Nineteen years ago, in an interview with the Spanish newspaper El País, Morocco’s then Minister of Foreign Affairs, Taieb Fassi Fihri, stated that, for relations between Morocco and Spain to be stable and based on mutual trust, it was essential that “Morocco cease to be used as a weapon in Spain’s domestic politics.” His words have taken on renewed relevance in the context of the campaign to demonize Morocco that we have been witnessing for more than six weeks.
The Popular Party (PP), well aware of the animosity toward Morocco among broad segments of Spanish public opinion, seems unwilling to let this golden opportunity slip away. Instead, it appears determined to continue using Morocco as a weapon in Spain’s domestic political battles in pursuit of its ultimate objective: defeating Pedro Sánchez in the next elections, or even weakening his government to such an extent that he is forced to call an early election.
The cynicism of Mr. Feijóo and all the PP officials, including Juan Vivas, knows no bounds. Instead of calming tensions and avoiding any step that could further poison relations between Morocco and Spain, Mr. Feijóo has chosen to issue a statement in which, despite the publication of a CNI report confirming the absence of any evidence implicating Morocco, he persists in accusing the kingdom of being involved in a “hybrid war” against Spain. Having concluded that Morocco-bashing is an electoral card that yields considerable political dividends in a country whose political imagination and cultural consensus have historically denigrated Moroccans, his clear objective is not to try to find a solution to what happened in Ceuta. Rather, he has determined that the best course of action for his electoral calculations is to evade responsibility, ignore the facts of the Ceuta crisis, and only point fingers at the usual and most convenient scapegoat.
Rajoy in opposition: Morocco as the source of all evils
A brief historical review is enough to expose Mr. Feijóo’s cynicism, as well as the double discourse of the PP as a whole and of the Spanish far right in general. There were more than ten mass attempts to storm Melilla between September 26 and October 6, 2005, resulting in the deaths of ten sub-Saharan migrants.
Morocco had by then borne the brunt of the migratory pressure and assumed the reputational cost of doing the dirty work that Spain did not want to do. For instance, to curb the continued surge toward Ceuta and Melilla, Rabat decided to increase the number of gendarmes from 7,000 to 8,600 and even deploy 2,000 troops to the area. Sensible political voices in the Spanish political and media spheres recognized and hailed Morocco’s efforts to go the extra mile in preventing irregular crossings to Spain. But not Mariano Rajoy, who was back then in opposition. Rajoy once again chose to do what he has always done best when not in power:: he accused the sitting prime minister, Zapatero at the time, of being soft on Morocco.
Then as now, he claimed that the mass crossings had occurred with Morocco’s “acquiescence,” arguing that the Moroccan authorities had deliberately looked the other way to “blackmail” Spain.
In statements to the press on September 29, Rajoy suggested that the assaults could not have taken place had both the Moroccan and Spanish governments dismantled the settlements of thousands of people—referring to sub-Saharan migrants—located on the Moroccan side of the border.
And he defied the Zapatero government to explain “why it has not demanded that the Moroccan government put an end to this situation.”
Since the start of the current debate over the Ceuta crisis, a multitude of analysts and commentators have resorted to insinuations, approximations, and conjecture to attribute responsibility for what happened to Morocco. Rajoy followed the same pattern back then, insinuating that the mass assaults on the fences of Ceuta and Melilla occurred because Morocco was “looking the other way” and turning a blind eye to the existence of “settlements of thousands of people” on the other side of the Melilla border.
More seriously still, Rajoy suggested that those who had taken part in the mass assaults had “been transported by train and bus to the borders of Ceuta and Melilla.” This groundless and quite farcical accusation is reminiscent of one equally baseless and far-fetched claim many Spanish commentators and politicians have brandished since the mass entry into Ceuta last July. The wild claim is that Moroccan gendarmes had allegedly “guided” the migrants toward the border with Ceuta. And while the report of Spain’s National Intelligence Center (CNI) has conclusively debunked this fanciful notion of Morocco’s orchestration of the Ceuta crisis, Feijoo and his fellow political and intellectual lieutenants of Morocco-bashing have continued to invoke this accusation to win electoral sympathy or portray themselves as the custodians of genuine Spanish patriotism.
