The Foreign Ministry has rejected a request for public information made by ABC on the expenses incurred by the so-called Gaza flotilla, both for assistance and for the repatriation of its members to Spain. This newspaper requested the information on 9 … December through the following text: “All expenses assumed by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, EU and Cooperation related to assistance to members of the so-called Freedom Flotilla of June 2025, whether consular assistance, repatriations or any other also related to the ships. »
Three days later, the Director General of Spaniards Abroad and Consular Affairs, Carolina by Manueles Alvarezhas decided to reject the public’s request for information, in accordance with Article 18.1. c), which includes as a cause of inadmissibility for the processing of requests “relating to information whose disclosure is necessary”. a prior retouching action“. The Foreign Affairs representative specifies that ABC’s request involves “a prior action of express preparation to provide a response using various sources of information, since different administrative bodies have intervened, as is the case in this type of procedures regulated by Spanish regulations on consular protection and assistance to Spanish nationals abroad, as provided for in current regulations.”
With this refusal, the Government puts an end to the administrative route, so that to obtain the information it would only be possible to go to court through an appeal to the contentious-administrative jurisdiction.
The PP and Vox deputies had already tried to find out some of the costs assumed by the government, but they did not obtain the information either. According to ‘Vozpópuli’, Popular Party deputies Pablo Hispán and Belén Hoyo submitted an initiative in which they declared that the government, “through the Spanish embassy in Greece”, was paying for the return tickets from “two former members of ETA” who participated in the flotilla, “Itziar Moreno and José Javier Osés”. They asked the price of these tickets and whether the members of the flotilla had returned, but the government’s response was generic regarding the Spanish regulations regarding consular protection and assistance to Spanish nationals abroad, which “are provided for in the budget of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, European Union and Cooperation.” On behalf of Vox, deputies Carlos Flores, Alberto Asarta and José María Sánchez registered several questions about the transfers to Spain of members of the flotilla intercepted by the Israeli army, but there was no concrete response from the Executive.
In addition to the costs of assistance and repatriation, the Ministry of Defense allocated several assets to escort the flotilla, including the navy ship Furor and several air assets, the cost of which also could not or would not be calculated.
THE Sumud Global Fleet (GSF) intended to break the maritime blockade of the Gaza Strip – something the Israeli army was not going to allow – and provide humanitarian aid. It was made up of dozens of boats, including several Spanish ones with activists like Ada Colau, former mayor of Barcelona, on board, who were intercepted as they approached their destination on June 9. Its most visible face was the Swedish activist Greta Thunberg. The Israeli government accused them of being “collaborators” with Hamas and ordered their expulsion, while members of the action said they had been “kidnapped” by Benjamin Netanyahu’s government.
Pedro Sánchez’s management has been dedicated to the fleet since his departure. After the interception, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, European Union and Cooperation, which leads Jose Manuel Albares contacted the Israeli Foreign Ministry and the EU delegation in the capital, Tel Aviv, to find out the situation of the Spanish members and “guarantee all diplomatic and consular protection”. Foreign Affairs activated the consulates in Tel Aviv, Jerusalem and Nicosia (Cyprus) and was responsible for repatriating national activists, numbering around fifty, to Spain. Foreign Affairs acknowledged having “negotiated and facilitated the transfer of the Spaniards who voluntarily requested it, by offering them places on this Sunday’s flight to Madrid, with tickets acquired by the ministry itself to speed up their departure.”
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