Spain is honey-filled... and confronts the beekeeper

Unrest between Morocco and Spain is growing and taking shape, with a serious risk of damaging the fruitful bilateral relations that are considered strategic. The reasons are statements and positions on extremely sensitive issues such as the case of the former Spanish Sahara, especially the latest pronouncements by the Minister of Foreign Affairs following the announcement by the United States recognising Moroccan sovereignty over its Western Sahara, announcing that contact is being made with the team of the new President Baiden to overturn the decision. This initiative aroused deep unease and rejection at the level of public opinion and criticism in several media outlets. Among the intellectuals and politicians, it is worth mentioning the writer and journalist Talah Assaoud Atlasi طالع السعود الأطلسي , who published in "LACOM", a Moroccan digital newspaper on 23 January 2021, an interesting article entitled "Spain is filled with honey... and faces the beehive".

The author highlights that important developments have taken place around the Moroccan Sahara issue, such as the opening of multiple consulates, the recognition by many countries of the legitimacy of Morocco's sovereignty over their Sahara, while others reaffirmed and reaffirm that the Moroccan proposal for a broad autonomy in the region is the realistic solution to resolve the artificial and long-standing conflict. These developments have undoubtedly been important elements in bringing about geostrategic shifts in the area in Morocco's favour, especially the qualitative presence of the US and Gulf countries in the area and in the process of resolving the dispute. This entailed political and economic shifts that reshaped the strategic framework in the region and the actors within it. 

Spain, which is connected to the region and to the Saharawi question, and to Morocco through geography and the history of its colonisation of the region, it is in its interest to reinforce its presence and preserve its position, making greater efforts, taking advantage of its geographical and historical proximity to achieve true rapprochement, clearing up the obscure confusions and ambiguities that arise in its relations with Morocco.

The author considers that some sectors of the Spanish right are immersed in and dominated by phobias towards Morocco, but also others on the extreme left, who together are involved in the Moroccan Sahara conflict, taking sides in favour of the Polisario and sponsoring them as if they were its begetters. Both of them are trying to hinder Spanish-Moroccan relations and are damaging them. Meanwhile, the rest of the political parties take a hesitant moderate position. But as far as the rulers are concerned, he believes they are apprehensive and cautious in their dealings with Morocco, suffering from confusion and disorientation in their dealings.   

He highlights the disproportionate lack of interaction between the political and the economic in relations between the two countries. He considers that more than 1,000 Spanish companies invest in Morocco. Spain has overtaken France (Morocco's traditional partner). It is Morocco's largest trading partner, in terms of imports and exports. In exports, it represents 33.5 percent of total European exports to Morocco, far behind France and Germany, for example, without counting the smuggling that enters through the cities of Ceuta and Melilla, which is called atypical trade. The author points out that Morocco's fishing agreements with the EU, which include the waters of the Sahara, benefit the Spanish fishing sector the most. Furthermore, "Morocco is thus the main destination for Spanish investments in Africa".

He therefore considers this to be a surprising anomaly between the political and economic aspects of unequal and unbalanced relations. We are faced with "a political rickets in the face of an exuberant economic presence".  

Spain and its government, according to the article, with all this data, and all this privileged situation it holds in Morocco, its policy is supposed to be a cement to consolidate, reinforce and protect it in the face of virulent competition from other European countries, China, Turkey and the US and Japan.....

In his article, the author recalls (although he states that it is not his intention to do so) the obstacles that have been placed in the way of Morocco's legitimate economic development policy. He cites the example of the port of Tangier Mediterranean and how Spain at the time tried to negatively influence the EU's decision regarding financing and credits so that the project would not be carried out. As a result, the article continues, Spain lost the opportunity to take part in this gigantic project which today is producing good economic, commercial, social and political results.

If the Spanish government, the article continues, had established its important position in Morocco by interacting with the development and transformations it was carrying out, which led to the emergence of a new Morocco that today stands out for its important African dimension, Spain would have gone much further with Morocco to gain access to Africa, which is the continent of the future.  

This conditional "if", according to the article, if it had been fulfilled, would have resulted in Spain being in the Sahara today, in the city of Dakhla, before the US administration, and in that case it would not have been so upset by the US recognition of Morocco's sovereignty over its Sahara, and received it as directed against it, for the mere fact that it is an act that strengthens Morocco, consolidates its development, does justice to its inalienable right to its territorial integrity and reinforces its autonomy proposal as a peaceful resolution to a conflict that has become a matter of blackmail. 

The article reproaches Foreign Minister Arancha González Laya for her ministry's initiative with President Biden's advisers to overturn Trump's decision, in which the US recognises Morocco's sovereignty over its Sahara. She considers this to be an unfriendly interference in sovereign relations between two sovereign countries and demonstrates manifest dismay at the mere fact that Morocco has obtained an important achievement and support. This resentment, according to the author, is not only on the part of the minister, but also on the part of Podemos leader Pablo Iglesias, the government partner, who is moving in the same direction, creating a state of uncertainty. 

The article highlights the puzzling contradictions of the government. The same government, faced with the changes in the current international situation and the new geostrategic situation in the world, held a meeting of Spanish ambassadors in Madrid on 18 January 2021 to discuss "programmes and initiatives aimed at strengthening Spain's presence in the international arena" and "promoting great confidence in Spain", as the Prime Minister, Pedro Sánchez, put it. He stressed the importance of increasing the presence of Spain and its companies in Africa. 

This is, according to the article, a good strategy and a realistic vision that involves counting on Morocco, a neighbouring African country, gateway to sub-Saharan Africa, where it has an important presence and many countries count on it as a facilitator in a win-win mutual cooperation. However, Mr Pedro Sánchez, in his speech on the Spain of the future, offered nothing that could promote Moroccan confidence in the Spanish government and its position on the Sahara conflict, supposedly taking advantage of the changes that are taking place in the region.   

The article criticises the ambiguity and contradictory positions of Pedro Sánchez's government, which, according to the article, only expects Morocco to accept unequal relations and to be content to serve Spain's interests in order to put itself in a privileged position, to act as a gendarme by land and sea against sub-Saharan migrants and to guarantee its security by offering its support in the fight against terrorism.

"Morocco wants to exchange interests and benefits with Spain. Together they can open new horizons in favour of their promising and rich bilateral relations, strongly rooted in the history, geography, politics and economy of both countries, together they gain a lot, and together they share important benefits, in peace, security and progress". However, some political sectors prefer instead the equestrian saddle of the principle of "self-determination", a lax and generic principle of multifaceted application. But these same sectors, joined by others within Spain, reject the secession of Catalonia and the Basque Country...", because their destiny rightly lies in a united and single homeland, not in its disintegration.

The author urges that common sense and reason be favoured, taking into account historical interests and common benefits, and that the opportunity offered by recent favourable developments for Morocco and the region as a whole be seized to join forces and interact within bilateral and multilateral relations to enter fully into prospects for productive and fruitful development for all. For those who are full of Moroccan honey should not be pitted against the beekeepers.