Spain - King and Queen of Spain to visit Ceuta and Melilla in October

The King and Queen of Spain will visit the autonomous cities of Ceuta and Melilla on October 13 and 14 in a visit agreed with the Spanish government, sources at Casa Real, the Spanish royal household, told the EFE news agency. 

The schedule for Felipe VI and Letizia will be announced in the coming days. 

The royal couple had been planning to make their first official visit to the two enclaves for some time, mirroring that of his father, King Juan Carlos, nearly 20 years ago. 

That visit resulted in a diplomatic crisis with the Kingdom of Morocco 

The migration crisis in Ceuta complicated matters, with both the Zarzuela palace and the government insisting that the visit would go ahead when the appropriate conditions were met, but the King made a commitment, Ceuta’s president Juan Jesús Vivas said some days after the event. 

The royal visit will “communicate Spain’s total commitment” to Ceuta and Melilla, Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez’s office said. 

On Tuesday, Felipe VI took the opportunity of the state dinner hosted for French President Emmanuel Macron and his wife to call for greater cooperation between EU member states following “the mass intrusion of tens of thousands of people into Ceuta, violating a Spanish border”. 

“What happened in Ceuta this summer...  is unacceptable and poses a major challenge from the point of view of security and public order and from a humanitarian perspective,” he said, highlighting the need to be “more effective and more united in protecting the EU’s external border”. 

For his part, Juan Jesús Vivas said the royal visit would reaffirm their “unequivocally clear” support for the autonomous city, adding that the people of Ceuta would receive them with affection and loyalty. 

The President of Melilla, Juan José Imbroda, said the visit would give the autonomous city “confidence, certainty and security about the future” following the border crisis in Ceuta two months ago, which also affected Melilla to a lesser extent.