Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez posted a video Saturday recommending summer songs to his social media followers, hours after visiting the enclave of Ceuta at the center of a migrant crisis that has left dozens dead and drawn condemnation from across Europe.
Sánchez shared the clip on Instagram and TikTok under the caption “the soundtrack of my summer,” appearing on a white sofa inside the Moncloa palace as he walked viewers through a playlist of tracks he said he had been listening to this year.
“This summer I’ve prepared a playlist with some of the songs I’ve been listening to the most. It’s pretty eclectic,” Sánchez said in the video, singling out three tracks he said would give followers a sense of his taste: “El Baifo” by Quevedo, “SS26” by Charli XCX, and “Tantas cosas” by Melani. The socialist leader closed with a smile and a “Happy summer.”
Spanish outlet esdiario reported the video appeared to have been part of a pre-planned social media schedule, one the government uses to reach younger audiences with content removed from politics, but noted the timing collided with a day dominated by the migrant crisis.
Roughly 60,000 people crossed from Morocco into the North African enclave of some 85,000 residents over a matter of days, overwhelming the city and its reception facilities. At least 67 people died, most of them drowning as they tried to swim around the Tarajal breakwater. Spanish authorities have tied the surge to a July Supreme Court ruling that barred law enforcement from summarily returning migrants who arrive by sea, an interpretation Sánchez said spread through human trafficking networks. European leaders spent the week calling for Spain’s suspension from the Schengen open-borders area.
President Donald Trump called the crossings a “catastrophe” and an “invasion,” blaming what he described as “weak” and “very liberal” laws in Spain, according to NPR. The U.S. State Department posted on social media faulting Sánchez’s migration-friendly policies for the crisis.
Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni moved to suspend Italy’s Schengen agreement with Spain and called for Madrid’s removal from the zone, while France’s interior minister ordered extra checks along the shared border. Sánchez fired back at fellow EU governments, accusing them of a “selfish, polarizing and unlawful reaction.” He argued Ceuta sits outside the Schengen area. Nearly all of the migrants, he added, had already been returned to Morocco.