60,000 Moroccans Storming Into Ceuta Fuels Europe's Invasion Narrative

The astonishing scenes of some 60,000 people surging toward Ceuta, Spain's tiny enclave on Morocco's Mediterranean coast, affect far more than one small town. They crystallized a deep anxiety driving politics across the West: the fear that prosperous liberal societies may lose control over who enters them—and see their countries overrun. Whether that fear is exaggerated or justified is a legitimate debate.

But there's no question that politically, the images were devastating for Europe's establishment and invaluable for the populist right. Within hours, the footage had spread across social media and television screens throughout Europe and North America. Italians saw Lampedusa, their own island tantalizingly near the coast of Libya, frequently targeted by people smugglers on rickety boats.

France saw its banlieues, the scene of repeated riots by disenfranchised African migrants. In Germany they remembered 2015, when Angela Merkel allowed in almost 900,000 Syrian refugees, further fueling the rise of the far right.