Smoke, half-words, opacity and veiled allusions: a game for power
There is a fundamental difference between science and politics. The former bases its advances on research, experimentation and analysis of events and realities. All scientific methods need proof. In Politics, on the other hand, hypotheses are put forward, data and fictitious realities are used which, without being proven, allow the politician to put forward his theories. The scientist manipulates evidence, the politician manipulates minds.
The two "high-level" meetings between Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez and US President Joe Biden, the first lasting 28 seconds in the corridors of NATO in Brussels, and the second lasting 30 seconds in the G20 hall in Rome, illustrate the manipulation of minds. Pedro Sánchez needed the two videos for Spanish domestic consumption.
At the EU-African Union summit in Brussels on 17-18 February, the fictional scenario was repeated. In parts. Pedro Sánchez needed to show Spanish opinion and his own party that he "has the bilateral crisis with Morocco under control". How? With a "bilateral meeting" between the president and Mohamed VI's head of diplomacy. Two occasions were presented: during the working session of the commission dedicated to addressing security between Europe and Africa, which Pedro Sánchez co-chaired; or during the session of the migration commission, which was co-chaired by the Moroccan Nasser Bourita. In the room under Sánchez's baton, there was no occasion; Minister Bourita did not approach the Spanish president to talk to him. There was only the possibility of doing so in the migration session, in which Sánchez was not registered in principle. In spite of this, the President of the Government entered the room, and during a break in the debates, he approached Nasser Bourita with whom he "held a conversation" in which, according to the EFE agency quoting the president, "they agreed on the need to make progress in the strategic relationship between Spain and Morocco". Sánchez told the press conference that he had been able to talk to the Moroccan minister, with whom he stressed that "Morocco is a strategic partner for Spain and, therefore, it wishes to deepen bilateral relations and also those of the European Union with this country". It is not known how many seconds it was this time, but possibly more than the 58 (28+30) that it was with Joe Biden.
But Pedro Sánchez was not the only one interested in the Belgian farce. The Polisario Front leader Brahim Ghali, invited by the African Union of which the Saharawi Republic is a member, as Josep Borrell explained in his role as Pilate at the Euro-African summit, and throwing the hot potato of the Saharawi leader's controversial presence in Brussels on the Africans, has done a similar thing.
The Polisario press agency, and by ricochet the Algerian one, state that "Brahim Ghali held several meetings with his counterparts in Brussels" and that "he was received with the protocol that corresponds to his presidential function". The reality is that Ghali was not received as a head of state at the airport, and only had a bilateral meeting with Ciryl Ramaphosa, the South African president, and was briefly greeted by an African leader who took an interest in his health. However, no European head of state, prime minister or foreign minister met with him, as "the Saharawi Republic is not recognised by any European country", Borrell said.
As for the "meeting" between the Spanish President Pedro Sánchez and the head of the Polisario Brahim Ghali, to which Sánchez referred at the press conference, it was an initiative of the Saharawi leader who, while in the room where the security committee co-chaired by Sánchez was meeting, approached the latter during a break to tell him that "he was very sorry for the consequences that his stay in Spain had had for his government" by way of an apology. The head of the Spanish government, out of politeness, listened to him and said that "Spain will do everything possible to ensure that the Sahara issue is resolved to the satisfaction of the parties to the conflict".
Why are these clarifications important? Setting the record straight allows Spanish public opinion, political parties, governments and parliaments to know what is really going on; in other words, to move closer to a scientific analysis of reality, and away from the political manipulation of minds.
In short: the crisis with Morocco continues and the Western Sahara issue is far from the end of the tunnel.