Moroccan-Spanish Relationship Should Be Reviewed from Top to Bottom – Expert –

The relationship between Morocco and Spain should be reviewed from top to bottom, especially after Madrid’s attempt to Europeanize its crisis with Morocco, says political scientist Mustapha Tossa. “Morocco was right to have mobilized all its state and institutional friends to denounce the resolution of the European Parliament, the result of a work of undermining and settlement of accounts undertaken by the Spanish authorities,” writes Tossa in this analysis entitled “The possible Moroccan responses to the crisis with Spain,” published on the website Atlasinfo. The Kingdom is also right to denounce this “serious detour” of a bilateral crisis to an intercontinental tension, he notes, adding that in this unequal tug of war, Morocco found itself not in an “antagonistic” relationship with its Spanish neighbor to settle a political dispute but in a tense relationship with the entire European space. According to him, this situation is the result of an attempt to Europeanize the Spanish crisis between Rabat and Madrid, noting that Spain has adopted the attitude of one who has made a fatal mistake and who, before it degenerates and does not force him to assume and recognize it, left hastily to complain to play the victims and the attacked. Madrid had within its reach the weapon of Strasbourg and it did not hesitate to use it against its Moroccan neighbor that the Spanish government described only yesterday as a strategic partner, an ally on issues on which depend in part its security, stability and economic growth, laments Tossa. “Now that the crisis is here, that the masks have come off, that Spain has shown the extent of its animosity towards Moroccan interests”, Morocco is faced with a rather unprecedented political sequence, he says, noting that it will have to prepare responses compatible with the new regional situation. In this context, Morocco should make the difference between two levels of response. The first is European, which involves “investing even more in the valuable relationship between Morocco and Europe to give it new dimensions in economic, security and strategic terms”, Morocco being the “essential” African and Mediterranean portal to Europe. “Giving strength, vigor to this alliance, is to empty of its substance all the strategy of hostile Spanish circles who dream of causing a divorce between Morocco and the European Union, “notes the political scientist, for whom in this vision, Morocco has multiple assets and many allies to succeed in its project. The second level of response, he adds, is bilateral and Spanish, because at this stage, Morocco “is entitled to freeze or reduce to the bare minimum all major joint projects, all kinds of cooperation that benefit exclusively to the Spanish until a new strategic partnership between Rabat and Madrid is rethought and rewritten”.