A diplomatic eternity. Emmanuel Macron had not set foot in Morocco since 2018, after a first visit following his arrival at the Elysée in June 2017. The marker, at the time, of the importance of the kingdom for Paris and his diplomacy. The French president will therefore have waited seven years to return to the other side of the Mediterranean, this October 28. “This significant delay alone betrayed a great deterioration in relations between France and Morocco under the Macron era, note Today Morocco. The young and fiery president who had just come to power in France had nurtured an Algerian tropism sufficiently pronounced for his relationship with Morocco to be lastingly and seriously damaged. Major political differences between Paris and Rabat had kept their relations in a dangerous state of freezing.”
Beyond personal differences with King Mohammed VI, the question of Moroccan sovereignty over Western Sahara, disputed with Algeria, constituted the main point of friction between Paris and Rabat. But on July 30, the Elysée aligned itself with the Moroccan position, recognizing the principle of autonomy of Western Sahara. “President Emmanuel Macron has returned from his Algerian illusions, believes Today Morocco. Political realism obliges, the economic and strategic interests of his country are more on the side of the kingdom.” After this decision, Morocco popped the champagne and relaunched its invitation to the French president. “Rabat and Paris therefore seem determined more than ever to write a new page in their unique history”, insists the newspaper The morning, stressing that France remains Morocco’s leading trading partner in the world.
“A president starts with Algeria and ends with Morocco”
In the news now, Maroc Hebdo famous “warm reunion”. The Casablanca magazine also highlights the rivalry playing out behind the scenes behind this Franco-Moroccan rapprochement: “In the wood-panelled corridors of the Quai d’Orsay, the official headquarters for nearly two centuries of the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Paris, we have apparently customary to say that ‘a president begins with Algeria and ends with Morocco’, irrefutable wisdom as only diplomats from old nations can hold and which, for the umpteenth time in the history of relations between the two Maghreb countries. and France, is further confirmed with this state visit.”
In his luggage, Emmanuel Macron brings with him a large French political and economic delegation to Morocco. Paris intends to develop economic partnerships in the sector of new technologies, but also in joint projects on the African continent. The Moroccan news site The Desk thus reveals a “new town” project in Lagouira, in the very south of the disputed area of Western Sahara, in which France could invest. “A project with a strong symbolic charge for Morocco”, supports this media, since it would endorse the French position in this explosive diplomatic issue. “If between Morocco and France a long road has been covered within the framework of a dense and protean relationship, it is today setting a new course by being part of a win-win logic, with a dimension regional, African and Mediterranean unsuspected and totally assumed”, writes The morning.
Major economic projects in Africa
Maroc Hebdo also wonders about the economic underpinnings of the French diplomatic turnaround, after three years of a particularly intense quarrel with Rabat, marked by the potential spying on the French president’s telephone via the Israeli Pegasus software. “What we think we know is that for Emmanuel Macron, there is a strong emphasis on the economic element, at a time when in less than six years Morocco is preparing to organize, alongside the Spain and Portugal, the Football World Cup, says the Moroccan weekly, an event which is already leading to the launch of numerous infrastructure projects across the country and which, as one might expect, French companies. are staring with great attention. […] As we know, Morocco has also recently embarked on a broad initiative covering the entire Sahel region, with a view to opening it up by allowing it access, through its maritime border, to the Atlantic, and this obviously requires various major works.”
However, everything is not rosy between Paris and Rabat. There are still many areas of contention, and the state visit will not resolve all of these issues. “Difficult subjects will be discussed, in particular the question of immigration which has become an obsession in France, points out the daily Al Ahdhat Al Maghribia. But this difficult discussion is surmountable.” The Minister of the Interior Bruno Retailleau, particularly offensive on this migration issue, is part of the delegation in Rabat. In 2021, Paris had halved the number of visas allocated to Moroccans, with the The objective of putting pressure on the Moroccan authorities to take back their illegal nationals expelled from France was a failure, which pushed France to reverse this policy in 2022.
After an evening spent in the company of Mohammed VI, Emmanuel Macron must speak before the Moroccan Parliament on Tuesday in order to dissipate the last clouds in the increasingly blue sky of the Franco-Moroccan relationship.