María Antonia Trujillo, former Minister of Housing of the PSOE with José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero, defended last Friday, coinciding with Ceuta Day, that “the Moroccan claim (on both autonomous cities) is fully justified, inscribed in its national ideology and is inalienable” . Trujillo, a professor of Constitutional Law, was dismissed from her last position as the Spanish Ministry of Education in Rabat last May. The former socialist minister was invited to the first International Congress on “Spanish-Moroccan Relations: Present and Future” at the Escuela Normal Superior de Tetouan and in collaboration with other Moroccan universities. The former president Zapatero himself was invited to the same talk. “Faced with the harmful effects of unhealthy borders (…) the political response is dialogue and not looking the other way or silence,” the former minister said on Friday, adding that both autonomous cities are “vestiges of the past that they interfere in the economic and political independence of this country and in the good relations between the two countries”. The former head of Housing, when mentioning the dispute over sovereignty over the Spanish territories in Africa, maintained that “the weight of the historical and legal arguments (in favor of the Spanishness of Ceuta and Melilla), which exist and are relevant, yields to the evolution of the facts that demand a political, ethical, reasonable and acceptable response for both countries through an open and sincere dialogue. For María Antonia Trujillo, the time that both cities have been under Spanish ownership is not enough for Spain to maintain its claim over them. The former minister accepted throughout her speech that Ceuta and Melilla have belonged to Spain before the Kingdom of Morocco was formed. But she Trujillo argued that before “they were part of the territories that included the Islamic civilization (and other Mediterranean peoples before) and they were always claimed”, “for a longer time they were Arabs than Christians,” she Trujillo continued. And she stated that the historical resource is a “debatable argument.” She also defended that «Ceuta remained under the rule of different Islamic kingdoms for 700 years. At the beginning of the 15th century, Ceuta had been controlled by several Berber and Arab dynasties and was one of the most strategic ports in the Islamic world,” he said, according to the Moroccan digital media outlet Rue20. “The Spanish nature of our cities admits of no doubt” Juan Vivas President of Ceuta Indignation in Ceuta The president of Ceuta, Juan Vivas, of the PP, was the first public official to react to the statements of María Antonia Trujillo. Vivas called the words of the former socialist minister “unpresentable” and “unacceptable disloyalty”. “We are and we feel Spanish above any other condition, and the Spanish nature of our cities admits of no doubt: our sovereignty is guaranteed by the constitutional order and the State,” the Ceuta president remarked. Vivas was not alone. Movement for Dignity and Citizenship, a formation led by Fatima Hamed, considered the statements of the former shoemaker minister “unfortunate” and an “error”. “As localists we prioritize the interest of Ceuta” and therefore “we expect a public rectification by those responsible for the Socialist Party.” Also from Ceuta, they already asked, through their social networks, for the government’s action since “it should offer a clarification,” according to Mohamed Mustafa, a deputy in the city. On the same platform, Muad Ayadi, his general secretary, subscribed to the words of his partner and defended that “neither the Sánchez Executive nor the PSOE of Ceuta can hide their heads like an ostrich. The words of the former minister of the Government of the Nation are very serious. “Unquestionable” The socialist response took longer to arrive and it was also through Twitter. From the branch of the PSOE in Ceuta they published: “We strongly reject the personal opinions expressed by the former minister María Antonia Trujillo” and conveyed the message of its general secretary: “The Spanishness of our city does not admit discussion.” On the other hand, from Melilla they also discredited the former minister and alleged that her words “do not represent anyone in the PSOE and, furthermore, are false and unacceptable.” They also clarified that her city’s belonging to Spain is “unquestionable.”