It was the same story in 2005. Back then, too, Rajoy continued to launch his rhetoric anti-Morocco crusades despite the lack of evidence to corroborate his accusations. On October 1, for instance, he accused Morocco of plotting the increase in irregular migration flows and demanded that Zapatero call on Morocco to adopt “conduct consistent with international law.”
Rajoy also lashed out once again at Zapatero, accusing him of having “bowed his head before the Moroccan authorities.” As if that were not enough, during a visit to Melilla on October 9, 2025 Rajoy even went so far as to demand that Morocco comply with the rules of international law. And so, as someone familiar with the long, winding relations between Morocco and Spain, I am not surprised to see many politicians and commentators once again reach for the same tired, racist, Orientalist, supremacist, and conspiracist cliches to accuse Morocco of blackmailing Spain with the help of a supposedly compromised or weak Spanish government.
Indeed, this discourse is so reminiscent of the one Feijóo and other far-right ideologues have maintained over the past four years that the two could easily be mistaken for one another. Two decades ago, it was Zapatero who was reportedly compromised by Morocco to the point that he could not stand up to Rabat and defend his country’s identity and interests. Now, in the theatrical imagination of the usual suspects, Sánchez is supposedly subservient to Morocco.
Rajoy in Government: from accusations to “exemplary cooperation”
Yet Rajoy himself, once he arrived at La Moncloa, never stopped praising Morocco’s cooperation on migration and its role in containing migratory flows toward Ceuta and Melilla. For example, during the 10th Spain-Morocco High-Level Meeting in 2012, Rajoy highlighted the excellent understanding between the two countries in the fight against illegal immigration. “I also want to highlight the great efforts Morocco is making together with Spain to prevent irregular immigration,” he said. He then emphasized the high level of understanding and cooperation between the two countries in this area, stressing: “Our cooperation in this field has reached new heights, and it can be said that we have exemplary cooperation in this area.”
Rajoy’s satisfaction with Morocco’s “exemplary” cooperation on the migration file—despite having repeatedly lashed out at the kingdom during his years in opposition —was such that he even came to regard cooperation between the two countries as a model for others. “As on previous occasions, I have been asked to present Spain’s experience in the field of migration,” he said at the Valletta Summit in November 2015. “Specifically, at this Summit I explained our experience of cooperation with Morocco, Senegal, Mauritania, and other West African countries.”
Even more revealing of the double discourse that leaders of the Spanish right adopt toward Morocco depending on whether they are in opposition or in government was Rajoy’s statement on February 20, 2017, following a mass migration attempt that saw some 800 people manage to cross the fences surrounding Ceuta. At a press conference held at the end of the 25th Franco-Spanish Summit, Rajoy faced the media and received questions about the state of Morocco’s cooperation with Europe.
One journalist asked whether “Europe had a problem with Morocco,” to which Rajoy replied by making an unequivocal case for maintaining and further deepening cooperation with Rabat. He cited the role Moroccan security forces had played in preventing the number of crossings from being even higher, stressing: “Relations between the Spanish government and Morocco, and between Spain and Morocco, are excellent; they are at their best level ever, and those responsible for Morocco’s security forces and law-enforcement agencies have done everything they could, and I am grateful to them for it.”
Rajoy said this despite the arrival of some 800 people in Ceuta and the increase in the number of irregular entries via the Western Mediterranean. Like Morocco’s European partners, Rajoy was then aware that this increase was not necessarily due to any relaxation of Morocco’s efforts or reluctance on its part to cooperate with Spain, but rather to a radical shift that was taking place in the routes used by irregular migrants to reach European shores.
The year 2017 coincided with a shift in irregular migration routes away from the Eastern Mediterranean, following the signing of the agreement between the European Union and Turkey and the strengthening of border controls by the states concerned, as well as a decline in the Central Mediterranean route from Libya to Italy and the resulting increase in pressure on the Western route, which uses Morocco’s coasts and the enclaves of Ceuta and Melilla as gateways into Europe.
