Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez has not made a single phone call to opposition leader Alberto Núñez Feijóo in nearly a month since a mass crossing of irregular migrants at Spain's border with Morocco into Ceuta, according to sources at the Popular Party's headquarters on Madrid's Calle Génova, cited by La Razón.
Not one call has come from Moncloa, the sources said, despite the fact that Ceuta is governed by the Popular Party and that some of the possible solutions to the crisis would require agreement in parliament, where an understanding between the two main political forces would be useful.
Sánchez is Spain's prime minister and leader of the Spanish Socialist Workers' Party. Feijóo leads the Popular Party, the country's main opposition force. Ceuta is a Spanish autonomous city on the North African coast bordering Morocco, and it has become the focal point of the current migration emergency.
Within the Popular Party leadership, officials said the prime minister was "ghosting" the opposition in the middle of a migratory invasion, calling it incredible that he was refusing to share any available information with them.
No direct contact since 2022
According to the report, Sánchez has gradually abandoned the practice of briefing the opposition on matters that affect the Spanish state. The last time he contacted the leader of the Popular Party was during Russia's invasion of Ukraine in 2022, when he spoke with then-PP leader Pablo Casado.
Since that call, no similar contact has been recorded. Months later, Sánchez decided not to seek consensus on a major shift in Spain's diplomatic position on Western Sahara, a change that committed the whole country going forward and was never debated in the Council of Ministers or in parliament.
Meetings between Sánchez and Feijóo have been rare since then. The last one took place a year and a half ago, in March 2025, and concerned the war in Ukraine and increased defence spending. A new bilateral meeting at Moncloa on the same subject had been planned for February but was postponed following the fatal Adamuz rail tragedy. It has not been rescheduled.
Feijóo's demands
Since the Ceuta crisis erupted, Feijóo has repeatedly denounced what he describes as government inaction. During his two visits to the city, he has called on Sánchez to personally take charge of the crisis and criticised him for not cutting short his holiday.
Last week Feijóo set out a seven-point plan for the government to act on, though he chose not to send it formally to Moncloa. Popular Party officials noted that in the past Feijóo used to send proposals to the government in documents stripped of the party's logo, asking rhetorically what the point was if they never even received an acknowledgement.
Government response
This time, however, Sánchez has agreed to some of the demands relayed by the Popular Party. This Tuesday, as he returns to the Council of Ministers after almost a month away, the government is expected to approve a single command structure to manage the crisis, to be led by the Minister for Territorial Policy, Ángel Víctor Torres.
Sánchez has also convened the National Security Council and is preparing an economic package to ease the consequences of the crisis for the city of Ceuta.
That covers three of the seven measures Feijóo proposed. Still missing is an increase in the number of immigration officials needed to speed up the processing of return orders for both adults and minors who entered the country illegally.
PP takes plan to Congress
The Popular Party will now bring the plan Feijóo presented to the Congress of Deputies through a non-binding motion, seeking to compel the government to adopt every one of the proposed measures.
Borja Sémper, the party's national spokesman, described the situation as a "multiple" crisis at a press conference, saying there were close to 10,000 people on the street and that the situation had created both a public order and a public health problem.
Sémper said the government was made up of a president, three deputy prime ministers and 22 ministers, and that the tragedy was that every single one of them had been completely out of touch since the Ceuta crisis began.
