Tens of thousands of demonstrators filled streets across Spain, condemning the government’s response to a large-scale migrant crossing into Spanish territory in July.
Officials estimated that 50,000 people gathered in Madrid alone, directing their anger at Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez as tensions over the migrant crisis in Spain’s North African enclave of Ceuta continued to mount.
The unrest did not end when the main rallies dispersed. Violence carried on for hours, with gunfire and explosions heard through the night on Wednesday.
Law enforcement officers stand by as protesters wave Spanish flags and Ceuta residents dismantle a migrant camp near the beach in Ceuta, Spain, on August 27, 2026, in a screen grab taken from a handout video. (FORTA/Handout via Reuters)
Many protesters carried placards with slogans including, “A united Ceuta will never be defeated,” “Sánchez to prison,” and “Invaders — go home!”
Spain remains under pressure after more than 70,000 foreign migrants crossed from neighboring Morocco into Spanish territory in late July.
Protesters gather in Madrid, Spain, on Wednesday, Sept. 2, 2026, in a show of support for Ceuta marking the city’s anniversary. (Gabriel Luengas/Europa Press via AP)
Thousands of those migrants are still believed to be in Spanish territory.
“What happened to us was not a migratory crisis,” Ceuta’s regional leader, Juan Jesús Vivas, said Wednesday. “What happened was the violation of Spain’s territorial integrity.”
The protests came days after Ceuta residents tore down and burned makeshift migrant shelters found in their city.
Demonstrators carrying Spanish flags moved toward beachside migrant camps last week, destroying shelters and setting fires as police attempted to keep protesters and migrants apart, according to Spain’s public broadcaster RTVE and news agency EFE.
Law enforcement personnel stand while smoke and flames rise as Ceuta residents destroy migrant camp by the beach, in Ceuta, Spain, August 27, 2026, in this screen grab taken from a handout video. (FORTA/Handout via Reuters)
Meanwhile, Sanchez has blamed Russia and Israel for amplifying the migrant crisis via social media, saying the July surge across the border was due to a misinterpretation of a Spanish Supreme Court ruling.
Sánchez told radio station SER that research by the European Union’s diplomatic service, the European External Action Service, indicated Russian and Israeli networks had participated in spreading disinformation alongside far-right networks, Reuters reported Aug. 31.
“Without facts, without materials backed up by numbers, dates, names, there is simply nothing to talk about,” Russia’s Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova told reporters.
Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar accused Sánchez of “lying shamelessly,” and said in a post on X that the Spanish leader was attempting to divert attention from domestic policy failures.
