RABAT: Morocco’s King Mohammed VI defended his country’s “partnership” with Spain on Friday but said it would not be influenced by pressure or threats, weeks after thousands of migrants swept into Madrid’s North African exclave of Ceuta.

The tiny territory has occupied a central place in Spanish politics ahead of elections next month, since more than 70,000 migrants entered from Morocco on July 30 and 31.

The crisis eroded the popularity of Spain’s Socialist Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez, who blamed failed Moroccan border controls and called for changes to avoid a repeat of the incident.

The incident became fodder for right-wing critics of immigration around the world.

Mohammed, speaking at the opening of a new session of the Moroccan parliament, referred to “the irresponsible statements made by certain political and media circles and their blatant instrumentalization of the situation.”

Of the kingdom’s links with Spain, he added: “We affirm that partnership is a sovereign choice and a voluntary commitment, which cannot be subject to any pressure or threat, nor to any form of blackmail.”

The king, who appeared walking with a crutch, said that the partnership with Madrid had seen “significant progress,” including in the fight against irregular immigration. But it was also facing “major challenges,” he added.

Morocco would present “to its partners a document setting out a clear and practical strategic vision... aimed at promoting co-development, economic competitiveness, and regional stability,” he added, without elaborating.

These were the first remarks from the monarch addressing the incident in Ceuta.

According to Fouad Yazourh, director general for international political affairs at Morocco’s foreign ministry, the king was referring to “a new model of cooperation, adapted to current realities.”

“Recurring crises have shown that the current model has reached its limits,” he told AFP, adding the king wanted “to adopt a constructive rather than rhetorical approach.”

Although most of the migrants who rushed into Ceuta returned in the following hours, thousands have remained for weeks in often dire conditions.

Many of the city’s roughly 84,000 inhabitants accuse Sanchez’s government of abandoning them and regularly protest, demaning a swifter expulsion of the migrants.

The leader of Spain’s conservative opposition, which tops most polls, kicked off his election campaign in Ceuta this week.

Alberto Nunez Feijoo called what had happened there a “symptom of the decay, corruption and lies into which the nation has sunk.”