A resurfaced video shows Spanish socialist politician Irene Montero urging migrants to help counter what she described as Spain’s “racists” and “fascists,” while pledging support for voting rights just months before tens of thousands of migrants crossed into Ceuta.
Montero, Spain’s former equality minister and a prominent figure in the hard-left Podemos party, appeared in the clip recorded earlier this year appealing directly to “migrants” and “people of colour” for political backing.
In the footage, she asks them not to leave Spanish people “alone with all these fascists,” saying she wanted them to have the right to vote and pointing to efforts to secure legal documentation and broader regularisation.
Montero went on to say that the next step would be obtaining citizenship for migrants or changing Spanish law so they could take part in elections.
She also referenced “replacement theory,” saying she hoped it would help remove “fascists and racists” from the country and replace them with migrants and working-class people.
The Podemos politician added that she wanted “fascists, racists and freeloaders” replaced by Spain’s working class, regardless of background or skin colour, naming Chinese, Black and brown workers as part of what she called a shared working-class movement.
Montero, who now serves as a Member of the European Parliament, has been among the most outspoken supporters of Spain’s push to regularise roughly 500,000 undocumented migrants.
Podemos figure Irene Montero appealed to migrants not to leave Spanish people “alone with fascists”
Migrants try to cross from Morocco into the Spanish enclave of Ceuta
A vehicle burns at the site of clashes near Fnideq, on the Morocco-Spain border
Migrants cross from Morocco into the Spanish enclave of Ceuta
‘Providing rights is the answer to racism,’ Montero previously said.
Spain’s mass regularisation programme came into place in April, with migrants queueing for hours across the country to receive documentation, with some sleeping on the streets as fights broke out in the crowds.
More recently, Spain’s Supreme Court ruled that migrants intercepted at sea while attempting to reach the Spanish enclaves of Ceuta and Melilla cannot be summarily returned to Morocco.
The new immigration rules led to 60,000 people swimming from Morocco into the Spanish city of Ceuta on Thursday.
The chaos in Ceuta also spread to Spain’s second North African enclave of Melilla on Friday.
The African enclaves have been enduring days of chaos with cars torched and migrants forcing their way into buildings after the unprecedented influx on Thursday.
Extraordinary footage showed huge numbers of people sprinting up beaches, swimming ashore and dispersing into the streets of Ceuta, which borders Morocco, with some shouting ‘Long live Spain.’
In response to what citizens of Ceuta have called an invasion, Montero took to her social media on Friday to write:
‘Let’s always treat people as people, even in the most difficult moments, and not like cockroaches or Amazon packages. Neither you nor anyone else would risk their own life, or their family’s, by migrating unless they absolutely had to. They are no different.’
‘Spain and Europe have spent years paying Morocco, Libya and Mauritania so that they are the ones who “deal with” these people, allowing us to claim that we are full democracies.’
‘And if you pay a dictatorship like Morocco to do your dirty work, when Morocco wants more, or when the US or Israel tells it to, it stops doing it in order to blackmail you.’
‘None of this would happen if there were legal and safe routes for people to enter, and if we stopped depending on murderous dictatorships for our migration policy.’
Meanwhile, locals in Ceuta have described living in fear, as shops were closed and people hid in their homes.
Salvador Ortega, a resident of the enclave, told the Daily Mail that locals are accustomed to seeing small numbers of migrants cross the border, but said the latest arrivals amount to what he described as an ‘invasion’, leaving many residents fearful and uncertain.
‘There are helicopters and ambulances and police everywhere. This is an unsustainable situation that has all the marks of a national emergency, but [Sanchez] is not ready to admit fault with this premeditated invasion.
‘We need the military, from all over Spain and also from the EU. We need help from the EU. The situation is disastrous, especially for those of us in the midst of it.’
Sanchez is facing growing criticism for his migration policies, sparking protests against him in the enclave and across Spain.
Videos from Friday show the PM arriving in Ceuta to boos and jeers from locals chanting ‘Pedro Sanchez, son of a ****.’
Meanwhile, some analysts have suggested that Morocco might have allowed migrants to cross the border to put diplomatic pressure on Spain, which has recently improved ties with Rabat’s arch-enemy neighbouring Algeria.
And arrivals in Ceuta alleged that Moroccan police officers encouraged them as they journeyed towards the enclave.
Spanish National Police officers carrying batons charge towards migrants during a demonstration in Ceuta
Migrants carry a fellow migrant, who they say was injured when the Spanish police and military tried to contain the migrants to an area of a beach
Supporters of the remigration movement attend a protest in Ceuta
Demonstrators hold flags and a banner as groups of hard-right protesters gather in front of the Moroccan embassy in Madrid
Mohammed Ahmidho, 37, who heard about the surge of migrants into Spain via social media, said he heard officers saying ‘Come to Spain’ as he neared the border.
On Sunday, tensions rose further in Ceuta when police clashed with groups of migrants.
Video footage showed a group of migrants carrying an injured man wrapped in a blanket who they said had been assaulted by police, while shouting ‘Allahu Akbar’.
Clashes followed, with footage showing Spanish National Police officers carrying batons and charging towards migrants during the demonstration.
The EU said it would hold a video call on Tuesday after 22 bloc members issued a joint open letter calling for an urgent meeting to agree a speedy coordinated response, and to prevent further uncontrolled crossings.
Meanwhile, Sanchez, in a letter to EU leaders, blasted the ‘selfish’ reaction of some EU countries.
Following the events on Thursday, Italy’s government said it was considering ‘extraordinary measures’ including closing the open border Schengen agreement with Spain.
Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni said: ‘The images coming from Ceuta are striking and demonstrate, once again, that uncontrolled illegal immigration poses a concrete threat to the security of Europe’s borders.’
France said it will tighten its borders with Spain, with the interior minister giving ‘instructions to immediately step up controls’ across their borders.
Finland said it backs an Italian call for Spain to be excluded from Europe’s passport-free Schengen area.
‘Spain has completely failed to protect the Schengen Area’s external border from infiltration. This cannot continue,’ Finnish interior minister Mari Rantanen said on X.
German chancellor Friedrich Merz demanded Friday that Morocco ‘take back illegal migrants immediately’.
