Experts Explore Solutions to Mend Strained France-Morocco Relations

The Franco-Moroccan relationship was on the menu of a debate on Radio France. "The relationship is not linear... There are tensions, sometimes stronger than those we know today, like under Hollande’s term with a suspension of judicial cooperation," analyzes Nadia Hachimi Alaoui, professor of political science at the International University of Rabat. Christian Cambon, senator of Val-de-Marne, also president of the Foreign Affairs, Defense and Armed Forces Committee of the Senate, notes for his part "a succession of problems related to visa restriction measures."

"The issue of Western Sahara" and the "European Parliament resolution on respect for human rights in Morocco" have, according to the Moroccan investigative journalist, exiled in France, Aboubakr Jamaï, specialist in the Maghreb and professor of international relations in Aix-en-Provence, undermined the relations between Rabat and Paris.

Each of them has brought solutions that could save the Franco-Moroccan relationship. Christian Cambon calls for prioritizing "diplomatic and political solutions". According to Aboubakr Jamaï, the warming of relations between the two countries depends in particular on the place of French capital in Morocco, which fuels resentment: "there is a collusion with the rentier elites of the kingdom". Nadia Hachim Alaoui, on the other hand, leans towards the end of "the political use of migration issues in France, to the detriment of relations with Morocco and its Francophile elite."