And since it was foreseeable that entries through Spain would increase as a result of this reconfiguration of irregular migration routes, the Spanish press asked Rajoy in May 2018 whether he was satisfied with Morocco’s cooperation on migration and whether there was a solution to the arrival of migrant boats on Spanish shores. Here, too, Rajoy’s response was as emphatic as it was revealing of his awareness that, without Morocco’s cooperation, flows toward Spain could have been even greater. “The Moroccan authorities are making every effort within their capabilities,” he explained, adding that “Morocco is a loyal and reliable partner of Spain, and relations between the governments are based on mutual trust.” His response is particularly significant and once again sheds light on the enormous gulf between Rajoy’s rhetoric when he was in power and his embrace of baseless conspiracies while in the opposition.
Different eras, same patterns
The same scenario is now playing out with Mr. Feijóo. Migratory flows departing from Morocco’s coasts—whether across the Atlantic toward the Canary Islands or across the Strait toward the Spanish coast, Ceuta, and Melilla—have declined over the past few years. For example, the number of migrants—Moroccans, sub-Saharan Africans, and people of other nationalities—departing from Morocco for Spain fell from 13,217 in 2024 to 4,955 in 2025, while departures for Spain from Algeria rose from 12,038 in 2024 to around 14,000 in 2025. This means that the route originating in Algeria has acquired increasing importance in irregular entries into Spain, particularly via the Balearic Islands.
One figure illustrates even more eloquently the role Morocco has played, together with other countries in the region, in reducing irregular entries into Spain, particularly through the Canary Islands. The number of irregular entries into Spain fell from 64,019 in 2024 to 36,775 in 2025, representing, according to the Ministry of the Interior’s 2025 report on irregular immigration, a 42.6% decrease compared with 2024. This decline was due largely to the dramatic 62% reduction in arrivals through the Canary Islands. According to the Spanish authorities, this result was linked to cooperation with countries such as Morocco, Mauritania, and Senegal. Further evidence that Morocco has strengthened its control over the Canary Islands route is the fact that most of those who entered via the Canary Islands came from Mali (36.8%), Senegal (25%), and Guinea (11.7%). While arrivals via the Canary Islands route declined, entries via the Balearic Islands route—that is, primarily those originating in Algeria—increased by 24.5%.
It is therefore no coincidence that Pedro Sánchez’s government has repeatedly praised the central role Morocco plays in containing migratory flows toward Spain. For example, during his meeting with his Moroccan counterpart, Abdelouafi Laftit, in January 2024, Spain’s Interior Minister, Fernando Grande-Marlaska, described Morocco as “Spain’s main strategic partner in matters relating to the Interior Ministry.” Referring to the decline of more than 41% in entries into Ceuta and Melilla, Grande-Marlaska praised Morocco’s “commitment and efforts” in the fight against irregular immigration.
A year later, during the meeting the two officials held in Madrid on February 10, 2025, Grande-Marlaska highlighted Morocco’s “firm commitment” to combating irregular migration smuggling networks, as well as its status as a “loyal and reliable partner” of both Spain and the European Union in containing irregular migratory flows. Moreover, Grande-Marlaska stressed that the success achieved by both countries in “significantly” reducing arrivals on the Spanish mainland, as well as “assaults and uncontrolled arrivals” in Ceuta and Melilla, made cooperation between the two countries on migration “a clear example of effective cooperation.”
Feijóo and the repetition of the same double discourse
Likethe other PP officials, Feijóo is perfectly aware of these precedents. But for reasons of political expediency, and knowing that talking about Morocco, disparaging it, and accusing it of failing to honor its commitments invariably yields political dividends, he persists in reproducing the same accusatory tone that his predecessor Rajoy used against Morocco when he was in opposition.
The greatest irony of all is that Feijóo knows perfectly well, deep down, that if the PP comes to power with Vox, he will abandon this anti-Moroccan rhetoric and adopt the same laudatory language toward Morocco that he now so harshly criticizes. And he will do so because he knows perfectly well that the success of Spain’s migration policy depends overwhelmingly on close cooperation with Morocco.
Just as happened with Mariano Rajoy, once Feijóo comes to power and has to confront reality, he will learn firsthand that, without Morocco’s cooperation and goodwill in taking on part of the thankless task of migration control that Spain does not want or is unable to carry out on its own, Spain would not be able to enjoy the degree of border stability it currently enjoys.
Samir Bennis is the co-founder and publisher of Morocco World News. You can follow him on Twitter @SamirBennis.
