chargement...
In Spain, the classical right has decided to play the crisis card with Morocco. After the written questions of the group of MPs of the People’s Party on the crisis between Rabat and Madrid, it is the turn of Pablo Casado to point the finger at the management by the left coalition government of relations with Rabat, calling it «irresponsible», reports Radio Cope.
The head of the PP, a formation that is on the rise especially after its broad victory in the May 4 elections in the Madrid region, slammed the foreign policy led by the government of Pedro Sanchez. It is «zero» and «at the origin of the unprecedented crisis» with Morocco, he declared during his participation yesterday in a conference devoted to «Europe day» marked by the presence of former right-wing foreign ministers, Ana Palacio and José Margallo.
Taking very seriously the «threats» made by the Kingdom in the press release from Nasser Bourita's department published on Saturday, May 8, Casado reminded the Sanchez government that «immigration, tourism or fishing policies depend on relations with the neighboring country».
In the footsteps of socialist Zapatero in 2001
Morocco has indeed warned Spain that it will «draw the consequences» of the hospitalization, on the sly and under a false identity, of Brahim Ghali in a hospital in Logroño. Rabat also denounced calls from members of the Spanish government to «minimize» the crisis of the Polisario leader. During his speech, Pablo Casado refrained from addressing Moroccan claims on Ceuta and Melilla.
In the Kingdom, the secretary general of Istiqlal has already welcomed the position of its «ally» the PP. «The People’s Party has not only shown a reiterated friendship towards my country, but also demonstrated a political coherence and a fraternal empathy which unfortunately has been drastically lacking in other currents of the Spanish political scene. The misunderstanding was strong and general in Morocco», wrote, Sunday, Nizar Baraka in a letter addressed to the head of the PP. He also took this opportunity to invite Pablo Casado to visit Morocco. Istiqlal and the People's Party are members of the Central Democratic International (IDC).
A visit of Casado to Morocco cannot be ruled out. José Luis Rodriguez Zaptero, then secretary general of the PSOE (opposition), visited the Kingdom in December 2001 and met King Mohammed VI. A trip made in the midst of the crisis between Morocco and the right-wing government chaired by José Maria Aznar, marked by the recalling, in October 2001, of the Moroccan ambassador for «consultations of an indefinite period» and the cancellation of the high-level meeting between the two countries.
