Nine out of every ten Spaniards accuse Morocco of being behind the illegal migrant invasion of Ceuta, a poll released Monday shows.
The stance expressed by an overwhelming majority of respondents stands in contrast with socialist Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez, who claims there is not enough evidence to accuse the Alawite regime in Rabat as responsible for the invasion.
The poll also found that a majority of Spaniards reject mass migration and demand a toughening of their nation’s border controls starting with the North African neighbor of Ceuta.
On Monday morning, the Spanish polling firm 40dB (Forty Decibels) published its latest round of surveys that the firm conducts every month for the Spanish newspaper El País and the radio station Cadena Ser. Per the results, 89 percent of respondents attribute “a great deal” or “quite a bit” of responsibility for the migrant invasion to the Moroccan government. Most notably, 72 percent of respondents also attribute responsibility to the Spanish socialist central government led by Sánchez.
El País pointed out that the survey was conducted last week between August 31 and September 2 — just hours before the revelation of a shocking report from the Spanish National Police accusing agents of Morocco’s Alawite regime of coordinating the massive late July invasion of Ceuta. As such, the newspaper stated, the percentage of those who hold the Alawite regime responsible “could even increase.”
The new survey also comes just days after Sánchez appeared before the Spanish Congress and insisted there is no “solid proof” that the Islamic Moroccan government was behind the invasion of Ceuta. Sánchez, who spoke for over two hours, defended his administration’s widely-criticized handling of the migrant invasion and subsequent crisis at the Spanish enclave.
Asked about their perception of the Spanish government’s handling of the Ceuta crisis, 63 percent of respondents said they believe Sánchez has done a “bad” job. From the total, 49.9 percent further condemned the handling as “very bad.”
Only 14.2 percent of respondents reportedly expressed a positive evaluation of the government’s performance.
The survey also revealed a strong demand for a hard line immigration policy among Spaniards. According to El País, the survey asked participants to choose between two hypothetical options — “Tighten border controls even if this prevents vulnerable people in need of protection from entering, and “Prioritize taking in vulnerable people, even if this means allowing more immigrants to enter.”
An overwhelming 70 percent of respondents chose the first option, with only 20 percent embracing the second choice.
Furthermore, eight out of every ten respondents expressed to support an increase in border fences and surveillance, and to expedite the deportation of illegal migrants. Only 40 percent of respondents said that they agree with expanding resources to house migrants and for the processing of asylum requests.
A majority 54 percent of participants said to hold a negative image of immigration for their country against 33 percent who find it positive.
In that line, 40bD asked participants which party they think is the most capable one when it comes to managing immigration. 27 percent of respondents said that they find the anti-mass migration VOX party as the most capable one, followed by the ruling Spanish Socialist Workers’ Party (PSOE) with 18.5 percent and 14 percent who instead chose the center-right People’s Party (PP).
Cadena Ser explained that the preference expressed on VOX is the result of 23 percent of PP voters and 6 percent PSOE voters stating that they find it as the most capable party right now to handle the subject.
Read the full article here