King comes to visit
Spanish King Juan Carlos was warmly welcomed by citizens of Spain’s enclaves but more coldly by Moroccans in his visit to Melilla and Ceuta this week.
File Graphic
Associated Press
Thousands cheered to the boom of a 21-cannon welcoming Spain’s king and queen to the North African enclave of Melilla on Tuesday, the second day of a trip that has seriously irked Morocco.
The two-day visit is King Juan Carlos’ first as head of state to Ceuta and Melilla, North African cities that are remnants of Spain’s colonial empire but which Morocco claims as its own territory.
Thousands waving Spain’s red-and-yellow flag packed Melilla’s Plaza de Espana square and chanted “Ole! Ole! Ole! We are Spanish!” as the king and Queen Sofia arrived Tuesday.
They received a similar reception Monday in Ceuta, Spain’s other enclave about 140 miles further west along Morocco’s northern coast.
Moroccans demonstrated Monday and Tuesday against the trip, and the Moroccan government last week recalled its ambassador from Spain in protest.
Moroccan Prime Minister Abbas El Fassi said the kingdom would continue to mobilize “to recover the two occupied cities and the neighboring islands,” according to Morocco’s official MAP news agency.
Morocco has “inalienable, legitimate and indisputable rights to reintegrate these lands into its sovereignty,” the prime minister told the House of Representatives, calling the Spanish visit “inadmissible and inopportune,” MAP said.
In his speeches in both cities, the Spanish king has not mentioned the dispute, saying only that he had long planned to visit Ceuta and Melilla.
“As a king who owes everything to all Spaniards, I had an obligation to visit Melilla with the queen,” he said.
Spain defends its sovereignty over Ceuta and Melilla by noting that the cities have been Spanish for more than 400 years, longer than Morocco has been a sovereign state.
