Mandatory Algerian visa for Moroccans
The organisation by Morocco of the next edition of the African Cup of Nations has kept Algerian officials awake at night since CAF announced its decision. A way had to be found to prevent the western neighbour from hosting Africa's most prestigious sporting event.
Having lost its weight on the international stage, the Algerian regime first failed to get its bid accepted. Then it failed to convince the Confederation of African Football to reject Morocco's bid, on the pretext that Morocco had withdrawn from hosting the 30th edition of the tournament a few months before it was due to Ebola, the disease that has claimed thousands of lives in Africa. With the support of CAF's governing bodies, Algeria's leaders have finally come to terms with a reality that they have little sympathy for.
Ah, that damned Moroccophobia!
The Algerian regime's number one problem is how to prevent Algerians from visiting Morocco and discovering the achievements of a kingdom whose resources are ten times less than Algeria's, but which has made considerable progress vis-à-vis its oil-rich neighbour.
Morocco's progress is not measured by verbiage and speeches full of the most extravagant lies. This progress can be measured concretely by road infrastructures, the railway network, which includes the only high-speed train in Africa, and sports infrastructures that have placed the kingdom among the most prestigious countries, to the point of entrusting it with the organisation of the 2030 World Cup with two European countries, Spain and Portugal. It's a big deal!
The Algerian generals, the real behind-the-scenes decision-makers, can't take it any more. All their agitation has proved futile in the face of a Morocco that continues to move forward without making any noise or responding to the provocations of a neighbour in the midst of a descent into hell as a result of a diktat imposed on the Algerian people through electoral fraud, repression and misleading propaganda.
To the many unpopular decisions taken against the Algerian people, such as the closure of land borders followed by the closure of airspace and the severing of diplomatic relations, we can now add the iniquitous decision to impose a visa requirement on Moroccan nationals wishing to travel to Algeria, with the sole aim of getting the Kingdom of Morocco to do the same by applying the rule of reciprocity.
And if Morocco refuses to apply reciprocity... it will be the slap in the face that the leaders of a regime that many describe as ‘rogue’ deserve. It will be the blow that the brains of a regime afflicted by chronic ‘Moroccophobia’ could never have imagined.