A Scandalous Blackmail Attempt From Spain Towards Algeria

Spanish businessmen said that the Vice-President of the European Commission and High Representative for Foreign Affairs, Josep Borrell, will visit Algeria in the coming weeks or months, in an attempt to resolve the crisis after Algeria stopped all its imports from the European country, in an open extortion move that came after complete disregard for the invitations and messages that were sent from the authorities of the Palace of “Moncloa” to Algeria to bypass its diplomatic and economic ordeal.

The head of the regional government bodies, “Generalitat Valenciana”, Jimo Puig, stated, in statements reported by the official news agency EFE, that he met with the High European official, Josep Borrell, in Brussels, and discussed with him Algeria’s decision to prevent the entry of products from the region and Spain in general into the country.

And it appeared, through the statements of the official of the province of Castellón (Valencia), Jimo Puig, that he asked Borrell what he described as “respecting the existing trade agreements between Spain and Algeria.”

The Spanish official appeared weeping over the situation of the companies of the region in addition to the province of Catalonia, which represent about 50 percent of Spain’s exports to Algeria, indicating that the suspension of exports caused negative economic damage to companies in the region.

The spokesman considered that Borrell’s upcoming visit to Algeria is necessary and must “rearrange things” and restore respect for the trade agreement between the two countries.

These developments come at a time when Algeria has completely ignored the messages of Spanish officials, headed by the Prime Minister, the Minister of Foreign Affairs and the Minister of Environmental Transition, and has not responded to them at all, especially in light of the continuation of the official Spanish position on Western Sahara, and the suspension of the Treaty of Friendship and Good Neighborliness since last June.

In this context, the president of the Algerian-Spanish Club of Trade and Industry, Djamel Eddine Bouabdallah, said in a telephone conversation with “Echorouk” that, since last June, the import of Spanish goods from Algeria had almost completely stopped, while the flow of Algerian gas and oil to Spain continued in an almost complete manner, indicating that the losses of the export sector could reach 1.4 billion euros.

Data figures related to Spain’s foreign trade statistics (goods and products only without counting services), seen by ”Echorouk”, indicates that until October of last year, only 155 million euros of goods and products were exported to Algeria, while the bill amounted to 784 million euros in the same period of 2021, which represents losses of at least 629 million euros.