Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez has been the most progressive European leader on migration, bucking his colleagues’ rightward shift. That stance has now left him politically exposed after thousands of migrants overran a Spanish enclave in Northern Africa.

As he grappled with 50,000 undocumented migrants arriving illegally in Ceuta this week, the Spanish leader found himself the target of swift condemnations and warnings, with leaders vowing to impose border checks if needed and even suspend Spain’s participation in Europe’s free-travel zone, known as the Schengen area.

On Saturday, his isolation became more evident after Sánchez slammed European Union peers for what he called a “selfish, polarizing and unlawful” reaction to the crisis. In a letter to the EU’s leadership, he expressed his “serious concern” to attitudes he said were “driven by prejudice, fake news, ignorance, or political interest.”

Meanwhile, leaders including Denmark’s Mette Frederiksen, Italy’s Giorgia Meloni and Germany’s Friedrich Merz joined forces in a separate letter signed by 22 member states, calling for immediate EU action. The bloc “cannot allow uncontrolled mass crossings, the instrumentalization of migration or other hybrid threats to create the perception that illegal entry into the European Union is possible,” they wrote.

“It goes without saying that the EU must immediately take all necessary steps and consider all options, including a suspension of Schengen cooperation,” Frederiksen, a center-left socialist like Sánchez, told broadcaster DR Friday. “Uncontrolled immigration is a threat to Europe and Denmark.”

Ireland, which holds the rotating EU presidency, will convene a meeting of the EU Justice and Home Affairs Council on Aug. 4 to discuss the developments in Ceuta, PM Micheal Martin said in a post on X on Saturday. “We remain in close contact with all member states and the institutions and continue to monitor the situation,” he said.

Some EU leaders have directly linked the migration surge to Spain’s more welcoming migration laws, including pathways to residency not available elsewhere.

“Poland has tightened asylum laws, border procedures, and has built effective barriers on its border with Belarus, which is the eastern border of the EU,” Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk. “Spain must follow our example if Schengen is to survive.”

The pile-on reflects how out of step Sánchez’s has become on some of Europe’s most hot-button issues — and how keen most leaders are to pounce on a tough-on-migration narrative. While many, including those on the left, have pushed tougher migration laws and funneled billions into new defense spending, Sánchez has held the line in Spain.

The pressure on Sánchez came even though it’s highly unlikely the newly arrived migrants can move anywhere else in Europe. Most of this week’s sudden arrivals have since returned to Morocco, Sánchez said on Saturday.

Sánchez himself noted on Friday afternoon that more unauthorized entries occur through Italy, Greece and the Western Balkans than through Spain.

“Solidarity and empathy are optional,” he wrote in a post on X. “Respect for European treaties and the data is not.”

Sill, the crisis served as catnip for right-wing leaders focused on migration.

Italy’s Meloni was quick to jump on the issue — an easy way to please her voters. On Friday night, the country said it would impose entry controls for non-EU citizens arriving from Spain.

Even U.S. President Donald Trump, who has sparred with Sánchez over NATO spending and threatened to cut off trade with Spain, got in on the action.

“It looks like an invasion of a country by hundreds of thousands of people, and that same thing is going to happen to us if the Republicans don’t get elected, except worse, much bigger, much easier to get into,” he said Friday during a Cabinet meeting.

But the issue also sparked concern among more centrist leaders, including European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, the European Union’s top executive, and German Chancellor Merz, who called for a quick solution.

The crisis saw thousands of migrants jump over fences that mark the border between Ceuta and Morocco, or swim in the Mediterranean to evade a breakwater that marks the frontier. Ceuta and Melilla, another Spanish enclave in Northern Africa, are Spanish territory and once people enter either city they are officially on EU soil.

The reasons behind the wave of entries — the biggest ever — are unclear. According to Teneo, a political consultancy, Morocco may have instigated “the crisis by relaxing controls at the border” in retaliation for a recent visit by Sánchez to Algeria. The two North African countries have a long-standing diplomatic spat.

Within Europe, however, Sánchez is now facing pressure for his migration policy.

Most recently, Sánchez ruffled feathers with a plan to grant residency permits to more than 1 million undocumented migrants. Madrid had to go out of its way to explain that the permits would only allow people to work in Spain and not elsewhere in the EU, so they would be unlikely to leave the country.

The discomfort with Sánchez can go beyond migration, as well. The Spanish leader also refused to meet NATO’s 5% of GDP defense spending target, making Spain the only country among 32 allies to hold out. Madrid argues that while it won’t pledge to hit the 5% mark, it has recently increased spending in nominal terms more than others.

Sánchez’s courting of China has similarly created friction within the EU, as the bloc pushes to end certain economic dependencies on the Asian nation.

For Sánchez, the crisis presents a new problem on the domestic political front, where he already governs a weak minority coalition and is trailing in polls ahead of an election in 2027. On Friday, he referred to the mass entries as an “attack” and a “violation” of Spain’s territorial integrity — rare words for the Socialist, who usually portrays himself as a defender of immigration.

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(With assistance from Kati Pohjanpalo, Jordan Fabian, Alessandra Migliaccio, Max Ramsay and Macarena Muñoz.)

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