A possible return of the People’s Party (PP) to power would not be detrimental to Morocco’s interests, reveals the bulletin “Penínsulas”, published by La Vanguardia. “The PP maintains direct contact with the spheres of power in Morocco. There is a fluid relationship with the Istiqlal Party, the historical nationalist formation, which must always be counted on. Sources close to the contacts between the PP and the Istiqlal point out that the Spanish conservative party gave Rabat a guarantee that nothing substantial would change. He asked his interlocutors to understand the tone and content of their attacks against Sánchez in relation to the Maghreb”, reports “Penínsulas”.
“Leave us to war against the socialists, but you can be sure that nothing substantial will change if we govern. This would be the message sent to Rabat,” adds the same source. The PP has, in fact, voted all the resolutions in both Chambers of Parliament condemning Pedro Sánchez’s support for the Moroccan autonomy plan for Western Sahara.
Feijóo in the footsteps of Mariano Rajoy
“Nevertheless, this theatrical strategy could present a weak point: Algeria. If the Algerian government was led to believe that there would be notable changes, its anger could be monumental, if the reversal did not occur”, alert “Penínsulas”. A former Algerian Minister of Industry has, moreover, warned the PP against aligning itself with Pedro Sánchez’s position on the Sahara issue, announcing that the economic sanctions, imposed for a year by his country against exporters of Spanish, will not be lifted.
As a reminder, the president of the PP, Alberto Núñez Feijóo, met on March 31, 2022, in Rotterdam on the sidelines of the congress of the European People’s Party, with the head of the Moroccan government, Aziz Akhannouch, president of the National Rally of Independents (RNI ). PP sources told Radio Cope that Feijóo had reassured his Moroccan interlocutor of “his commitment to maintaining a relationship of good neighborliness and loyalty with Morocco and his desire to pursue a reliable foreign policy”.
The leader of the PP promised, on July 10 during the televised debate with Pedro Sánchez, to “return to the balance between Algeria, the Saharawi people and Morocco”. Statements hailed by the Algerian media. “The leader of the Popular Party, Alberto Nuñez Feijóo, potential candidate for the post of Prime Minister has promised a return to his country’s previous position in the Sahrawi dossier, based in particular on ‘transparency'”, welcomed the daily.
Mariano Rajoy, the last member of the PP to have governed Spain, from November 2011 to June 2018, had had in 2004 then in the ranks of the opposition, a honeymoon with the Polisario. However, once in Moncloa, economic, political and security interests with the kingdom took over, pushing him to abandon his old promises made to the Front by his envoy in the Tindouf camps, Jorge Moragas. Under Rajoy’s presidency, Morocco and Spain held two high joint commission meetings in 2012 in Rabat and 2015 in Madrid.
