'Pragmatic international relations': Sánchez seeks to avoid 'further conflict with Rabat'

Delano D’Souza is pleased to welcome Alana Moceri, International Relations Professor at IE School of Politics, Economics and Global Affairs. The migrant crossings at Ceuta have become both a domestic and international political lightning rod. At home, Pedro Sánchez faces opponents who can cast migration in existential terms, with Spain’s far right amplifying the rhetoric of “invasion.” Internationally, the crisis exposes the geopolitical leverage inherent in control of the border. Ceuta thus emerges as more than a migration crisis: the border becomes at once an instrument of geopolitical leverage, a weapon in Spain’s domestic political contest, and a battleground for competing narratives and disinformation.