Algeria in the mirror: the Sahara and the price of denying reality

While world-spanning powers such as the United States, Germany, Spain and the Netherlands recognise, either directly or tacitly, the Moroccan character of the territory, and while the international community is increasingly moving towards the autonomy proposal presented by Morocco in 2007 as a pragmatic solution, Algeria stubbornly refuses to acknowledge the evidence. 

This is not a simple diplomatic divergence, but a structural deadlock. Algeria has turned the Sahara into a tool of domestic politics, a founding myth that fuels official nationalism and justifies a vision of the Maghreb based on antagonism rather than cooperation. This strategy has served for decades to shut down internal debate and avoid reforms, but today it is beginning to show its limits. 

The international reality has changed. In the Security Council, the option of a referendum is no longer mentioned as a realistic prospect. Geopolitical, energy and migratory dynamics are pushing Europe to seek stability in its southern neighbourhood. Morocco, for its part, has strengthened its legitimacy in Africa, diversified its alliances and demonstrated its ability to offer a solution based on compromise. Even those who have not formally endorsed the Moroccan plan now consider it the only viable framework within the United Nations process. 

Faced with these developments, Algeria maintains an intransigent and paradoxical position: it declares itself ‘not a party’ to the conflict, while financing, arming and diplomatically representing the Polisario Front. This self-serving ambiguity is precisely what is preventing progress. Without recognition of its own role, there can be no solution. 

But the greatest risk for Algeria is not external: it is internal. The regime's crisis of legitimacy, post-hydrocarbon economic fragility and the closing of the political space mean that the cost of maintaining a dogmatic position is now higher than ever. Immobility no longer guarantees stability, but isolation. 

What way out, then? There is a way: serious and responsible involvement in the political process sponsored by the United Nations, without renouncing its dignity or its history. Morocco has left the door open to an approach based on mutual respect, realism and the search for a win-win solution for the region. Persisting in denial will only prolong the status quo, with growing geostrategic consequences for the entire Mediterranean. 

Accepting change is not giving in. It is understanding that the future of the Maghreb lies in reconciliation, not division. The Sahara will remain Moroccan, because that is what history, geography and international legitimacy dictate... and because the stability of North Africa and Southern Europe demands it.