Monitoring Desk
ISLAMABAD: Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez visited Rabat on Thursday to re-establish a “strategic partnership,” amid criticism from his left-wing government that he has given in to Moroccan pressure.
Sanchez and a group of ministers will visit Prime Minister of Morocco Aziz Akkhanouch for the first “high-level meeting” since 2015.
His visit comes less than a year after he ended a year-long diplomatic crisis by abandoning decades of neutrality on the Western Sahara dispute to support Morocco, upsetting his far-left coalition partners.
Sanchez has defended his action as necessary for Spanish interests.
Addressing an economic forum, he said that the better relations are between Spain and Morocco, the better it is for Spain, the better it is for Morocco, and the better it is for citizens of both countries and Europe.
The problem began in 2021, when Madrid allowed Brahim Ghali, the leader of the Polisario Front, which demands independence in Western Sahara, to be treated in a Spanish hospital for Covid-19. Weeks later, while Moroccan border guards turned a blind eye, almost 10,000 migrants poured into Spain’s tiny Ceuta enclave. Some interpreted this incident as a Moroccan attempt to punish Madrid.
Madrid declared a “new stage” in relations in March last year, saying it backed the North African kingdom’s plan for Western Sahara of limited autonomy under Moroccan sovereignty. The following month, Sanchez paid a high-profile visit to Morocco, where King Mohammed VI received him.
However, Sanchez has faced criticism for the concession to Morocco from both the left and the right, even from his administration’s number three, Labour Minister Yolanda Diaz of the hard-left Podemos party. She has declined to participate in this week’s trip, echoing her hard-left Podemos party’s criticism of Sanchez’s “unilateral” turn on Western Sahara.
Right-wing opposition of Spain
Spain’s right-wing opposition has also criticized Sanchez over the policy, with Gonzalez Pons, a member of the European Parliament from the Popular Party, stating there was “no greater humiliation than surrendering to the will of Morocco.” Sanchez has also been under fire from the opposition for hosting a high-level visit without the monarch of Morocco’s invitation.
According to a palace statement, King Mohammed did invite the Spanish Prime Minister for a higher-profile state visit in the future to “reinforce the positive dynamic” in their ties. Cooperation on terrorism and illegal immigration will be a top priority.
After restarting cooperation with the monarchy, Spain’s interior ministry claimed that entries of irregular migrants from Morocco on its territory decreased by a quarter last year compared to 2021. Human rights organizations criticized both countries after at least 23 migrants died in a stampede to enter the Melilla enclave in June 2022.
Morocco has categorically denied any wrongdoing, but the Belgian police investigation has heightened tensions between ce European countries and the North African kingdom. Moroccan officials and media have accused France, the kingdom’s staunch ally, of “orchestrating” a European Parliament resolution critical of Morocco’s press treatment.
French-Moroccan journalist Mustapha Tossa said there is a honeymoon between Madrid and Rabat and a cold crisis” between Paris and Rabat.
