Morocco Disputes Macron’s Claim of ’Good’ Relations with France

The relations between France and Morocco "are neither friendly nor good, neither between the two governments nor between the Royal Palace and the Élysée," reacted in the magazine Jeune Afrique the official source within the Moroccan government to the remarks of the French president who affirmed in a press conference after his speech on the relations between France and Africa at the Élysée Palace on February 27, that his relations with King Mohammed VI are "friendly" and "will remain so".

For this Moroccan source, the Pegasus affair and France’s vote against Morocco in the European Parliament mentioned by the French president are not the only sources of tension between the two countries. According to him, Emmanuel Macron "deliberately overlooked" other points of tension such as "the arbitrary restriction of visas, the media campaign and the judicial harassment".

"The involvement of the French media and certain French circles in the genesis and promotion of the Pegasus affair could not have been done without the involvement of the French authorities. Just as the European Parliament’s vote could not have gone through 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 public knowledge," details the Moroccan government source.

The Moroccan authorities believe that these two affairs "are part of an offensive whose objective is to have an ascendancy over Morocco and to contain its internal choices and foreign policy," adds the same source cited by Jeune Afrique, stressing that "Rabat has hardly appreciated that Emmanuel Macron, during his press conference, gave the impression that the Maghreb only existed within its diaspora in France". Comments deemed "as harsh as they are useless" by the Moroccan source.