Felipe VI and Letizia will visit Ceuta and Melilla on 13 and 14 October, their first official trip to the cities since 2014. Moroccan authorities had offered no official response as of 1 October, while local media framed the journey as a diplomatic test.
As of 1 October, Morocco had made no public comment on Felipe VI and Letizia's planned visits to Ceuta on 13 October and Melilla on 14 October. The trip will test whether the recent Spanish Moroccan rapprochement can withstand an issue that remains sensitive for both governments.
Neither Morocco's Ministry of Foreign Affairs nor the official agency MAP had issued a statement on the itinerary. Reuters also reported that the Moroccan government had avoided public comment. That silence matters.
The response differs sharply from 2007, when Rabat reacted at once to the first visit by a Spanish head of state to both autonomous cities. Spanish and international reports say the royal household and the Spanish government agreed on the itinerary. Foreign Minister José Manuel Albares has said that Spain's King and Queen do not need anyone's permission to visit a Spanish city.
The 13–14 October journey will be Felipe VI and Letizia's first official visit to Ceuta and Melilla since Felipe VI became king in 2014.
Moroccan media are talking.
Hespress has called Ceuta and Melilla occupied enclaves. It presented the royal journey as a new challenge for relations with Spain. The digital newspaper tied the visit to the current strategic rapprochement between Morocco and Spain and put the two cities back at the centre of the political agenda.
Hespress also recalled the arrival of nearly 80,000 people in Ceuta two months earlier. Most were of Moroccan origin. The episode showed how quickly the border issue could dominate relations, even after Madrid and Rabat moved towards closer political cooperation. Reuters and AFP have also linked the planned journey to the migration surge in Ceuta during the summer of 2026. That episode made the border question sensitive again.
Madrid has presented the itinerary as a matter of sovereign Spanish authority, while no corresponding public position has yet been issued by Rabat. The absence of an official Moroccan reaction marks a contrast with 2007, but it is not, by itself, evidence of a new diplomatic crisis.
The contrast with the previous royal visit is hard to miss. In 2007, Juan Carlos I and Sofía travelled to both cities. Morocco responded with a formal diplomatic protest and a broad media campaign. Rabat recalled its ambassador in Madrid, Omar Azziman, and called the journey a reproachable initiative directed at what it described as occupied cities.
The dispute grew. Mohamed VI called the trip a nostalgic act linked to a surpassed era. Prime Minister Abbas El Fassi compared Ceuta and Melilla with other territorial conflicts. Morocco suspended several high-level visits and kept its ambassador away from Madrid for more than two months. Full relations were restored in January 2008 after intensive diplomatic efforts.
The current situation is not a simple repeat of 2007. Over the last two years, Pedro Sánchez's government and Rabat have moved closer politically. The events in Ceuta showed that the relationship still has a weak point. The royal itinerary touches that point directly, but it has not yet produced a public Moroccan confrontation.
Ceuta and Melilla remain part of a long-running territorial dispute. Moroccan governments have historically treated royal visits there as statements of Spanish sovereignty. The issue is still there.
The planned journey was already detailed in an earlier report on Felipe VI and Letizia's first visit to the cities as King and Queen. The new element is the diplomatic silence around the trip. Moroccan media have filled that space with clear and forceful language.
On the available facts, the silence does not prove a settled dispute or a new diplomatic crisis. It shows that Rabat has so far avoided an official escalation. At the same time, the sensitivity of Ceuta and Melilla remains visible through the press.
That makes the visit a test of the current relationship. Cooperation exists. It has not removed the territorial issue from the centre of Spanish Moroccan politics.
