It’s no secret that France and Morocco are in crisis. But how much? Both in substance and in form, relations between the two countries are far from looking good. In reality, they are only deteriorating from week to week. Has the point of no return – already – been reached?
Recent developments in the case of Imam Hassan Iquioussen, threatened by the French Interior Ministry with deportation to Morocco, say a lot about the state of relations between Paris and Rabat. The latter suspended the consular laissez-passer he had issued to the French authorities and which was intended to ostracize Iquioussen, further embarrassing the French government.
Ambiguous positions
In reality, pass or not, the procedure initiated by Gérald Darmanin is already a state fiasco: the imam is on the run, probably in Belgium, according to the French administration. Should we see in the Moroccan decision to suspend its consular pass issued on 1is August an express desire to embarrass the French government?
The announcement came in a context where Morocco is asking France for more clarity on the question of Western Sahara. On August 20, Mohammed VI addressed the partners of the kingdom “still undecided” and which display positions “ambiguous”, pour “that they clarify and review the substance of their positioning, in a way that is unequivocal”. Although it is not quoted verbatim, Paris is obviously in the line of sight of the monarch.
Other more willing allies
It is that Morocco no longer hesitates to puff out its chest after its successive diplomatic victories with the United States and more recently with Spain and Germany. [Madrid avait estimé en mars que le plan “d’autonomie” pour le territoire du Sahara occidental est “la base la plus sérieuse, réaliste et crédible pour la résolution du différend”. Fin août, Berlin avait à son tour estimé que ce plan était “un effort sérieux et crédible du Maroc” et “une bonne base pour une solution acceptée par les deux parties” ].
For him, it is no longer a question of haggling over his national cause. “The French are not happy
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Source of the article
Launched in the summer of 2015, Le Desk is a pure player information and survey site, “independent and interactive”. He scores “the emergence in Morocco of a new kind of media, professional, credible and innovative in a difficult environment”. The site insists on its guaranteed independence “through a paying economic model but accessible to the majority, the best guarantee for free and quality journalistic production”.
And to escape the “advertisers diktat”, at “subjugation to political lobbies” and especially for “not to be caught up in the spiral of buzz at the expense of quality journalism”the capital of Le Desk is controlled by its founding team, itself composed mainly of journalists. “Such structural economic independence is, so to speak, a rarity in Morocco.”
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