French-Algerian Rapprochement Behind Moroccan Regime’s Rampage Against Macron
Algeria was mentioned 12 times in a press file devoted by the French daily Le Monde to the deteriorating situation in relations between the Moroccan regime and France.
What is interesting about this file is that Algeria was considered an active element in shaping the current features of French-Moroccan relations, in a scenario that many defenders of Moroccan interests in the French state did not expect.
The file extended over two pages, and the editorial was also devoted to the topic, which came under the title “Between France and Morocco, networks in decline”, the newspaper spoke about the transformation of the excellent relations that linked the two countries about two years ago from an “exceptional partnership” to an almost rupture, this context was also embodied in the controversial article, which was reported by the electronic newspaper “LE360.MA”, owned by Mounir Al-Majidi, the private writer of the Moroccan King, Mohammed VI, which created an unprecedented incident in the history of the Moroccan press, by touching on the private life of the French President, Emmanuel Macron, given that the media close to the palace in Rabat usually treats French presidents with the same “sanctity” that it treats the king, due to their assistance for the Alawite kingdom and the services they provided to it.
As for the French newspaper, the Moroccan media is “muzzled” because the palace does not accept hearing free voices, and therefore the article that dealt with the private life of the French president and criticized it was with the blessing of the Moroccan regime, unlike the French press, which enjoys a high level of freedom, in an exhibition of “Le Monde’s” approach to the article devoted by the French magazine “L’Express” to “The Hidden Life of the Moroccan King in France”, and its relationship to what was written by the newspaper close to the Moroccan palace, “LE360.MA.”
Moroccan anger towards France is caused by two main issues to which Algeria is considered a party, according to the file of “Le Monde”. The first is the distinguished relationship between French President Emmanuel Macron and his Algerian counterpart, Abdelmadjid Tebboune. The second is related to the French position on the Sahrawi issue, which remains in the opinion of the Moroccan regime, without the level of historical relations between Paris and Rabat, in which France was the unconditional defender of the Alawite Kingdom, a fact that the former French ambassador to the United States of America, François Delattre, had previously spoken about, but in a shameful context when he described Morocco as the unloved “mistress.”
But for the French side, the scandal of spying on the French President’s phone using the Zionist “Pegasus” spyware, in which the Moroccan regime was involved, remains the main reason behind the anger of the first man in the Elysee Palace towards the Alawite Palace. Here, Le Monde confirms, based on its sources, that Macron mistreated the Moroccan king while the latter was honourably pledging before him to acquit his country of espionage before Macron hung up the phone on Mohammed VI’s face.
Le Monde also devoted its editorial to the topic of this file, and the Algerian presence in it was stronger. It stopped at length on the Algerian-French rapprochement, stressing that many political and media elites, and even the Alawite palace, believe that this rapprochement came at the expense of Moroccan interests, first and foremost the Sahrawi issue, as the Moroccan king tried to link his country’s relations with countries based on their perspective, as he said in one of his speeches. However, Paris continued to ignore the Moroccan condition and even continued to insult the Moroccan regime by insulting its symbol, represented by King Mohammed VI, as stated by the country’s intellectual, Francophile, Tahar Ben Jelloun, and the sources of the newspaper “Le Monde,” according to what was stated in the file.
The Moroccan authorities view Macron’s position on the Sahrawi issue as a betrayal of France’s historical positions. The newspaper quoted testimony from a former French ambassador to Rabat, whose identity was not revealed, saying, “I was tired of convincing our Western partners to push them to support the plan for autonomy in Western Sahara, which Morocco submitted at a time when France was working alone on this file.” This was in 2007, and these words came in the context of Macron’s retreat from playing this role to preserve the continuation of Paris’s relations with Algeria, which in turn began to consider the Sahrawi issue as a speculum through which it considers its relations with some countries, as has been the case with Spain for more than a year.
