After a turn on the Sahara, Sanchez promises a “solid” relationship between Spain and Morocco

The target of numerous criticisms in Spain, the president of the Spanish government, Pedro Sánchez, on Wednesday defended the shift in the historical position on Western Sahara and promised a “much stronger” relationship with Morocco, which after that gesture normalized its ties with Madrid.

Not only did we “close a crisis” with Rabat, but we “laid the foundations for a much stronger, much stronger relationship with the kingdom of Morocco,” Sanchez said, during a visit to the Spanish enclave of Ceuta, located on Morocco's northern coast.

These were the first statements made by the socialist leader on this issue since Spain abandoned its traditional neutrality on Friday to show itself in favor of the Moroccan autonomy plan for what it was a Spanish colony for until 1975, in the face of the self-determination referendum demanded by the independence officials of the Frente Polisario Saharawi.

Provoked by the reception in Spain in April of the leader of the Frente Polisario to be treated for covid-19, the diplomatic crisis between Rabat and Madrid reached its peak in mid-May, when more than 10,000 immigrants entered Ceuta thanks to a relaxation of controls on the Moroccan side.

“It was not sustainable to have relations cut from the political, diplomatic and even economic point of view” with “a strategic country such as Morocco for Spain,” Sánchez said.

A key element for Madrid, Sánchez assured that the “normalization” of relations will allow aspects “linked to migration control” to be consolidated on the Moroccan side, from which a large part of the irregular migrants who arrive every year on the Spanish coast leave.

The conflict in Western Sahara has been confronting Morocco for decades with the Frente Polisario, supported by Algeria.

Rabat, which controls nearly 80% of this territory, proposes a plan of autonomy under its sovereignty, while the independentists demand a self-determination referendum organized by the UN, scheduled for the 1991 ceasefire, which never took place.

Leaving its neutrality behind, Spain now considers that the Moroccan autonomy plan “is the most serious, realistic and credible basis for the resolution of this dispute”.

A “sharp turn”, in the words of Algeria, a major gas exporter to Spain, which on Saturday called its ambassador to Madrid to show its discontent.

Criticized both by his allies on the left and by the right-wing opposition, Sánchez defended his decision, which in his opinion only “deepened a stance expressed by other governments of Spain” earlier and followed the position of “very powerful and important nations in Europe” such as France and Germany.

mg/du/al