Spain, caught between two fires: Morocco and Algeria

The importance of Spain’s relations with Morocco is no longer to be demonstrated. The kingdom is Spain’s main trading partner with whom it shares the land borders of Ceuta and Melilla through which many migrants pass to reach Europe. Last weekend, more than 150 migrants tried to enter Ceuta by swimming from Morocco, reports El Mundo, analyzing that these massive immigrations could be a response from Morocco to Spain’s rapprochement with Algeria.

Strained since the Brahim Ghali affair, the head of the Polisario Front who had been admitted to a hospital in Logroño under a false identity, relations between Rabat and Madrid have thawed after Pedro Sanchez expressed his support for the Moroccan autonomy plan for the Sahara. In March 2022, the two countries agreed on a new roadmap for their relations, which provides for the creation of a customs office in Ceuta and the reopening of the one in Melilla, unilaterally closed by Morocco since August 2018.

But so far, trade between the two countries has not been restored. The customs are still closed, despite regular contacts between the Spanish Minister of Foreign Affairs, José Manuel Albares, and his Moroccan counterpart, Nasser Bourita. During his last visit to Rabat, Albares indicated that "technical problems" on the Moroccan side are blocking the resumption of trade.

Moreover, Spain is also going through a crisis with Algeria, Morocco’s rival. The country of Abdelmadjid Tebboune, Spain’s main gas supplier, accuses it of changing its historical position on the Sahara in favor of Morocco. In reaction to this decision, Algiers, an ally of the Polisario, had suspended its trade with Madrid and threatened to break its gas contracts.