King Felipe VI and Queen Letizia arrived in Ceuta on Tuesday after walking 700 kilometres from Madrid, only to find the autonomous city completely deserted, its entire population having relocated to Melilla the previous week in a pre-emptive show of support for the royal visit.
The monarchs, who began their journey on foot from the Zarzuela Palace after the National Day parade, crossed the Strait of Gibraltar using a requisitioned fishing boat and completed the final stretch along the coastal highway, reportedly refusing all offers of motorised transport. «We wanted to show the ceutíes that we are willing to go the distance, literally,» the King told reporters near the border, standing beside a hand-painted sign reading «Ceuta Welcomes Its Monarchs» that no one had come to read.
Upon reaching the Palacio de la Asamblea, the royal couple discovered that the building had been converted into a museum of the migration crisis, with all 85,000 residents having decamped to Melilla, where they now occupy every hotel, guesthouse and spare room in the city. The mayor of Melilla has declared a state of «royal overflow» and requested that the King and Queen redirect their visit to his city, which they plan to do on Wednesday, on foot, along the same coastal road.
Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez, who did not attend the Ceuta leg of the visit, issued a statement praising the monarchs' «unprecedented commitment to physical fitness and symbolic gestures» and announced that all future official visits would be conducted on foot, with cabinet members required to complete a 200-kilometre qualifying walk before assuming office.