“La gestión de Marruecos permitió atenuar la propagación del coronavirus a ambos lados del Estrecho”

The President of the Foreign Affairs Committee of the Spanish Senate, Antonio Gutiérrez Limones, has praised Morocco for its action in the coronavirus crisis. “The health crisis caused by the COVID-19 epidemic has shown us, with all the transcendence that these difficult moments entail, the value that the management of the Government of Morocco and of its monarch Mohamed VI is having in mitigating the effects of the disease, firstly, for its citizens and, to a great extent, in preventing its spread to both sides of the Strait,” the Spanish senator states in an article published in the media Tribuna Libre and has subsequently been quoted in several Moroccan media, including his state news agency. 

The Spanish parliamentarian highlights the set of measures adopted by the authorities of the neighbouring country, especially “the capacity to react quickly to the crisis”. Gutiérrez Limones underlined “the decision to suspend air and sea connections from and to the Kingdom of Morocco, as a consequence of the closure of borders by sea and by air” and the immediate declaration of the state of health emergency to limit the spread of COVID-19. Likewise, the former mayor of the Andalusian town of Alcalá de Guadaira points out the creation of “a pandemic management fund in record time by all public and private entities to cover the entire Moroccan population”. Furthermore, he points out that Rabat guaranteed “both self-sufficiency in supplies to the markets and in medicines and basic needs to satisfy all emergencies”. 

On the other hand, the president of the Foreign Affairs Committee of the Spanish Senate considers in a text also collected by the MAP agency that “the functioning with total normality of the remote administrative services has been another determining element, as well as the permanent contact of the crisis units in embassies and consulates of Morocco abroad, all of them activated 7 days a week, 24 hours a day”. At the time of writing, Morocco recorded 4,065 cases and 161 deaths. 

The Spanish parliamentarian has not overlooked Moroccan medical achievements during these weeks of pandemic. “Morocco has set up the largest field hospital in Africa, which was completed in two weeks, with a capacity of over 700 beds, while more than 83 million masks have been produced to date, in addition and under the supervision of Moroccan engineers, respiratory machines have been manufactured in view of the great shortage of stocks of this equipment at a global level,” he evokes.

“Morocco's fight against COVID-19 has been a guarantee for the European Union and especially for Spain, because of its proximity, in containing the disease,” Gutierrez Limones said. “An example of cooperation that is nothing more than a chapter that expresses the positive Spanish-Moroccan relations in matters of such bilateral importance as the fight against illegal immigration, the fight against terrorism or drug trafficking,” assures the also ex-deputy. “A joint effort to modernise the country, deepen its democracy, the human rights of its citizens,” he concludes.

The Spanish parliamentarian praises the role of the King of Morocco, Mohamed VI, in the current health crisis: “The scourge of this pandemic has not stopped the firm and permanent commitment of the Moroccan monarch to African countries within the framework of south-south cooperation (...) Mohamed VI called on the heads of state of the different countries of the continent to establish a joint, supportive and pragmatic initiative based on the exchange of experiences and good practices to confront the coronavirus”.

“The security that open and committed cooperation confers on us must contribute even more to the well-being of the people on both sides of the Strait. In short, it is a question of building a better future together for our peoples,” concludes the President of the Senate Foreign Affairs Committee in his letter.