The ups and downs of the relationship with Morocco they have returned, once again, to shake up national politics, this time due to the fact that Mohamed VI does not receive the Prime Minister, Pedro Sánchez, in audience. The crucial week of the High Level Meeting (RAN), with everything prepared to seal a lasting alliance, which has only been possible after Spain’s historic turn on the Sahara, the spark that there was no meeting between the chief of the Executive and the Moroccan king generated a new political row with the PP and forced Moncloa to give explanations to the media. And all this, despite the fact that the Moroccan Royal House and Moncloa made two separate communications public in which they reported that Sánchez and Mohamed VI had spoken by phone and the monarch had invited him to a new visit “soon”.
The interview between the two, within the framework of the RAN, was never confirmed and Moncloa always remarked that it was a meeting between governments. But, in conversations with the media the days before, it was never ruled out. As if one wanted to let this possibility float. It was this expectation and the history of disagreements that Spain accumulates with Morocco that has ignited the spark of a controversy, which has almost tarnished the RAN.
The Foreign Minister himself, José Manuel Albares, was forced to offer clarifications publicly and reveal that the phone call was “agreed days ago”which denotes, he defended, the “personal involvement” of the king in the development of the RAN.
?? ?? I just had a conversation with HM Mohamed VI before the High Level Meeting. We agree that this meeting will be a success for our countries.
Spain and Morocco consolidate the new stage of their bilateral relations.
— Pedro Sánchez (@sanchezcastejon) February 1, 2023
Faced with those who interpret it as rude that Mohamed VI does not receive Sánchez in audience, the Government said this Wednesday that they knew in advance that he was not in Morocco these days. Executive sources also attach enormous importance to the previous conversation because, they point out, it demonstrates the monarch’s will for the summit to be a success. Much more than a mere formal greetingthey point out.
The Government maintains that “no one can doubt the extraordinary relationship between Mohamed VI and Pedro Sánchez“and recalls that he was the only Prime Minister to have had a dinner with him and his family, which preceded the signing of an institutional declaration, on April 7, where the foundations of the new relationship between the two were laid countries.
The king’s presence in the RAN, they emphasize, “does not remove or add” more relevance to the summit, which they describe as the “most important” of all those that have been held due to the number of ministers -28- and agreements that were reached. They are going to sign -24-.
Added to all this is the fact that the statement from the Alaouite Royal House gives specific weight to Sánchez’s next visit to Rabat because it reveals that it will be “an opportunity to further strengthen bilateral relationsthrough concrete actions marked by efficiency and tangible projects in strategic areas of common interest”.
Mohamed VI and Sánchez already met ten months ago in Rabat, in the visit that consolidated the rapprochement between Madrid and Rabat after the crisis and the Spanish turn on the Sahara. On that occasion the two they shared the ‘iftar’, the breakfast with which the fast is broken during the month of Ramadan. A gesture loaded with symbolism that is reserved for few international leaders. The Moroccan royal palace has always controlled the timing of the reconstruction of the bridges with Spain, but currently the monarch is out of the country. His last public appearance was on December 20, when he welcomed the soccer team after reaching the World Cup semifinals.
But nothing prevented, shortly after learning that there would be no audience with the king, the PP’s Institutional Vice-Secretary, Esteban González Pons, wrote in a tweet stating that there is no “greater humiliation” than “giving everything to Morocco” as, in his opinion, the head of the Executive has done and that later King Mohamed VI does not receive you on your visit to Rabat. For this reason, he wondered if the President of the Government is “free” in front of Rabat when he “allows himself to be ignored so much.” His reaction caused the first clarifications from Albares – then there were others later – and a lot of nerves in Moncloa for fear that the idea that the Moroccan king had done an ugly thing to the president would sink in.
How did the government agree to attend the summit in Morocco without being assured that the king would receive the president? This type of diplomatic ninguneo is paid with a resignation. Macron would never set foot in Rabat to avoid being received by the king. Those of Sánchez are making a role.
— González Pons (@gonzalezpons) February 1, 2023
The Foreign Minister charged against the PP and accused him of not understanding or appreciating the ties with Morocco. “Those are the statements of a party that does not know what state policies are and if a policy is of the State it is the foreign policy of Spain”, he defended.
The truth is that, despite the astonishment with which Spain received the fact that there would be no meeting between Sánchez and the King and the political anger that followed, the business forum which preceded the RAN, which brought together the employers of both countries and which Sánchez closed with the Moroccan Prime Minister, Aziz Ajanuch, was a success.
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Ajanunch himself valued the conversation between Mohamed VI and the head of the Spanish Executive and assured that the king aspires to an “exemplary relationship in order to also guarantee stability and peace” in the region and that the so-called “opens up broad horizons for investments”.
In Morocco, it has not been understood that in Spain someone can get upset because their monarch does not receive the Spanish president, since their relationship is not equal to equal because Sánchez is not head of state.