The Defense Minister, Margarita Robles, answered this Monday to the president of the Moroccan Senate that the Government of Spain has nothing to discuss about the Spanishness of Ceuta and Melilla. “With absolute and total forcefulness, Ceuta and Melilla are as Spanish as Zamora or Palencia, there is no more to discuss,” she said.
In an interview in Cuatro, Robles responded in this way when asked about the statements by the president of the Moroccan Senate, Enaam Mayara, considering that both cities “occupied” by Spain will be recovered in the future through negotiation “without resorting to to the weapons”.
The fourth highest authority in Morocco and a member of the leadership of the nationalist Istiqlal party spoke in this way in an act organized by the female branch of her formation, precisely on the occasion of the first anniversary of the start of the new stage in the relationship after the meeting of the President of the Government, Pedro Sánchez, with Mohamed VI in Rabat on April 7, 2022.
“The Government is clear, there is no debate on this matter, there is no possibility of debate or anything else to discuss,” said Margarita Robles when asked if the Executive of Pedro Sánchez will request a rectification from Morocco.
“I feel very Ceuta and Melilla because I feel Spanish”, the Minister of Defense limited herself to answering, without going into assessing the “declarations of each one” and remembering that she herself has visited both cities.
Foreign sources consulted by this newspaper avoid making statements and assessments of Mayara’s words, avoiding making more noise about something that they do not believe should be included. However, the argument that Robles has put forward this Monday is the one that José Manuel Albares often uses when talking about Ceuta and Melilla. It should also be remembered that for the first time Morocco has agreed to place a customs office in Ceuta, where it did not exist, a gesture that seemed to show its agreement that they are Spanish territory. However, it is true that this border has only opened twice, little publicized by the Government, and that it still does not have fluid traffic.
Enaam Mayara maintained that “Spanish colonization continues in Ceuta and Melilla” and for this reason the Istiqlal “has not stopped and will not stop talking about colonization in the two cities and possible solutions to recover them.”
In this sense, the also leader of the General Union of Moroccan Workers (UGTM, a union linked to Istiqlal) has said that his party is convinced that Morocco “will one day recover the two cities occupied by the negotiation without resorting to arms”. . Thus, Mayara has pointed out that both autonomous cities “will not be subject to blackmail”, according to the leDesk.ma portal, which echoes a video about the act.
The Istiqlal is part of the government coalition together with the National Grouping of Independents (RNI, for its acronym in French), of which Prime Minister Aziz Ajanuch is a member, and the Authenticity and Modernity Party (PAM). Its claim on Ceuta and Melilla is one of the key elements of its nationalist discourse since its foundation in 1944.
However, his statements contrast with the supposed compromise reached during the High Level Meeting (RAN) between Spain and Morocco at the beginning of February. Then, Sánchez said that both had assumed “a commitment to mutual respect, whereby in our speech and in our political practice we are going to avoid everything that we know offends the other party, especially as it affects our respective spheres. of sovereignty”.
On the other hand, Mayara also encouraged Moroccans residing in Spain to join Spanish political parties and to participate in the elections “to help bring the opinions of the two countries closer together and form a lobby that helps defend all issues related to the homeland, Morocco”, in an apparent allusion also to the question of the Sahara.
In his opinion, “the Moroccan community in Spain should be seen as a point of pressure and support capable of influencing the foreign policy of this friendly country.” For Mayara, according to the Rue20 portal, “the role of the Moroccan community in Spain will be important in the coming years.”
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