Madrid’s city council delivered a blunt rebuff to Spain’s far-right Vox party this week, voting down a motion that sought to turn the capital’s chamber into a platform for anti-Morocco rhetoric. During its regular session on September 29, councilors rejected a proposal asserting « full and non-negotiable Spanish sovereignty » over Ceuta and Melilla, the two Moroccan cities under Spanish control on the North African coast.
The motion, tabled by Vox representatives, went further than a symbolic declaration of sovereignty. It called on Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez’s central government to adopt « firm diplomatic measures » toward Rabat, including a possible review of the 1991 treaty of friendship, good-neighborliness and cooperation that has underpinned relations between Spain and Morocco for more than three decades. Vox justified the hardline stance by pointing to what it described as « repeated Moroccan claims » over the two enclaves.
The initiative, however, found little support beyond Vox’s own benches. The Socialist Party and Más Madrid voted against it outright, while the ruling Popular Party chose to abstain rather than openly endorse a measure aimed squarely at Rabat. In the end, only Vox councilors and two independent members backed the text, sealing its defeat by a clear majority.
The episode is the latest flashpoint in a long-running argument within Spanish politics over Ceuta and Melilla, territories Morocco regards as having been taken by force and whose return remains a standing historical demand of the Moroccan state. Far-right parties have periodically tried to weaponize the dispute to stoke nationalist sentiment, yet mainstream governing parties have consistently declined to follow suit, wary of jeopardizing the deep economic, security and migration cooperation that binds the two neighboring kingdoms.
Tuesday’s vote suggests that, for now, Madrid’s political establishment, Vox aside, remains unwilling to be drawn into open confrontation with Rabat, a partner Spain relies on heavily for border management, counterterrorism cooperation and trade. Still, the recurrence of such motions, even when doomed to fail, underscores how unresolved the status of the two occupied cities remains in Spanish public debate, particularly as local elections loom and identity politics around North Africa continue to resonate with parts of the electorate.
