Rabat – Throughout the past decade, Morocco has been facing opposition, criticism, and maneuvers from the West, some of its neighbors, as well as NGOs deeming the human rights situation in the North African kingdom to be “deteriorating.”
Smearing campaign
One of the latest such maneuvers came in the form of a European Parliament’s resolution on the “implementation of the common foreign security policy,” which includes proposals that are hostile to Morocco.
Adopted on January 18, the resolution includes texts suggesting that Morocco and Qatar were allegedly involved in “attempts to influence Parliament’s Members, former Members, and staff through acts of corruption.”
Earlier today, the European Parliament also voted on a resolution on the “situation of journalists in Morocco, notably the case of Omar Radi.”
About 356 people voted in favor of the resolution, 32 voted against, while roughly 42 people abstained during the vote.
In particular, the resolution accuses Morocco of “harassing and intimidating journalists, human rights defenders, and diaspora activities.”
The resolution adopted on January 18 based allegations on the preliminary findings of an ongoing investigation launched after media reports linked Morocco to unproven cases of corruption within the European Parliament.
A group of Western media have recently reported on the ongoing investigation, pointing fingers at Morocco as a “culprit” despite a lack of evidence proving the country’s involvement in the alleged corruption cases.
Heaping praise on Michel Claise, the judge in charge of investigating the case, French news outlet L’Express said: “This specialist in the fight against financial crime uses all his energy to ‘deal with cases that involve influential people.’”
In December, Politico also quoted an “extradition request” document that links former Italian socialist MEP Pier Antonio Panzeri to the corruption allegations contained in the EU Parliament’s “Qatargate” dossier.
According to the report, the former MEP “stands accused of leaning on his former Parliament colleagues not just for Qatar but also Morocco’s benefit – and taking money from both countries to do so.”
As has long been the case in such incendiary reporting targeting Morocco, however, Politico provided no evidence to back the allegations targeting Morocco and Qatar, other than quoting from what has been combatively repeated by a number of other Western news outlets.
It would appear that recent diplomatic gains consolidating Morocco’s position within the EU and beyond have angered several parties, including some MEPs that are vocal supporters of the agenda of the Polisario Front, the separatist militia seeking independence in the Western Sahara region.
Commenting on pro-Polisario campaigns within the European Parliament, Algerian journalist and analyst Oualid Kebir said the Polisario Front and the Algerian regime have “strong links” with a number of MEPs.
“It is clear from how Algerian media deals with this issue, and this confirms that the ruling regime in Algeria has a hand in promoting these campaigns,” Kebir told Morocco World News (MWN).
The analyst emphasized that Algeria’s regime and the Polisario Front have been working tirelessly to reverse or undermine some of the diplomatic gains Morocco has made in recent years.
Morocco has rallied many countries in Europe and beyond around its Western Sahara stance, the result being the prevailing diplomatic consensus that Rabat’s Autonomy Plan is the most serious and credible basis to end the dispute over the Sahara.
The North African kingdom has also stood firm against maneuvers that sought to challenge its territorial integrity — particularly its decisions to freeze diplomatic ties with Spain and Germany over these countries’ ambiguous positions on the Western Sahara dispute.
In the past few years, Morocco has been choosing bold courses of action to defend its interests within the EU, including through decisions to recall ambassadors from both Spain and Germany in 2021.
On May 6, 2021, Morocco recalled its ambassador to Germany, accusing Berlin of adopting a “destructive attitude” towards Rabat’s position on the Western Sahara issue.
It was only in December of the same year that the Berlin-Rabat ties went back to normal when the European country endorsed the Moroccan Autonomy Plan as an important contribution to the UN-led political process.
Morocco made a similar move in May of the same year, recalling its ambassador to Spain for consultation after the Spanish government allowed Polisario leader Brahim Ghali to access its territory for hospitalization.
Throwing blackmail accusations
Rabat described Spain’s decision as a betrayal of the mutual trust and transparency required between longtime allies and good neighbors.
After more than a year of consultation and dialogue, the two countries announced a new roadmap to improve diplomatic ties. As part of that newfound partnership, Spain formally endorsed Morocco’s Autonomy Plan and described it as the most serious and credible path towards a lasting solution to the Sahara dispute.
As should have been expected, the effectiveness of Morocco’s diplomatic approaches angered pro-Polisario politicians, intellectuals, and activists in both Spain and beyond, many of whom described Madrid’s embrace of the Moroccan position on the Sahara as the result of Morocco’s relentless blackmailing of the Spanish political elite.
The new resolution adopted today by members of the European Parliament is not the only maneuver against the North African kingdom.
Morocco has been the subject of several hostile parliamentary questions — including 18 attempted amendments in 2022, and four attempted resolutions, among which there was a resolution that accused Rabat of “using minors” during the Ceuta immigration crisis in May 2021.
And these are just a few cases in a long litany of attempts by vocal supporters and sympathizers of the Polisario Front’s agenda to present Morocco as unworthy of being a good EU ally.
Relentless attacks will not faze Morocco
In a recent response to what it described as the latest attempt by the EU’s pro-Polisario wing to smear Morocco, an official from the Moroccan ministry of foreign affairs said that Rabat expects such attacks to continue.
For the Moroccan official, the EU Parliament’s resolution is the latest iteration of a hostile campaign that Morocco has long navigated amid finger-pointing from human pro-Polisario advocacy groups, politicians, and media. :
“It is the manifestation of real abuses and abuses of democratic institutions and processes,” the official said. “It is amazing to see that even when some complain of foreign interference, they are the first to practice it by interfering in the internal affairs and judicial processes of a sovereign State.”
The official stressed, however, that some activists’ obsession with antagonizing Morocco will not distract the country from pursuing its strategic interests and consolidating its recent diplomatic gains.
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