Mohammed VI revolutionises the mechanisms of power in Morocco

By taking direct control of the Spanish Moroccan conflict and inviting Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez to an iftar (Ramadan dinner), King Mohammed VI has altered the traditional protocol of the Makhzenian power system. This is not the first time he has done so. He previously tried it with Algeria, inviting the creation of a joint commission to address differences in November 2018, and then directly approaching Algerian President Abdelmadjid Tebboune for a meeting 'without preconditions' in July 2021. But the outstretched hand to Algeria did not succeed. 

This time, the Moroccan king picked up the phone to speak to the Spanish president and invite him to travel to Morocco. It is certainly a gesture that has yet to materialise into joint measures and actions, but symbolically it is of great significance for the power structure in the Alawi kingdom.

Mohammed VI has broken with tradition by initiating a dialogue at the highest level between Morocco and Spain. The cancellation of the visit that Foreign Minister José Manuel Albares was to make to draw up, together with his Moroccan counterpart Nasser Bourita, the roadmap for the future High-Level Meeting (RAN) between the two governments, as required until now by diplomatic protocol, has been decided by the Royal Court, which wants to take the agenda of political and strategic relations with the Spanish government into its own hands. Mohammed VI has decided to dispense with intermediaries and talk face-to-face with President Sánchez about the broad outlines of the common future. In his speech in August 2021, the Alaouite sovereign described this as 'an unprecedented stage in bilateral relations'. 

According to Moroccan political and diplomatic circles consulted by Atalayar, it is now up to the head of the Spanish government to take advantage of the occasion to bring concrete ideas to the meeting with the Alaouite sovereign that will allow an irreversible link to be established between the Spanish government and the direct entourage of the King of Morocco, in order to address and decide on the transcendental problems that interest both countries.