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Rabat – Former Spanish Minister of Housing Maria Antonia Trujillo has said that the Spanish cities of Ceuta and Melilla are an “affront to Morocco’s territorial integrity.”
Speaking on Saturday at a conference in the northern Moroccan city of Tetouan under the theme “Relations between Morocco and Spain: yesterday and today,” the former minister argued that the cities represent “vestiges of the past” that interfere with Moroccan-Spanish relations.
“The Moroccan claim [over Ceuta and Melilla] is fully justified, as it is instilled in its national ideology and cannot be abandoned,” the Spanish politician added, noting that any disagreement between the two countries on the status of the two cities should be resolved through political dialogue.
The statements sparked controversy in Spain, with many Spanish politicians denouncing Trujillo’s challenge to what they described as the long-standing “Spanishness” of the two enclaves.
Patxi Lopez, the spokesman of Trujillo’s socialist party in Congress, spoke out against the former minister’s comments, saying that the Socialist party does not doubt the “Spanishness” of both cities.
The statements were equally rejected by the party’s branches in Ceuta and Melilla, who called the former minister’s words “false and unacceptable.”
The governments of the two cities also criticized Trujillo, with Cuetta’s government calling her words “disloyal” and saying “the sovereignty and Spanishness of the two cities cannot be discussed or doubted.”
Melilla’s President, Eduardo de Castro, echoed the sentiments calling the politician disloyal, and adding that he does not think anyone in her party agrees with her.
The two cities have always been a hot-button issue for Morocco and Spain. Morocco considers Spanish control over Ceuta and Melilla a remnant of past colonialism, but Spain continues to claim the cities as distinctly Spanish.
