The state visit of French President Emmanuel Macron to Morocco did not go unnoticed in France where comparisons with Algeria and criticism were quickly at the center of debates on television sets.
After a few years of diplomatic crisis between Morocco and France, this 3-day trip by the French president, the first state visit since he was elected president, caused a lot of noise.
The comments and analyzes of this visit, with its extremely busy program and strong symbolism, have traveled around the world, especially in neighboring countries, such as Spain and Algeria.
But it was in France that the visit of the Head of State was most followed, and on television sets, comparisons between Morocco and its neighbor, Algeria, were in order. And for good reason, the reconciliation between Morocco and France provoked the anger of Algeria, which withdrew its ambassador stationed in Paris.
This comes back to the position expressed by France on the Sahara issue, where now support for the Moroccan autonomy proposal is even more affirmed and the words of President Emmanuel Macron leave no doubt about France’s support for the sovereignty of Morocco over this territory.
The French president in fact reiterated before the Moroccan Parliament as he did in his letter addressed to King Mohammed VI on July 30, that “the present and the future” of the Sahara is done within the framework of the sovereignty of Morocco, while specifying that this position was not “hostile to anyone”, in clear reference to Algeria.
This new position of France also comes after multiple unsuccessful attempts at rapprochement with Algeria. This rapprochement desired by Emmanuel Macron from the start of his first five-year term had forced him to “choose” Algeria rather than France’s traditional ally, namely Morocco.
But after two terms, the head of state was forced to realize that his efforts with Algeria were and will remain in vain. This was the subject of numerous reactions in the French media.
“When we go to Morocco we are very well received. It’s a bit the opposite, I mean, it’s not a country like its neighboring country, which is based on resentment against France. commented French lawyer, essayist and columnist Gilles William Goldnadel.
And to add: “I salute – for once I am not critical – the French diplomacy which recognized the Moroccan Sahara very clearly”.
For his part, columnist Kevin Bossuet, who spoke on the French channel CNews, affirmed that“by turning towards Morocco, Emmanuel Macron finally understood that there was nothing to gain from Algeria”. “This country constantly insults us and we should submit to it? », he asked himself by pleading for the abrogation of the Franco-Algerian agreement of 1968 and the taxation of financial flows to Algeria.
For his part, researcher Gilles Delafon (Thomas More Institute) who was invited on the set of the LCI news channel, affirmed that if there was an intelligent hub in Africa today, it is the Morocco in the north of the continent and South Africa in the south of the continent.
In response to the journalist’s question asking for the reasons for choosing Morocco, the researcher indicated: “Because it is an economically dynamic country, because it is a country full of businesses, because it is a country which works enormously for the African market. If you want to enter the African market, very often you have to go through Morocco, it’s an intelligent country. And I think that French companies, and we see it, this is an interesting and promising element. I wouldn’t say the same thing about Algeria.”
