French President Emmanuel Macron persists in his double game. He underlined, with the air of Sainte-Nitouche, that his personal relations with King Mohammed VI were “friendly” and “will remain so”.
The resident of the Eysée made this statement during the press conference held on February 27 at the Elysée Palace, at the end of his speech on relations between France and Africa. In this word, Macron will recognize the deterioration of relations between Morocco and France, because, among other things, of the Pegasus affair (which he describes as “a subject of wiretapping which has been revealed by the press”) and of the vote hostile to the kingdom in the European Parliament, on January 19, 2023.
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But this message from the French president did not convince in Rabat. According to an official source in the Moroccan government, interviewed by Jeune Afrique, “relations are neither friendly nor good, any more between the two governments than between the Royal Palace and the Elysée”. And to specify that the two subjects mentioned by the French president as sources of tension “are only the illustration of this situation. Other points of tension have been deliberately concealed, in particular the arbitrary restriction of visas, the media campaign and judicial harassment”, not to mention a planned visit to Rabat, announced for the first quarter without specifying the date.
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It should be recalled that the Sovereign had called in his speech of August 20, on the occasion of the Revolution of the king and the people, the partners of the Kingdom to clarify and review the substance of their position vis-à-vis the Sahara affair. A call that has echoed in many States, even my largest. Macron, he seems to have turned a deaf ear.
