Spanish public figure Carmen Lomana published a personal column on her birthday expressing deep sadness about events in Ceuta, saying images from the city and the political debate they had sparked left her with a sense of profound unease she had rarely felt before about her country.
Lomana said Ceuta was Spain with the same legitimacy as Madrid or Barcelona, and described watching it become the scene of a crisis that had overwhelmed those responsible for governing and guaranteeing the security of all citizens.
She said she had lived through very difficult personal losses, but had rarely felt such an intense mix of concern, helplessness and sadness over the situation in her country. Spain, she wrote, seemed to be going through a period in which it was increasingly hard to find consensus, serenity, or a shared sense of purpose.
Lomana recalled a friend, Manu de los Rios, who she said had done his military service in 1992 at the Tercio Duque de Alba in Ceuta and always spoke with emotion about the pride he had felt swearing to defend Spain. She said listening to him in recent days had helped her understand how deeply many people felt about what was happening there.
She questioned why the King, as Captain General of the Armed Forces, had not spoken out about what she described as a violation of rights. She also said she would not return to Morocco, a country she said she had long loved.
Lomana said she did not share the decisions the government was making, and criticised Prime Minister Sanchez, Interior Minister Marlaska and Foreign Minister Albares, claiming they had appeared astonished despite, in her view, having known what was coming.
On her birthday, she said her greatest wish was not a material gift but to once again feel proud of a country she had always loved deeply, and to keep believing that Spain could rise to meet its hardest moments with dignity.
