On February 27, the French president described his relations with King Mohammed VI as “friendly”. It is not so, we reply curtly in Rabat.
During the press conference which followed his speech devoted to relations between France and Africa, on February 27 at the Élysée Palace, President Emmanuel Macron (who arrived in Libreville on March 1 for the One Forest Summit), after acknowledging the existence of problems between Morocco and France, particularly because of the Pegasus affair (qualified by him as “a subject of wiretapping which was revealed by the press”) and the vote hostile to the kingdom in Parliament European Union, on January 19, 2023, nevertheless stressed that his personal relations with King Mohammed VI were “friendly” and “will remain so”.
A message that clearly did not convince in Rabat. Questioned by JA, an official source within the Moroccan government asserts on the contrary that “relations are neither friendly nor good, any more between the two governments than between the Royal Palace and the Élysée”. According to her, the two subjects mentioned by the French president as sources of tension “are only the illustration of this situation. Other points of tension have been deliberately concealed, including the arbitrary restriction of visas, the media campaign and judicial harassment”.
Pegasus, vote of the European Parliament…
The same government source adds that “the involvement of the media and certain French circles in the genesis and promotion of the Pegasus affair could not be done without the involvement of the French authorities. Just as the vote of the European Parliament could not pass without the active mobilization of the Renew group dominated by the French presidential majority and chaired by Stéphane Séjourné whose links with the Élysée are of public notoriety”. In the eyes of the Moroccan authorities, these two cases “are part of an offensive whose objective is to gain influence over Morocco and to contain its internal and foreign policy choices”.
Still according to our authorized source, Rabat did not appreciate that Emmanuel Macron, during his press conference, gave the impression that the Maghreb only existed in reality within its diaspora in France (“if the Maghreb is a geopolitical reality today, it is undoubtedly in France that it rushes, much more than in the region”), remarks deemed “as harsh as useless” by our interlocutor.
It should be noted that, by chance, Emmanuel Macron and King Mohammed VI are both staying in Gabon at the beginning of March. No meeting was scheduled between the two heads of state, according to our information.
