While in Melilla, the leader of the People's Party rendered homage to the Spanish army, especially soldiers who died in the battle of Anoual. The leader of the People's Party (PP), a conservative political party in Spain, visited on Wednesday January the 2nd Melilla. His trip comes as he visited the city in August (2018) to support local economy after Morocco decided to close a commercial border crossing separating Melilla from the Kingdom earlier that month. This time, Pablo Casado had a different schedule for his Melilla visit. Casado came to the city to support its president Juan José Imbroda who will be running for re-election. Casado was also there to render homage to Spanish soldiers who were killed by Mohamed Ben Abdelkarim El Khattabi's troops during the battle of Anoual, fought on July 22, 1921. «Thank you for your services (…) We are with you and with the Spanish heroes who lost their lives for this land in the Anoual disaster», Pablo Casado told reporters at the military cemetery, reports Melilla Hoy. Casado replies to Borell Casado's statement was a response to the position of the Spanish Foreign Minister Josep Borell who announced earlier that he wants to launch a process «of closing old wounds». Borell told MPs at the lower house of the Spanish Parliament that «10,000 Spaniards died» in the battle fo Anoual. He has even described El Khattabi's victory as a «dramatic event for Spain». The minister stated that the «restoration of friendly relations must take into consideration what happened in Anoual». The visit of Casado comes, however, as a way of filling the gab left by VOX, a right-wing populist party in Spain. The event was not on the PP politician's schedule in August when he visited Melilla but was taken into consideration after VOX won 12 seats in the Andalusian Parliament. Indeed, on September the 10th, 2018, Vox enlisted an independent legislator in the regional parliament of Extremadura as party member. The latter was a member of the People's Party parliamentary group before dropping out, says the BBC. On the 2nd of December, VOX was 12 parliamentary seats in the Andalusian regional election. This victory allowed the far-right party to join a regional parliament for the first time.
