The migrant influx prompted recriminations and a tit-for-tat dispute between Italy and Spain. Putin, Erdoğan and others will have taken note
Within hours of the first pictures of tens of thousands of migrants swimming the short distance from Morocco to the Spanish north African enclave of Ceuta hitting social media on 30 July, 22 European Union leaders, the Trump administration and Israel had piled on to criticise Madrid.
The outbreak of hysteria and recrimination was a case study in 21st-century politics, driven by real-time images in a media echo chamber where populists set the agenda on migration, propagating fear, prejudice and demagogic proposals. Above all, the kneejerk reactions undermined trust between European allies and dealt a setback to EU efforts to jointly manage migration, counter people-smuggling and resist the weaponisation of migrants by non-EU countries.
Paul Taylor is a senior visiting fellow at the European Policy Centre
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