200 Thousand Euros For Spanish Companies Affected By The Crisis With Algeria

The Spanish government, led by Pedro Sanchez, is convinced that the economic sanctions imposed by Algeria on Madrid have contributed to the anger of Spanish businessmen affected by these sanctions and led to the ruling Socialist Party losing the recent local and regional elections in favor of the rival Popular Party, which has come closest to winning the pre-legislative elections expected on the twenty-third of July.
In anticipation of the upcoming legislative elections, which threaten the party led by Pedro Sanchez with a humiliating exit from power, the government has hastened to grant financial aid of 200,000 Euros, to be paid once every three years, to Spanish companies affected by the sanctions imposed on Spain by Algeria, on condition that the said amount is paid before the date of 23 July next, which coincides with the holding of the pre-legislative elections.
The operation took place in agreement between Madrid and Brussels, according to the Spanish agency “Europa Press”, citing sources in the Ministry of Trade, Tourism and Industry. The competitiveness of companies belonging to the Member States of the European Union.
And Algerian-Spanish relations entered a dark tunnel in March 2022, due to the sudden deviation of the position of the Pedro Sanchez government on the Sahrawi issue, by abandoning the neutral position of his country and its orientation towards supporting the so-called “autonomy plan” presented by the Moroccan Makhzen regime, This “unfriendly position”, as President Abdelmadjid Tebboune put it, led to the suspension of the Treaty of Friendship, Cooperation and Good Neighborliness signed between the two countries in 2002.

Commercial transactions between Algeria and Spain recorded a low level on the Spanish side, and the same source reported that the decline in Spanish exports to Algeria amounted to 55.9 percent in 2022 compared to the previous year, which is financially equivalent to one billion and 888 million Euros in 2021 compared to one billion and 21 million Euros, only in 2022.
And the collapse of Spanish exports to Algeria continues in a dramatic manner in 2023 – according to “Europa Press” – which spoke of exports worth only 30.2 million Euros in the first three months of this year, compared to 472.9 million Euros in the same period last year, representing a  slump of more than 93 percent in all export sectors.
The Spanish news agency speaks of the failure of Algeria and Madrid to reach a consensual solution to this crisis, while the Spanish have asked the European Union to intervene to put pressure on Algeria to restore the normal flow of goods between the two countries, and the agency speaks of the European side’s preference for the language of dialogue over pressure. This method did not bear fruit because the Algerian authorities consider the crisis to be an issue that concerns only two countries, Algeria and Spain.
The Spanish government’s decision, in agreement with the European Commission, to provide financial aid to Spanish companies affected by the Algerian sanctions means that the efforts of the Pedro Sanchez government to use the European Union to put pressure on Algeria, on the basis of the partnership agreement signed between the two parties in September 2005, have reached a dead end.