Solemnly, President Emmanuel Macron reaffirmed this Tuesday before the Rabat Parliament that France contemplates “the present and future of the Sahara within the framework of the sovereignty of Morocco.” As he announced three months ago in a letter to King Mohamed VI, Macron has also committed to defending the proposed Moroccan autonomy plan in all international bodies – such as the UN Security Council, of which his country is a permanent member. in 2007 as the only solution to the conflict in the former Spanish colony. Amid applause from the standing parliamentarians, the president also announced a new era of special strategic relationship between both countries, at the culmination of a state visit in which French companies have closed agreements worth 10 billion euros.
After the warm welcome on Monday at the Rabat airport, followed by the festive tour with Mohamed VI through the streets of the capital and the pageantry of the reception at the royal palace, the pomp of the speech given before the two chambers of the legislature led to the French leader to guarantee to the rest of the world, as he and his de facto predecessors have been doing for the last 17 years, the proposal for autonomy under Moroccan sovereignty.
“It is anchored in history and is respectful of reality and promising for the future,” he emphasized. “This position is not hostile to anyone,” he warned, referring to Algeria, which supports the demand for self-determination and independence of the Polisario Front, taking refuge along with thousands of exiles in Tindouf (western Algeria). “And it opens a new page for cooperation with neighboring countries and the EU,” he added.
The United Nations continues to consider Western Sahara as a “non-autonomous territory” or pending decolonization after Spain abandoned it nearly half a century ago. In recent years, there has been an international shift in favor of the Moroccan autonomy plan, such as the one given by the Spanish Government in 2022, considering it as “the most serious, realistic and credible basis” to resolve the conflict, and even recognition. of sovereignty, more formal than effective, like that expressed by the United States in 2020.
The UN envoy and mediator for the Sahara, Staffan de Mistura, has just proposed a partition of the territory as a way out of the dispute, a proposal that has been flatly rejected by all the parties involved. From the tribune of Parliament, Macron also confirmed that France will accompany the economic development of the Sahara with its companies.
Look ahead
After appealing to a common past and veiledly acknowledging “the violence of colonial history,” Macron was more willing to look to the future of relations with Morocco, which remained under French protectorate until 1956. “We are going to write a new book together.” ”, he proposed “to face the challenges of this century.” The president invited Mohamed VI to visit him in Paris next year, on the 70th anniversary of the first agreement for the independence of the Maghreb country, in order to formalize a new special strategic relationship with Morocco unparalleled for France, according to what he said, outside of the European Union.
The French president pointed to the geopolitical transformations experienced on the international scene after the pandemic and the war in Ukraine, highlighted the advantage that Morocco’s proximity to Europe represents in the relocation of value chains and warned of the threat posed the deployment of other powers in Africa, and in particular the Sahara and the Sahel.
“We must end traffic corridors [de seres humanos] and misery (…) from the Gulf of Guinea to Libya”, in reference to clandestine immigration networks. To this end, he proposed an association between two continents with France and Morocco as bridges “that open paths other than flight and exile.” “A large part of our future will be played on the African continent,” he stressed.
The signing of a first batch of 22 bilateral agreements upon Macron’s arrival in Rabat, such as the one that awards the French company Alston the contract for the new Moroccan high-speed trains, has been followed this Tuesday by a new round of trade pacts at an economic forum held in the capital of Morocco. Official French sources raise the amount of transactions signed during the official visit to 10 billion euros, in sectors such as renewable energy, seawater desalination or agriculture.
The premiere of the monarch’s legacy
As a culmination of the state visit, which concludes on Wednesday, this Tuesday the Grand Theater of Rabat was inaugurated, a unique building designed by architect Zaha Hahid with a budget of 200 million euros, completed three years ago and which remained closed to the public. Before attending a gala dinner offered at the royal palace, Brigitte Macron, wife of the French president, and Lala Hasnaa, older sister of the king of Morocco, will attend the premiere of the new room, stranded like a bank whale in the estuary of the Buregreb River, in the company of the director of UNESCO, Audrey Azoulay, and the French Minister of Culture, Rachida Dati, both of Moroccan origin.
Next to it, the finishing touches are already being given to the tallest skyscraper in Africa, the futuristic Mohamed VI Tower, 250 meters high, designed by the Spanish Rafael de la Hoz, with a cost close to 600 million euros. Both buildings, which symbolize the new profile of Rabat, are seen as icons of the legacy of the current monarch of the Alawite dynasty, in the same way that the great Hassan II Mosque was left by his father’s printing press in Casablanca, before he died 25 years back.
