Is this the start of a honeymoon in Morocco for French companies? After two years of cold weather between Paris and Rabat on the sensitive issue of Western Sahara, the horizon is clearing. “France clearly has the wind in its sails again,” says a French company manager present on site, on condition of anonymity.
The cause of this return to grace? In July 2024, French President Emmanuel Macron supported the Moroccan autonomy plan for Western Sahara, this former Spanish colony, in a letter to King Mohammed VI.
The Western Sahara conflict, 80% controlled by Morocco but considered a “non-self-governing territory” by the UN, has pitted the Shereef kingdom against the Sahrawi separatists of the Polisario Front, supported by Algeria, since 1975.
Two days after the official publication of Emmanuel Macron’s letter, the French engineering company Egis, allied with its counterpart Systra and the Moroccan company Novec, was awarded a contract providing for the extension of the train line at high speed between Kenitra and Marrakech.
The Élysée announced this Friday, September 27 that Emmanuel Macron will make a state visit “at the end of October” in Morocco in order to seal the relaunch of the bilateral relationship. King Mohammed VI sent him a letter of invitation on Thursday in which he welcomed “promising horizons that are emerging for our two countries”.
The strategic role of Western Sahara
“There will surely be a development and acceleration of economic cooperation between countries, particularly in the Moroccan Sahara,” judges the president of the Morocco-France friendship group in the Moroccan Senate Mohamed Zidouh, questioned by theAFP.
Especially since Western Sahara, with its enormous solar and wind resources, is strategic for the economic development of the kingdom, which has resolutely turned towards renewable energies, and hopes to position itself on the green hydrogen market.
Western companies, including French, are already present there. The energy group Engie is currently building a seawater desalination station in Dakhla, as well as a wind farm, in a consortium with the Moroccan Nareva. The group specializing in construction and infrastructure Sade-CGTH has won a call for tenders for a water network connection project in Dakhla.
The rapprochement between Paris and Rabat is greeted with a certain relief by French companies in Morocco. “We had been keeping a low profile for two years, attests Étienne Giros, president of the French Council of Investors in Africa (Cian) ».
Major Moroccan economic players “are starting to knock on our door again” for partnerships in the country, also testifies a French entrepreneur, who wishes to remain anonymous.
Economic relations which, however, have not weakened
“In terms of public procurement, over this period, it was perhaps a little more complicated,” notes Jean-Charles Damblin, general director of the French Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Morocco. Overall, however, “we have not seen a marked slowdown” economic relations due to diplomatic tensions in recent years, he said.
The director cites as proof the very close relations between France and Morocco, which have not weakened: trade reached a record of 14 billion euros last year. The war in Ukraine notably caused a sharp increase in imports of French agricultural products.
France is the leading foreign investor in Morocco with almost all of the companies in the CAC 40 stock index represented in the kingdom, and 1,000 French subsidiaries. Morocco is the leading African investor in France, with direct investments increasing from 372 million euros in 2015 to 1.8 billion in 2022.
Political guarantee
With this diplomatic turnaround, the French companies present on site have a political guarantee, in the absence of “have it at the legal level, on their presence in Western Sahara”, estimates political scientist Khadija Mohsen-Finan, for whom Emmanuel Macron also “pleases the business leaders already present”.
Western Sahara: diplomatic tensions between Algiers and Paris
By supporting the Moroccan autonomy plan for Western Sahara, France took the risk of falling out with the Algerian government. Following strong support from Emmanuel Macron, symbolically made public on Tuesday July 30, Algiers immediately announced the “withdrawal with immediate effect” of its ambassador in Paris.
By strengthening support for the Moroccan autonomy plan, France “flouts international legality, takes up the cause of the denial of the right of the Sahrawi people to self-determination and stands out from all the patient and persevering efforts deployed by the United Nations” pour “complete the decolonization of Western Sahara”Algiers then declared.
Agnès Levallois, from the Institute for Research and Studies on the Mediterranean and the Middle East, warned of the consequences for the Algerian neighbor for whom “ it can only be seen as a declaration of war […] because even if at the Élysée, we emphasize that this is not a recognition of the Moroccan nature of the Sahara (as the United States and Israel have done), it looks like it”.
