy left in Europe. Juan Fernando López Aguilar, a Spanish MEP from the Socialists & Democrats and former justice minister, said that “in Europe, right-wing attitudes have prevailed in picturing migrants as a threat.” He added that the humanitarian approach of the Sánchez government is “not only being marginalised, it's increasingly isolated.”
Cecilia Strada, an Italian MEP from the S&D group, accused right-wing leaders of “right-wing propaganda at its worst.” She said that in the face of a humanitarian emergency with tens of deaths and an unknown number of missing people, one would expect European solidarity rather than “instrumental attacks aimed at political profiteering.”
Experts point to other factors behind the surge. Haizam Amirah Fernández, director of the Centre for Contemporary Arab Studies, noted that the influx could hardly have happened without the tacit approval of Moroccan authorities. Others highlight a Spanish Supreme Court ruling that prevents pushbacks of migrants intercepted at sea while swimming into Ceuta or Melilla, as opposed to those climbing the border fence. Human traffickers may be exploiting this legal gap.
Spanish authorities stress that the regularisation programme applied only to people already on Spanish territory six months before applications opened, meaning new arrivals would not benefit. Yet the political damage is done. The episode has become a flashpoint in the broader European debate over migration, with Spain's approach now under intense scrutiny from both the right and the left.
As the situation in Ceuta evolves, the EU faces a familiar dilemma: how to balance border security with humanitarian obligations. The record surge in Ceuta has exposed deep divisions among member states, and the urgent return agreement with Morocco may offer a temporary fix, but the underlying political battle over migration policy is far from over.
